Pushing onself too much?

Question: Is there a thing of pushing oneself too much to practice and doing too much which will cause someone to quit take a break for some time ?  what about too little ?
how you determine the middle way here ?
Answer: There is a big obvious difference between doing something because you want it and enjoying the effort, VERSUS beating yourself with a stick like a horse. In one case you are working hard but you're enjoying it, you doing what you believe in, you're getting deep sense of satisfaction from it. In the other case, you are forcing yourself, breaking yourself, torturing yourself - you don't really believe in it, you hate yourself for doing it, but you're still doing it.
My teacher said that the feeling of special enjoyment or satisfaction is a key criteria for success in spiritual practice. If you're doing too little, you will not be happy with yourself. If you are pushing yourself too hard, you will not be happy with yourself. If you are doing it right, it may be hard and painful - but you will feel happy and proud and inspired.
Comment: and how to enjoy it i have no idea  - i dont enjoy meditation not the 1 minute ones i do and not the 2 hour ones  ...  it goes between hard and not fun to  tolerable and ok  but not really move to the area of enjoyable really
Comment: @breath Meditation is not ot be enjoyed per se, as it is not its purpose in first place. Meditation is training (of Sati). But mindful life is very much enjoyable, and such insight that gives enjoyment is trained typically through meditation. It is hard work that makes you live happier in the end, learning how to notice and let go of things and therefore feel free, blissfully.
Answer: If you don't have a teacher, you will need to be your own judge. If you cannot be your own judge, you will need to find a teacher.
Suzuki in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind warns about going too quickly. He recommends something like one hour per week meditation for beginners.
Answer: If you feel bored or tired with one type of practice (e.g. meditation) or feel like you're just spinning the wheels and going nowhere, remember that that the Noble Eightfold Path consists of 8 factors, in three major areas - development of wisdom, development of mind and development of virtue. You can always focus on the other factors, to find renewed motivation.
You can take a break from meditation sometimes to read up or learn the Dhamma, to cultivate Right View, which is the forerunner of the entire path.

Right view is the forerunner of the entire path, the guide for all the
  other factors. It enables us to understand our starting point, our
  destination, and the successive landmarks to pass as practice
  advances. To attempt to engage in the practice without a foundation of
  right view is to risk getting lost in the futility of undirected
  movement. Doing so might be compared to wanting to drive someplace
  without consulting a roadmap or listening to the suggestions of an
  experienced driver. One might get into the car and start to drive, but
  rather than approaching closer to one's destination, one is more
  likely to move farther away from it. To arrive at the desired place
  one has to have some idea of its general direction and of the roads
  leading to it. Analogous considerations apply to the practice of the
  path, which takes place in a framework of understanding established by
  right view.

Pushing onself too much?


Rod and cone photoreceptors are neurons?

Question: i mean the photoreceptors have axon and dendrite and body cell or it is not neuron
any more   . can we say outer segment of photoreceptor cell is dendrite ? of course these have body cells but i am not sure they are neuron or not
Answer: Photoreceptors are considered neural based on embryonic origin: they derive from neuroepithelial cells like neurons do.
Neuroepithelial cells also produce non-neuronal cells like some glial cells.
It doesn't make much sense to worry too much about whether a rod/cone photoreceptor is a neuron or not. They don't have long axons or dendrites, but they need not have either to be called a neuron. They make synapses, but these synapses are highly specialized and different from other types of neurons; that isn't sufficient to not call them a neuron. They don't fire action potentials, but they need not fire action potentials to be called a neuron. They do release neurotransmitter, but there are other cells that also release neurotransmitters that are not considered neurons. Ultimately, deciding whether a cell is a neuron or not is a matter of semantics, not biology.
Most texts I am familiar with consider them neurons because of their neural origin, which differentiates them from other sensory cells that derive from other tissue.


Cloves and potassium intake

Question: since it is so hard to get the required daily 3,700 mg of potassium, I have been considering adding cloves to my diet.
I found it easy to swallow powdered cloves in the morning, however I'd like to know if eating them raw would affect the absorption of nutrients.
Comment: This question sorely lacks prior research. Cloves contain only a trivial amount of potassium. You'd have to eat massive quantities to get substantially more potassium. Meanwhile, there are many common foods that contain far more potassium and are perfectly normal and healthy to eat in abundance.
Comment: Welcome to MedicalSciences.SE! Please take the [tour] and read the [help]. For [reasons mentioned in this post](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/q/411) and in [ask], we require prior research information when asking questions. Please help us to help you and [edit] your question to provide more information on what you have read on this subject, what made you ask this question, and any problems you are having understanding your research. This helps to provide an answer which will be more helpful. If you found nothing, what did you Google?
Comment: Two teaspoons show 42.84 mg of potassium. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=69  Two teaspoons of clove and your mouth would probably be numb if you chewed it with food!  See this, https://www.publish.csiro.au/HC/pdf/HC15163 generally recognized as safe in food amounts.  Wouldn't a sensible food amount be 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. with the meal, considering it is an intense spice?
Answer: The revised Adequate Intake values for potassium are 2.6 g/day for adult women and 3.4 g/day for men (National Academic Press, 2019). The old value was 4.7 g/day for all adults (National Academies, 2014).
I always believed they were exaggerating before and they are probably still exaggerating now. Note, that they themselves do not say these amounts are "required" but "adequate."
Recommended Dietary Allowance and Adequate Intake explained (NIH.gov - Office of Dietary Supplements):

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): average daily level of intake sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97%-98%) healthy people.
Adequate Intake (AI): established when evidence is insufficient to develop an RDA and is set at a level assumed to ensure nutritional adequacy.

For potassium, they set only Adequate Intake and not Recommended Dietary Allowance, so they openly say they are not sure about the actual needs.
Recommended Dietary Allowance is a value that meets the needs of nearly all people in a certain age and sex group, including the ones with the greatest needs, such as athletes and heavy physical workers who lose potassium with sweat (National Academies). If you are not very physically active and you do not sweat a lot, you do not need so much potassium as RDA suggests. I don't know what is a minimal or optimal requirement for you, but it probably does not need to be 3.4 g/day, if you are not very physically active.
US Department of Agriculture has a list of nutrients high in potassium and cloves do not rank high.

A large potato with skin, baked (300 g) = 1.6 g
Breadfruit, raw (220 g) = 1.1 g
Grapefruit juice (6 fl oz; 207 g) = 1 g
Cowpeas, boiled (165 g) = 0.7 g
Cloves, ground (2 tsp) = 0.042 g, which is ~1% of adequate intake (3.4 g).

For someone on a low-carb diet, good sources of potassium include most nuts and seeds, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, etc. (see the USDA source above).

Cloves may slow down blood clotting and may enhance the effect of anticoagulants, such as aspirin, heparin, etc. (RxList).
I didn't find any information about the effect of cloves on absorption of nutrients. Drugs.com has a list of 41 nutrients/drugs, absorption of which could be potentially affected by cloves, but it is not. Few teaspoons of cloves would quite likely cause upset stomach or diarrhea, though.

In conclusion, cloves are a spice and not food and exaggerating with spices may not be good for your stomach. Cloves are a very poor source of potassium and other nutrients.
The idea that regularly consuming small amounts of cloves, pepper, turmeric, ginger and other spices would add to general amount of minerals in the diet does not work in the same sense like few drops of water does not add much to your hydration when you need at least a liter or more water per day. You constantly lose minerals from your body, so you need to constantly replace them in the appropriate amounts; it's not that minerals gradually build up in your body.
MedlinePlus has a comprehensive database of herbs and supplements. If any herb inhibits the absorption of any nutrient, it would be likely mentioned there under "interactions." It would be also mentioned if there is any difference between a raw or cooked herb. I haven't found anything significant about cloves in this regard.
Comment: I agree cloves would not cover potassium daily requirements, but they may add to them. According to my data, cloves have 1020 mg for every 100 gr, not much but not negligible either. Also, albeit I do not follow such diets, certain foods like potatoes, beans, and fruits are not allowed on low carbs or ketogenic regimens. Hence the need for other sources.
Comment: At any rate, as welcome as opinionsn about potassium are to me, the question is specifically on the absorption of the nutrients in raw cloves.
Comment: @black-clover, I added some information.
Comment: Jan: thanks for expanding on your answer and the links. I agree cloves are spices and not food and should be used with moderation. My interest is toward how spices like cloves, tumeric, pepper, saffron, gunger, etc, used in small amounts but constantly, would add a bit to the general amount of minerals in a diet which, for instance, are almost nonexistent in the water we drink nowadays. However, like all foods, there might be differences between eating them raw and cooked.That is the gist of my inquiry.
Comment: @black-clover, I added two paragraphs at the end.
Comment: thanks, interesting link.

Cloves and potassium intake


Why Can't we make a star

Question: If we know that the reason a star burns without oxygen and fuel is that it converts hydrogen into helium and we have these two elements on earth then why can't we make a star on our planet
Comment: If you are asking about nuclear fusion, it is a thing on earth but still on development. If you talk about a proper star, well, you would need about 100 times the mass of Jupiter of hydrogen (and other stuff) to do that.
Comment: Read this article on [fusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion) and it should become clearer.
Comment: There are many many ways to "burn" without oxygen.  Describing either nuclear fusion or nuclear fission as "burning" is a stretch.
Comment: Just because we know the physics behind something doesn't mean we have the technology to employ that physics.
Answer: It's very easy to create a star: you just put an amount of hydrogen gas quite near to each other and gravity will do the rest.
The problem is that the amount of gas you need for that is so large that even replacing the whole earth with hydrogen atoms is far from enough: you need far more hydrogen atoms for that and as such you can't do something on the earth when you need more space than the whole content of the earth :-)
Answer: The process by which stars convert hydrogen to helium isn't burning; it is the fusion of the nuclei of atoms. To get nuclei to fuse you need to confine them in a very small space and get them very hot. On Earth we can make things very hot, and we can put things under lots of pressure. The trouble is that we can't do both at the same time.
The usual way we put things under pressure is squeezing them in some sort of vice. But if the thing we are squeezing is many millions of degrees, it will just vapourize our equipment. If we heat up some hydrogen, it expands and we don't get the confinement required for sustained fusion. (But this is how a thermonuclear bomb works)
Now a star is a huge ball of gas. The weight of the gas compresses the inner core of the star to an enormous pressure and traps the heat. A litre of the sun's core would weigh about 150kg at a pressure of about 250 billion atmospheres, and have a temperature of 15million degrees. This combination of temperature and pressure cannot be achieved on Earth. The hydrogen in the sun's core is confined by its own gravity.
Back on Earth we are trying to confine hydrogen with magnetic fields. (See the ITER Tokamak) With this system we will be able to start fusion, but the amount of energy we get out is less than the energy we put in. However solving this problem is merely a technical challenge. If we can work out how to use magnetic fields to confine hydrogen at very high temperatures we will be able to generate power from fusion.

Why Can’t we make a star


Refractometer or options?

Question: I have advanced to a very prolific brewer and have mastered many aspects of home brewing.  For some reason I seem to be unable to master the issue of Specific Gravity.  Try as I may, I just do not grasp it and as a result always keep my beer in fermentation longer than necessary.  Any suggestions to help a slow learner?
Comment: What do you do to measure S.G. now? Do you have a specific problem with a hydrometer or how to use it? Where do you feel you are going wrong?
Comment: What kind of beer are you brewing and how long are you letting it ferment?
Comment: Mostly I use a hydrometer, not a refracometer.  I brew a truly eclectic group of beers using both all grain and extract.  Most recently Plinus the Wise, Kolsch, American Amber, and Ferocious Hop
Answer: Your question is very general, but I can point you in the right direction.
Specific gravity (SG) is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance.  In homebrewing we measure sugars (fermentable or not) in wort.
We measure it using an hydrometer or/and a refractometer.
Here are a few good articles on how to measure gravity :

https://learn.kegerator.com/specific-gravity/
http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/01/30/calculating-original-gravity-for-beer-recipe-design/

Why do we need to measure it :

To determine potential alcohol level in wort
To determine when fermentation is finished

To determine that fermentation is completed, when aim to get a stable SG 3 days in a row (unless we suspect a stuck fermentation, which is another question).
To determine the potential alcohol, we need the original SG or OG (measured before fermentation) and the finishing SG or FG (measure at the end of fermentation).  There are 2 (popular) ways to calculate it:

ABV = 132 * (OG-FG)
ABV = (OG-FG) / 0.00753

I would recommend that you start with an hydrometer which is not expensive and easy to use.  Later if you want more options, you can buy an refreactometer wich costs at least twice as much (depending on the quality).
Comment: Thanks, Philippe.  I will just have to get better with my math.
Comment: I use the first formula, example: (OG=1.053 and  FG=1.013)  ABV=132 * (1.053-1.013)= 5.28

Refractometer or options?


Visa requirements for Mexico with Mauritian passport

Question: My wife holds a Mauritian passport but has an Indefinite Leave To Remain status in her passport. Will she require a visa to travel to Mexico as I can't find a straight answer anywhere on the net?
Answer: As listed in the 2nd exemption on the consulate website:

According to Mexican regulations which came into force in June 2009, Permanent residents in the United Kingdom wishing to travel to Mexico do not require a visa to enter the country as tourists or business visitors for up to 180 days and as visitors in transit for up to 30 days, regardless their nationality.


Do I need bracing for 12"x55" shelves?

Question: I am installing new shelves in my pantry, 12" x 55" with walls on three sides.  The shelving material is laminate over particleboard.  Considering how heavy a shelf full of canned goods is, can I get away with just using 1" nailers on all three walls to rest the shelves on, or do I need L brackets in the middle as additional support?
Answer: 55 inches is a rather long span for a 12 inch wide shelf that is supported on the ends and back side by the wall. One way that you could provide some more support for the shelves would be to add some center front supports for the shelves working up from the floor to the top shelf.
Comment: @decker - I find that 4 inch facing on shelves is ugly as sin. The vertical supports can also be installed as angle supports as shown in a second answer that I posted to this question.
Comment: I like supporting the centers from the bottom base all the way up. 2X stock would work, but some nice 1X12 supports would fit and look nice also.  +1 good call
Comment: 1x4 plywood strips along the front, forget the vertical supports.
Comment: @mrRyan - 1x4 strips along the front edges of the shelves is far from an optimal solution with shelves because it uses up so much space for sliding items on and off the shelves. The vertical supports, even if you have to put more than one set of them use up a minuscule amount of the volumetric space between shelves.
Comment: Fair enough, but I find vertical supports just to be so ugly. If I was really concerned about loss of storage height, then maybe some steel angle instead of 1x4 across the front. Just personal preference really.
Comment: all the methods work, it is really personal preference.
Answer: Other important factors are how thick the shelving is, and what the shelf to shelf vertical spacing is, and how the back edge is attached, if at all, to the support. Assuming typical home improvement store shelving and common 12" to 16" vertical spacing, and simple nail attachment, the shelving is structurally adequate (meaning it will not actually collapse), but over time, a heavily loaded shelf will develop a very noticeable, unsightly bow without added support.(Which in itself could be called structurally inadequate by some) Particle board will creep, or slowly deflect, over time even under modest loads.
An alternative to L brackets might be a deep banding strip attached to the front of the shelving. The attachment would need to be carefully detailed, as you can't simply nail the banding into the edge of particle board and expect satisfactory results.
Answer: Another way to add some support to the shelves, expanding from my first answer, is to add angle supports as shown. This keeps the front edge of the shelves open and takes advantage of the fact that the back side support strip under the next shelf down is fastened securely to the wall. This approach works well in that the angle pieces do not need to be aligned or anchored into a stud.
Answer: I agree with the answer by @bcworkz and would add an alternative to L brackets. Wooden brackets would be more attractive and offer comparable support
Comment: The braces you have pictured would work well if large enough and backed by a stud in the wall. These braces have a "key" that fits over a screw head for hanging them on the wall. They are not extremely strong, so sizing is important, but look nice.
Comment: @shirlockhomes Agreed. These are just meant to be illustrative of an alternatives to L brackets, which need basically the same mounting criteria.

Do I need bracing for 12"x55" shelves?


Where is the right place to post questions about OrcaFlex, a marine modeling software package?

Question: I use a software package called OrcaFlex for modeling marine structures.  It has extensions in MATLAB, Python, and C (I use MATLAB) that are used for setting up the models and retrieving and analyzing the model results.   Setting up the models requires a lot of tricky choices that would be nice to discuss with others, but the only choice is emailing the (very helpful) support staff, or posting questions to the software developer's blog.  Is there a place on Stack Overflow or related sites that would be an appropriate place start posting questions about use of OrcaFlex?  Or is the software too specific to marine engineering?   There are no existing OrcaFlex questions on Stack Overflow.
Comment: I've thought for a while that our own Stack Overflow type site dedicated to OrcaFlex use would be valuable. In order to make it happen, we'd need to choose either a hosted service, or one of the gazillion Stack Exchange clones to use. A lot of the user support we do would be valuable to a wider audience than just the individual that asks one specific question. It's certainly something that we are considering.
Comment: There's nowhere on the stack exchange network that has people who can answer your OrcaFlex questions. It's just too specialised. Your best bet is just to e-mail us at Orcina and we'll answer your questions. I'd quite like to start a Stack Overflow type site specifically for OrcaFlex users.
Comment: It would be fabulous if you were to start an OrcaFlex forum. I think you would see an uptick in users' learning speed. I tend to have the same problems and use OrcaFlex just infrequently enough that I re-make the same mistakes. Having a forum would make it easier for me to retain the knowledge.
Comment: It is a really good idea to create an OrcaFlex forum. I'm working with this fantastic software now, and I'm very excited to get to know better how to use it. @DavidHeffernan, I could see you are the Software Development Director at Orcina, so probably you can help me with my question... is that possible to create plug-ins for real time interaction with the user in OrcaFlex, either using one of those OrcFxAPIs or any other code, software, etc.?
Comment: @ramon we can certainly help but it's best if you go through our normal support channels. Thanks.
Answer: Welcome to Stack Exchange, KAE! If you're doing programming of some kind, like improving the code of OrcaFlex itself or developing a plugin, then use Stack Overflow. If you're just trying to figure out how to better use the program, try Super User.
We won't consider your question unacceptable for being "too specific to marine engineering" (or any given field), but if there are no other OrcaFlex users visiting our sites, you may not get answers.


What's an easy way to build a level 6'x4' platform over uneven indoor floors?

Question: I recently moved into a guest room that has uneven floors. There is a one degree slant over the entire room and some of the tiles are higher and lower than others. I'd like to set up a 6x4 platform over a portion of this room where I do work at my desk, and have just that platform leveled somehow. Other than just setting up some plywood, how would I go about leveling this platform in a simple way suitable for a few months (before we hire a contractor to fix the floors/foundation)?
Answer: This is small enough that you can simply build a deck out of 2x4 with a 1/2" plywood top (or thicker, depending on flex tolerance). You're essentially building a typical interior wall structure, but smaller.

Lay out a simple rectangle with joists at 16" centers (across the short dimension). Fasten it together with 16d nails or 3" gold construction screws. Slightly shorter fasteners could be used for the plywood.
Using a 6' level (or a shorter level with a straightedge extension), find the difference from the highest point to the other three corners, and cut legs or simple spacer blocks to level up the platform.

Large felt pads under each corner would make it quieter as you step up and move around.
Comment: Ah, it's just any kind of block, not something specific. I'll look into the screw configurable feet. That sounds like what I need. Thanks!
Comment: Can you give me a link to "spacer blocks" that you have in mind? I originally thought of using some form of cement as spacing material, but would think that something still malleable (non-hardening clay?) after drying would be preferable. If I ever want to move the platform an inch or two in another direction, the spacing at each corner will change, and I'd like to simply reform the malleable material with my hands. Want to prevent any wobble.
Comment: You want a link to a block of wood? You might want to rethink this DIY thing. :P I don't work with clay, but I seriously doubt a gob of it will reliably support 2-400 lbs. of person, furniture, and materials. If you need that sort of reconfigurability, get yourself some screw-adjustable feet with a suitable load rating.


Is a secondary air injection pump motor necessary?

Question: My check engine light came on and the mechanic said the problem is that the secondary air injection pump motor broke. It's a used car (2004 VW new beetle) with about 150,000 miles on it and the parts and labor would be over $700. Is it worth it or even necessary to get this replaced?
Comment: If you live in a region where smog tests don't exist or are more lenient, you could save a lot of money by having the catalytic converter and secondary pump removed. It's one of the first things Subaru owners do, if possible. It's just another thing that can go wrong and isn't absolutely necessary to the operation of your car. They're there purely for the polar bears' sake.
Comment: What was the exact code which popped?
Comment: And yes, it is necessary if you want your catalytic converter to survive. Without it, it will plug fairly quickly.
Comment: It's for the air we all breathe, Captain K.
Answer: Yes, it will probably be necessary to fix the problem in order to pass emissions requirements.
The secondary air injection pump on the Beetle is apparently used to accelerate the transition from cold start to hot catalytic converter operation.  Without this system, it will take longer for the catalytic converter to reach operating temperature.
The emissions regulations vary by location, of course.  Where I live, one of the factors that is tested is that time of transition from a cold cat to a hot (much more efficient) cat.  I doubt that your vehicle would pass without the assistance of the pump.
As always, it's your car and your money.  You have to decide whether it's worth spending one on the other.
Answer: Some cars, the air injection pump is an electrical pump.  Check the fuses.  If you remove pump, your computer will still look for it.  You will need to fool the computer as well.
 -
Then there is the part about federal (and typically local) emissions laws.  Its illegal to remove any emission control equipment and doubly illegal for a professional mechanic to do it.
Then there is re-sale value.  Pretty much impossible to sell a car with missing emissions controls.
Typically air-pumps only run for the first couple of minutes until the catalytic converter heats up.  On some cars, if you idle too long, the cats cool down to the point they are not effective.  So the air pump turns on again.


volatility factor

Question: I am trying to add a volatility factor to Fama-French factor model. Does anybody know of a source where I can get data for "volatility mimicking factor" or suggest a simple methodology for calculation. (Ang, 2006) introduces a FVIX factor and points that change in VIX cannot be used directly. I am open to trying other volatility factors if someone has a suggestion
Answer: FVIX is not hard to compute.
Just regress changes in VIX on excess returs of your base assets (it can be the 25 FF portfolios if those are what you are trying to explain) i.e run the following:
\Delta VIX_t =  X_t\beta+\epsilon
Comment: The volatility factor would change with the portfolio in this case. There is a more extensive methodology followed in the paper with sorting assets into quintiles and then constructing value weighted portfolios. Can you elaborate on that.

volatility factor


best paint for bookshelf

Question: I plan to make a built-in bookshelf and want to paint it a glossy white (so washable), and obviously need to be somehow wear resistant. From an online search, it seems that the best is an oil-based paint (but takes a few weeks to cure + the odor), which is more resistant than any acrylic, latex paint.  It was also suggested 2 water based paint as being good alternatives: Target Coatings USL and Fuhr International 9100, but I can't find any dealer in the San Jose area. What paint brand/type are best for painting shelving (bookcases, wardrobes)?
Comment: It's a bookshelf. How much wear resistance do you need? A few coats of a good quality gloss water-based paint should work just fine.
Answer: Have you considered simply building it out of white melamine (plastic-laminate-covered fiberboard, available at most lumberyards in the US)? Heavy, requires special screws to get a really strong connection, but cheap and durable.
Comment: I'd suggest just going to IKEA. Same materials, but already pre-built and comes with the special screws already. :)
Comment: Depends on what you need. I built a 12'-wide closet wall out of 12" melamine for considerably less than Ikea would have cost me, and much less than one of the closet-customizing companies would have charged. (Broke it down again when I moved out, and it's all in my basement awaiting another suitable project.)

best paint for bookshelf


How to hold a plectrum?

Question: I have been playing guitar for a year now, but still have'nt been able to make my picking technique right. I struggle especially while playing fast solos. Could you guys please help me on this?
Comment: Also, it may take a few years of daily practice to reach a skill level on an instrument that starts to sound like recordings that you love and allows you to play how you want and be truly creative. I'm self-taught and I would say it was five or six years before I really was able to move beyond the basic techniques and get creative and work on the really challenging stuff. You might give yourself some more time before you let yourself get frustrated.
Comment: How one holds a plectrum depends on what one is doing with it. I see you have trouble with fast solos, so I will start an answer with that information. We need to know more details about any other problems you are having if you are having any others in order to answer your question more completely.
Comment: Actually i ve read many a times that angling the pick helps a lot but i always struggle to hold the pick at an angle. The pick naturally becomes parallel to the strings as i increase my speed.
Answer: This post will be about using the kind of pick pictured below for rock guitar:

I always recommend a heavier pick for rock chords and solos. My personal favorite pick is the one on the right in the picture above. With a heavy pick, you can grip it more firmly to really dig into a string on a solo, or you can loosen up and use a bare minimum for strumming. Also, the thickness of the pick has an effect on the tone, and the thinner picks tend to sound brighter and thinner, which isn't a good thing in many situations. A heavier pick lets you feel the strings better, since it doesn't give way as easily. Any resistance from the strings pushes back on the pick and then on your fingers, so you begin to learn exactly where the pick is at all times in relation to the strings. There are picks that are very heavy, and I would say you can go too heavy.
Always use a fresh pick for the best playing and feel. When the shape of the pick at the pointy end that is used against the strings starts to visibly change because of pick material coming off, it's time to get a new pick. Buy them in bulk online to get the best deals. I've changed picks in the middle of a show before to make sure I've got the exact point I need to play my best.
Make sure the pick is pointed straight at the strings. If you imagine a vertical line right through the picks pictured above, and then put them next to the strings, that line should form a 90 degree angle with the strings (in most cases).
If you're at a loss on what to do, it can help to start with what's popular (hey, it's popular for a reason, right?). In this case, that means grip the pick between your thumb and first finger only. There's lots of personal preference here, but the classic grip has the thumb pointing along the strings, the pick perpendicular to the thumb, and the first finger curled around and pointing back in the opposite direction that the thumb is pointing. Your hand should be mostly relaxed, with the rest of the fingers curled next to the first finger. Depending on what you're doing, you want to be able to easily change how firmly you are gripping the pick, and this grip lets you control your firmness with the least amount of effort, which is a big deal when you're playing for a long time at a stretch.
Many players tilt the pick either forwards or backwards, meaning the edge of the pick closest to the tip of the thumb is either tilted slightly down or up. Tremolo picking (extremly fast back and forth) pretty much requires this. A tilt can make the pick slide past the strings more easily and not get caught up, so you'll want to experiment with a little tilt when trying to play fast. The tradeoff is the tone can change with more tilt, so it's a balance between what you're playing and how it sounds.
Grip firmness is one of the big aspects of pick grip. By firmness, I mean how hard you are squeezing your thumb and first finger together. Too loose, and you'll drop the pick. Too firm, and you'll get tired and cramped up. Also, too firm a grip can slow down your picking. Eric Johnson said in a lesson on Cliffs of Dover that he grips the pick very loosely, and he sure can play fast single note runs. Normally your grip firmness with change depending on how you want to articulate the notes. All things being equal, the loosest grip that does the job is usually the best. When you're learning, if you drop the pick sometimes from too loose a grip, that's a good sign you're riding the edge of what you can get away with. This is most especially true when strumming (which I know isn't part of your question but I mention it here for completeness).
Not exactly grip related, but most of the time, you want to use as little of the pick as possible and just barely brush the strings. This lends the best tone when strumming and the best speed when playing single notes. Sometimes it sounds great to really dig in to get a spank-like sound, but as a rule, the least amount of pick that does the job is best. You can tell when you're riding the edge on this one if you sometimes miss the strings.

In general, it is helpful to stay relaxed and work on playing the notes you want with the least amount of effort necessary to get the articulation and volume you need. Relaxation and minimizing effort leads to better tone, faster playing, longer stamina, better comfort, and above all - more fun!
Answer: This is one of those things where the internet isn't really going to help you much. We can't see what you're doing, right -or- wrong.
Your best bet is to find a trained professional guitar instructor who can watch you play and work with you to refine your technique. Even if you can just get a few lessons it will go a long way towards improvement.
That being said, in general, if you're having trouble with ANYTHING you need to 1) slow down the tempo and 2) work on it in small sections at a time. Don't speed up until you can play it flawlessly at a slower tempo. Resist the temptation to move on to the next sections (hard/impossible, I know) until you master the one you are focused on.
Good luck and don't give up!
Answer: Typically something to consider when playing fast solos, is the kind of pick you are using. A lot of players that tend to shred use picks with a pointy tip (like Jazz III) and a thick/stiff structure. Another thing is make sure not to expose the pick too much (meaning the pointy part is the only thing that sticks out). This allows you to touch the string very little, whilst still causing it to vibrate. Furthermore it just takes quite some time to get alternate picking and economy picking down (assuming you are trying to play fast). These things need to be programmed in by e.g. playing scales and being sure you make efficient motions and don't dig the pick in too much in the strings.
Furthermore you need to be more specific on your problem, but in general all these picking problems are very related; monitor your technique and motions, think about the physics and physical aspect and make it a second nature by programming your muscle memory.
Answer: Because we cannot see what you are doing wrong unless provided with a video footage of you playing, I am going to give you a few questions you should ask yourself while examining your picking:

Am I picking from the wrist? Picking from the elbow causes tension and isn't nearly as fast as playing from the wrist. Picking from the fingers (Like when you pluck multiple strings at the same time, with both the pick and the fingers) gives you a weak tone so you'll be dependant on an amplifier, so be sure to pick from the wrist. There are no wrong techniques, only inefficient techniques. And the wrist is the most efficient - Just try to move your hand the fastest possible and you'll see that it can be done from the wrist using the forearm muscles.
Am I anchoring my hand on the guitar? Most of the time, you should not anchor your hand on the guitar. Anchoring your hand creates tension and limits your movement. There is nothing wrong, however, with resting your palm on the lower strings when you're doing your mad rock riffs (Anastasia, anyone?).
Am I picking efficiently? Downpicking (Downstrokes only) incorrectly can cause a lot of tension. Downpicking is often used in metal, while palm muting, at a very high tempo, so to downpick efficiently your pick has to slice through the string with as little resistence as possible. When you're alternate picking, make sure that your hand doesn't go all over the place, and makes the smallest movements possible.
Is my pick getting stuck on the strings? You want the pick to be pointing straight at the strings (this makes downstrokes and upstrokes equally easy) and at an angle of around 15-30 degrees from the string (so the pick will breeze through the strings with no resistence. Too large of an angle and the tone will get muddier.
Am I relaxed while playing? Try this - Flex your back for 5 seconds, then relax it. Then flex your shoulders, then relax. Continue by flexing your arms, elbows and fingers (both hands). If you aren't relaxed, everything is gonna feel hard for you. It's not just a matter of the body, but also in your head. If you believe that a solo isn't hard, your body won't tense and you will have a much smoother time playing it.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter that much how you hold the pick, as long as it is with the least amount of force while keeping the pick in your hand.
Comment: There are quite a few problems with this post, so I have down voted. You have made absolute statements, but most are entirely opinion focused - eg picking from fingers, wrist or elbow: all are correct; no point saying you should pick from the wrist. And in any case, the question is about how to hold the pick!
Comment: Dr Mayhem, as a metal guitarist who have made all of those mistakes, I am talking from experience. I have also stated why each wrong technique is wrong - Elbow causes tension, isn't as fast or accurate. Picking from the fingers generates a weak tone, and wrist gives you the most control. The person who asked the question also stated that he is playing fast solos, not chords (which can be played from the elbow, still less efficient).
Comment: Dude, they are not mistakes. They are all techniques that are right. I too have been playing rock and metal professionally for nearly 30 years, and trust me when I say your opinion works for you but it is just opinion. You need to focus on answering the question that was asked
Comment: Let me correct myself - there isn't right or wrong, but efficient and less efficient. The most efficient playing technique comes from the wrist. Just try to make the fastest movement possible with your hand and you'll see that it's a circular motion from the wrist, that uses the forearm muscles.

How to hold a plectrum?


Is there any way to increase your carrying weight with max strength and power armor?

Question: Is it possible to increse my carry weight with having max strength and t60b power armor? I was over my carry weight in the glowing sea and didnt have a place to fast travel back to.
Comment: I think there is a perk in Charisma that gives you extra carrying capacity if you don't have a companion
Answer: There are a few ways that you can increase your max carry capacity, some temporary and some permanent.
Permanent perk solutions (these are only feasible in your current situation if you have a spare perk point and the required SPECIAL stats)

Strong Back (6 STR required): You can get +25/+50 carry capacity for the first 2 ranks of this perk, if you don't have it yet. Also, if you are not on the new Survival difficulty, the 4th point in this perk allows you to fast travel while over-encumbered.
Lone Wanderer (3 CHR required): If you are traveling with a companion and have this perk, dismiss them for an instant +50/+100 carry weight increase, depending how many points you have in the perk. For extra weight relief, trade with them and fill up their inventory with items from your inventory before sending them off.

Temporary Solutions
Any consumable that gives you temporary Strength will also temporarily increase your carry weight. Each point of strength from the consumable will give you 10 carry capacity, per the Fallout Wiki. Moreover, some of these can stack, according to this answer. Consumables that increase strength include:

Beer (STR+1)
Bobrov's Best Moonshine (STR+1)
Bourbon (STR+1)
Dirty Wastelander (STR+3)
All Gwinnett Beers/Iced Gwinnett Beers (STR+1)
Poisoned Wine, Wine (STR+1)
Rum (STR+1)
Whiskey (STR+2)
Buffout (STR+2)
Buffjet/Bufftats/Psychobuff (STR+3)
Mysterious Serum (STR+5)
X-Cell (STR+2)

Grilled Radstag also gives a direct +25 to carry capacity. However, unless you grilled some beforehand or have radstag meat and a cooking station nearby, that won't help you out.
Outside of consumables, there are also a couple of tricks that can help you carry more when in an over-encumbered situation.

You can drop your heaviest item and 'carry' it. After dropping the heaviest item from your inventory, you can hold down the 'interact' button while looking at it to pick it up and hold it out in front of you. It will not count against your carry weight. And, if by doing this you go below the max weight threshold, it will allow you to run somewhere where you can store your items.
If with a companion, there is a sort of exploit that allows them to carry unlimited weight. Per the Fallout Wiki page on companions:

All companions can carry an unlimited quantity of loot: rather than trade with them, place the items you want them to carry on a dead body or in a storage container then command them to to grab anything worthwhile. You can also make them pick up items laying on the ground one item at a time.

Other long-term solutions
After you get out of your current predicament... There are some other things you can do to ensure this doesn't happen again. Outfitting your equipment with Pocketed or Deep Pocket (+5/+10 on arm/leg pieces, +10/+20 on chest) can also help with your carry weight. However, as you've stated you are using power armor (and your standard armor mods are not active while you are in power armor), modifying your power armor leg pieces with the mod Calibrated Shocks will give +50 carry capacity per leg, so +100 with the mod on both legs.
You can also determine your companion, should you travel with one, to be more focused towards carry capacity. Per the Fallout Wiki, Strong and Danse have the highest carry capacities of the companions, at 200 and 210 respectively. Other companions have a limit of 150.

Outfitting companions with 'Pocketed' or 'Deep Pocketed' modded equipment will also increase their carry weight.
Live & Love issue #3 increases companion carry capacity by 10.
Dogmeat does not count as a companion when determining bonuses from the Lone Wanderer Perk. You can, therefore, raise your carry capacity by 100 (and get all other bonuses of this perk) while traveling with Dogmeat (who has a carry capacity of 150, for an overall net gain of 250 weight between the two of you).

If you have the fallout-4-automatron DLC, robot companions can also be a great source of extra carry capacity. Most notably, robot companions with the Sentry Bot arms & legs offer the greatest carry weight boost. The equivalent Protectron pieces offer a decent increase in their carry capacity, and requires lower perk thresholds to use on your robot companion (per a few sources).
Console Solutions
If you are playing on PC, you have access to the console. If you don't mind using it in your playthrough, carry weight can be modified using the following command (replace xx with the number you want your carry capacity to be increased by):
player.modav carryweight xx

You can also use player.setav. However, modav will modify your current carry weight capacity by the value you enter. This allows you to 'reset' your carry weight later, should you want to, by using the negative of the value you chose.
Comment: Also, the trick where you drop your heaviest item and than carry it "by hand" with you.
Comment: Nice job covering these, maybe it would be appropriate to mention the carry capacity of followers?
Comment: I have a question! If you consume more than one grilled radstag will it add more carry capacity?
Comment: @RichRek-ageKivlen No, unfortunately not. Using multiple of the same consumable does not stack, it just restarts the timer on the duration of it, as described in [this answer](http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/243703/do-item-effects-stack-in-fallout-4/243713#243713). So, you can only get at max the +25 from the grilled radstag. If you stack that with some whiskey, buffout, or other +STR consumables mentioned in the answer, then you get stacked carry weight increase.
Comment: @RenaissanceProgrammer Thanks for the feedback, added those things in there, as well as a couple other tricks to prevent being over-encumbered.
Comment: If you have the Automatron DLC, you can modify your robots to increase their carrying capacity as well.
Comment: @DCShannon Ah, yeah that's right. I've added a section on that as well. There's so many ways that can be used to figuratively trim some weight, I keep coming back to this answer to edit it. Thanks for the heads up.
Answer: Take all ranks of strong back,the sprinter perk that reduces sprint cost by half and both leg armor upgrades. Use legendary gear that increases ap regeneration.
You will never need to drop a thing.
I am running around the wasteland carrying over 200000 pounds of stuff.
Comment: I play on survival, no cripple or dmg if you have strong back 3 :) and yes, the inventory is extremely laggy when switching weapons
Comment: "both leg upgrades"?
Comment: Upgrades that reduce sprint speed. Writing from phone so trying to be as short as possible
Comment: I like the idea. I'm curious how laggy your pip-boy inventory menu is, since I'm assuming you must have a boatload of items to add up to 200,000 lbs. My routine was to dump all of my spare gear into the sanctuary workbench, and had to clean it out recently because switching between item categories (and even vertical scrolling within that category) was getting very sluggish.
Comment: Also, you might want to point out that this might not be the ideal solution if playing on the new survival mode. Per the [Bethesda post](https://bethesda.net/#en/events/game/fallout-4s-all-new-survival-mode/2016/03/29/96): `Exceeding your carry weight reduces your overall Wellness, quickly building Fatigue, and will eventually cripple your legs. You can't hoard a whole bunch of items, then make the long, slow trip back home – which, to be fair, isn't that fun. Just set the loot aside and be free.`


Empty texts are being sent periodically to specific contact?

Question: When I check my text messages, I am always a bit confused this week. A specific contact in my phone is being sent blank messages over and over again, and I cannot figure out why. What is even more interesting is that the contact that this is happening to does not receive these messages at all. I switched texting apps from Google Messenger to Hangouts hoping the app was just glitching, but still the blank messages continue to appear. They come in groups, one being sent every 2 hours or so (but not in a predicable manner) in packs of 5 to 8 or 9.
I've narrowed down every cause I can think of. All I am down to is my Pebble Time Steel smartwatch or the Android operating system itself that could be causing this.
Anyone have any suggestions to figuring out why this is happening? I don't believe it's the Pebble or the contact in question would be receiving a lot of blank messages and none of these messages appear to go through.
Answer: I figured it out. I also have Avast Anti-theft set up, and for some reason all of the messages I send or receive are being forwarded to this contact via binary which is why the messages are empty and why the contact's iPhone is ignoring them.
In short, a bug with avast is the cause. Going to have to give their support a piece of my mind for driving me crazy for two weeks.


What is the source of energy for T-1000?

Question: As far as I remember T-2, it's said that T-1000 cannot form explosives, since he does not have the required chemicals. But it can form solid metal shapes. But what does it use as the energy then? It cannot have a power cell inside, since it can morph in various way, and the power cell has to remain in the same form, otherwise it will stop working. So, what is the mechanism of power supply inside T-1000?
Answer: I know no canon answer but a bit about material technology.
Since the design of the T1k is decentralized, it probably doesn't have a central power supply. Just think when it turns into floor tiles to kill the guard - there is no blob left that stands out. The whole T1k flattens out.
So each cell cluster must have their own power supply. What could that be?

Heat (thermoelectric effect)
Magnetism (walking through Earth's magnetic field)
Chemical reactions like in fuel cells. He could filter chemicals from the atmosphere and combine them to generate heat or electricity.
Billions of tiny capacitors which are pre-charged when the T1k is formed.
Creating resonance with radio stations to milk them for energy.

Note that the first three would not generate enough energy to let the T1k walk. Unlike humans, the T1k doesn't have a skeleton and joints, so walking will be a very expensive process since it has to mold itself.
The last form is also pretty unlikely. It does work but Radio stations notice this pretty quickly (they monitor their electrical usage very closely) and they would call a car from the FCC real soon to find the guy who sucks all their power. The process would make it very easy to locate the T1k, because it would basically turn him into an antenna which sends a very strong signal. You can see this effect today when you carry a fluorescent lamp to a radio antenna which send on the MW band: It will eventually start to glow without any wires. Radio stations hate it when you do that.
So the T1k probably uses some form of high-energy capacitor or some magical form of energy production which Skynet developed while it built the time machine.
Comment: The T-1000 could create an internal skeletal structure when taking the form of a person to assist with walking.
Comment: @Xantec: Very interesting idea. But even with this optimization, the first three wouldn't generate enough energy. These processes usually create milliwatts tops. A fuel cell can generate more but that needs a big cell and lots of fuel (not something  you can just harvest from thin air).
Comment: It also may have used multiple of the above methods, rather than just one.
Comment: True. But consider: Each method will take space and many of the methods generate only tiny amounts of energy.
Answer: Speculation alert:  This is not documented anywhere in any of the films or TV series.  Books, fan fiction, and other media may cover this, but I am unaware of their explanations.  Here are some of my theories:
Because a T1000 is made up of billions or trillions of nano-machines, and each nano-machine has a 'return to essence' capability, it can be concluded that each nano-machine caries its own power supply.
This can be done several ways:
1)  The nano-machine can be a catalyst, which facilitates chemical reactions of elements commonly found in the atmosphere without itself becoming altered.  Platinum and Palladium do this in a cars catalytic converter.  Upon capture of reactants, the nano-machine becomes slightly heavier than the nano-machines which have no reactants, and are drawn below the surface exposing reactant deficient nano-machines to the atmosphere.  Once inside the reactants could be brought together to begin a reaction.  These chemical reactions could release tiny amounts of energy which could be captured by the T1000 in much the same way tiny photvoltaic cells contribute to the whole of a solar panel.
2)  Each nano-machine contains a tiny amount of radioactive material, perhaps only a few atoms worth, which can produce energy which is captures in the same way as mentioned above.  Tactically, this would be a poor design, as anyone capable of detecting radiation would pick up on the signature.
There are elements with short half lives, Radon 222 for example has a half life of just shy of 4 days.  This could ensure that the decay does not happen too slowly to be useless as a power supply, but not so fast that the power supply burns itself out prematurely.  Radioactive decay has been used to power several satellites and probes that mankind has sent into the cosmos, and knowledge of this technology could have survived the nuclear war.
3)  I am going to steal @Aaron Digulla idea of the pre-charged capacitors for this one, because that also seems like a viable idea in the event a small part of the T1000 becomes separated from the whole. (he gets an up vote from me because of his originality)
I am not a big supporter of the radio wave resonance theory, since after the war, it's likely that many radio towers would have been destroyed by nuclear weapons, or rendered useless by the EMPs produced, and therefore unavailable in great supply during the war with the machines.
Solar power seems an unlikely candidate because in the post nuclear war world, there could still be fall out clouds in the atmosphere, and then there is the challenge of keeping a charge going during nighttime operations.
Comment: I think this is the only feasible line of existing theoretical technology that works.  There's been some studies on nanoparticles' magnetism and superparamagnetism, so you could envision some future technology with a programmed nanoparticle having the ability to turn it's magnetism on and off.  Still doesn't quite explain the enormous technological leap between the T-800 and T-1000 though.
Answer: Speculative hyperbole:
If I remember correctly, time travel is only possible if the traveler is at least covered with living organic tissue (insurgents, T-100).
Logically, the same restriction must apply to the T-1000.
And if he at all has organic tissue, it must be a feature of the nano-machines themselves. Since the very livelihood of organics depend on chemical energy, I would favor the chemical energy-source.
However, I don't recall any scene in T2 that would show the T-1000 eating or drinking to support this
Answer: It's nanotechnology of some sort. I imagine each particle has its own power source, which it constantly refuels from the environment. Sunlight, hell... maybe it siphons off 60Hz AC whenever it lingers near a power outlet. If there were some type of microscopic fuel cells for each nanobot, it might be enough power to last for days, but it makes it more difficult to imagine a method for it to recharge.


Firefox not using cache?

Question: Some times I have issues with the wireless connection where I live.  That issue is irrelevant to this (there are two IT departments managing this thing; there's nothing I can do about it).  Most of the time it's nice and fast, but sometimes slows to a crawl (single digit KB/s sorts of crawl).
Anyway, I think Firefox (11.0 Ubuntu) might not be using its cache correctly.  When (for testing purposes) I set it to "Work Offline", pages load on the order of a second.  Normally, the same page (benchmarked on http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries ) loads in around three seconds when the connection is working properly, and ten or more when it's not.  I can confirm it's reloading things, since I see a spike on my bandwidth-use graph while when I open the page.  I think image caching is still working properly, since it doesn't seem to be very much bandwidth used though.
Shouldn't Firefox just be using the cached copy of the page (checked; exists in the disk cache) instead of downloading a new copy, when I open the page in a new tab?
I know that some content is set to expire, so it should download a new copy.  I don't believe that the example page has one of those.  Under "Work Offline", pages like gmail did not load, so I assume that that is the proper behavior of pages that expire.
How can I either make firefox use cache unless the page has expired, or, better yet, display the cached page while it tries to load a new copy?
Answer: You can try to install the Web Developer Toolbar and disable cache on it.
Comment: But @zebediah49 wants to do the opposite. ;-)
Comment: That is right. My mistake :)

Firefox not using cache?


Difference between basis and subbasis in a topology?

Question: I was reading Topology from Munkres and got confused by the definition of a subbasis. What is/are the difference between basis and subbasis in a topology?
Answer: Bases and subbases "generate" a topology in different ways. Every open set is a union of basis elements. Every open set is a union of finite intersections of subbasis elements.
For this reason, we can take a smaller set as our subbasis, and that sometimes makes proving things about the topology easier. We get to use a smaller set for our proof, but we pay for it; with a subbasis we need to worry about finite intersections, whereas we did not have to worry about that in the case of a basis.
Comment: Yes. One way to say it is that if I have a subbasis S, then there is a basis B associated with that subbasis which is all the finite intersections of elements of S. And $S \subset B$. Remember also that bases/subbases for a topology are not unique: some bases/subbases for a topology $\mathcal{T}$ may include your set $S_1$ while others exclude it.
Comment: Is it correct to say that if an element $x$ belongs to a sub-basis element $S_{1}$ then it also belongs to the basis element $S_{1}$ because $S_{1}$ is simply a finite intersection of  $S_{1}$ with itself?
Answer: Consider $S=\{\{0,1\},\{0,2\}\}$. What is the topological space $T(S)$ generated by $S?$ By definition, $S$ will then be a subbasis of $T(S)$.
Well, we want to all requirements to hold true and find that $T(S) = \{\emptyset, \{0\}, \{0,1\}, \{0,2\}, \{0,1,2\}\}$ (check this!).
Is $S$ a basis? No, because you cannot write $\{0\}$ as a union of any elements in $S$.
So you see that subbasis and basis are two different notions, even for a very basic example.
A subbasis can be thought of, and is actually defined to be, the "smallest set that becomes my topological space if I complete it under the property of being a topological space, i.e. fulfiling the axioms of topological space".
The two terms are related nevertheless. Every basis is a subbasis, and in one of the equivalent definitions of subbasis you will find that you already get a basis from your subbasis.
Comment: @Prayutsh I think that it would be better to give a bit deeper explanation. moose question arised because David goes from subbase to topology directly, not mentioning basis. If you first take basis $B=\{\{0\},\{0,1\},\{0,2\}\}$ generated by $S$ (as all finite intersections of elements of $S$), then you can see how to generate emptyset, since in case of $B$ you form unions over its subsets, not elements (like in case of intersections and S). So $\emptyset\subseteq B$ and $\bigcup\emptyset=\emptyset$. By the way, empty intersection doesn't work.
Comment: Shouldn't a subbasis be able to produce every element of the topology by building the union of intersections of elements of the subbasis, where the intersections have to be finite? Something like: Let $(X, T)$ be the topological space and $S$ be a subbasis. Then: $\forall U \in T: U = \cup_{A = M_i \cap M_j \cap ... with M_{i,j} \in S}$ where all $A$ should be finite. How do you make the empty set this way?
Comment: @moose You can make the empty set with the empty union of empty intersection. In other words the union of intersection of no sets. Kind of like how the vector space $\{0\}$ is generated by the basis $\varnothing$ since $0$ is an empty sum.
Comment: @Pratyush What do you mean by "the empty union of empty intersection"? Could you clarify this please?
Comment: @MadHatter I think I made a typo ... it should be "or" instead of "of".
Comment: @MadHatter My mistake. I did not make any typo. I was correct from the beginning. In your explanation, you obtain a basis from the subbasis before forming the empty. I simply combined the unnecessary extra step: open sets are the unions of intersections of elements in the subbasis. So if we take the index set to be empty when taking the union, then we get the empty set. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of empty unions, refer to this post: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/370188/empty-intersection-and-empty-union
Answer: The collection of sets $(-\infty,b)$ and $(a,\infty)$ for $a,b\in \mathbb{R}$ constitute a sub-basis for the standard topology on $\mathbb{R}$. The collection of sets $(a,b)$ for $a,b\in \mathbb{R}$ constitute a basis for the standard topology on $\mathbb{R}$. I suggest that you look at the definitions of "basis" and "sub-basis" and convince yourself that the claims that I have made are correct; this is probably the best way to answer your question.
The basic idea is that a basis is the collection of all finite intersections of sub-basis elements. The open sets in a topology are all possible unions of basis elements. So, the open sets in a topology are all possible unions of finite intersections of sub-basis elements.
I hope that answers your question!
Comment: The "all" is very important, which hasn't been provided in other answers.
Answer: If we ignore, momentarily, the fact that we are trying to generate a topology, a subbasis is any old collection of subsets of the space. Thus, any basis is a subbasis. However, a basis $\mathcal B$ must satisfy the criterion that if $U,V\in\mathcal  B$ and $x$ is an arbitrary point in both $U$ and $V$, then there is some $W$ belonging to $\mathcal B$ such that $x\in W\subseteq U\cap V$.
To really understand what that means you have to look at examples. The family $\{X\}$ is a basis for the indiscrete topology on $X$. The family $\mathcal P(X)$, the powerset of $X$, is a basis for the discrete topology on $X$. If $X$ is large enough and you remove some subset $S\subset X$ from $\mathcal P(X)$, you can still have a basis if $S$ is not singleton but $\mathcal P(X)\setminus \{x\}$ is merely a subbasis when $x\in X$.
A more ambitious example is the definition of the topology on the product of two spaces $X$ and $Y$. The family $$\{U\times Y:U\subseteq X, U\text{ is open}\}\cup\{X\times V:V\subseteq Y,V\text{ is open}\}$$ is a subbasis but not necessarily a basis of the box topology on $X\times Y$.
Finally, suppose a family $\mathcal B$ is a basis. You can generate a topology $\tau_0$ using $\mathcal B$ as a subbasis and you can generate a topology $\tau_1$ using $\mathcal B$ as a basis. The topologies are actually the same, as you can see here. You just have to do more work to generate a topology from a subbasis $\mathcal S$, i.e. you have to include all finite intersections of members of $\mathcal S$ because it is not guaranteed that they are unions of members of $\mathcal S$.
Comment: could you explain a bit why in the example of the product of two spaces $X,Y$; $\{U\times Y:U\subseteq X, U\text{ is open}\}\cup\{X\times V:V\subseteq Y,V\text{ is open}\}$ is a subbasis but not basis ?
Comment: @ElleryL the basis for the topology on $X \times Y$ is sets of the form $U \times V$ where $U,V$ are open in $X,Y$ respectively. If we have any set where say, $V$ is not all of $Y$ but some proper open subset, then there is no way to construct it using only unions from the above subbasis. Instead we need to intersect $U\times X$ with $X \times V$ to get $U \times V$


Rough polyurethane job.

Question: I applied poly after staining what I thought was a smooth surface pine board. Rough when first coat dried. Sanded it lightly and is fairly smooth. I want to apply another coat but dust is sticking to some semi rough spots. Afraid to sand further and get into stain. Should I keep going to completely smooth out? How do I remove dust b4 next coat of poly?
Comment: also after sanding my surface seems to have a grey tint after being wiped down.
Comment: Did you use water-based finish? WB-finishes will raise the grain so its generally advisable to first raise the grain with water and lightly sand before applying the finish
Answer: Some roughness is perfectly normal after the first coat of finish has dried. You don't always have to do it but it is quite common to have to sand lightly (just enough to remove it, no more). This is generally referred to as 'de-nibbing'.

Sanded it lightly and is fairly smooth. I want to apply another coat but dust is sticking to some semi rough spots. Afraid to sand further and get into stain. Should I keep going to completely smooth out?

It's hard to say I'm afraid without pics to give guidance, but if it's minor enough you can 'bury' it in the finish by just applying more poly. I would suggest you apply perhaps three more coats, then lightly sand one more time which should skim off the top of any raised texture, then one light application of poly as a final coat to finish off the surface.

How do I remove dust b4 next coat of poly?

You can also use a finishing product specifically intended for this purpose called a tack cloth which is exactly what it sounds like, a tacky cloth, but it's really not necessary.
You can simply brush it off with any suitable stiff-bristled brush (even an old toothbrush if you have nothing else suitable). The brush should be clean and dry.
Or, if the texture is not sharp enough to snag fabric, a microfibre cloth works great for this. Note: any microfibre used for this should be new and kept for this purpose in a zip-lock bag or a jar with a lid. It should not have been used with a cleaning or polishing product beforehand, even if laundered afterwards. This applies most especially to any polishes that contain silicone, something that should come nowhere near a finishing job.
See previous Q&A for more if interested, How to remove dust after sanding before applying paint/oil/glue?
From your Comment:

grey tint after sanding

It's normal for finish to look slightly grey (or clouded, or milky) after sanding because you've scuffed the surface and the scuffing scatters light.
If you wet a finger with the solvent for the varnish and just wipe a spot this greyness should completely disappear until the liquid evaporates. The next coat of finish will do the same thing but permanently.

Rough polyurethane job.


Using ZonalStats in QGIS 3.0.2

Question: I'm using the above mentioned QGIS version, and it somehow does not include ZonalStats plugin. I installed ZonalStats 0.0.4, but plugins now says this is designed for QGIS 1.7.2-1.99 and does not work for me. Is there a way to get hold on Zonal Stats?
Answer: If you wrote zonal in the Processing toolbox search, you will find many:

The zonal Statistics is the second one from the top.
Comment: That's weird, in my QGIS (3.2.1), I cannot find the "Processing Toolbox" in the view panes available... maybe my version is corrupted or something went wrong... Or do you have an alternative to open it ?

Using ZonalStats in QGIS 3.0.2


Creating a layout with Page Manager

Question: I'm trying to use Panels and Page Manager in Drupal 8. My current versions of each are:

Page Manager: 8.x-1.0-alpha23+12-dev
Panels: 8.x-3.0-beta4+41-dev

My current problem is having no idea how to actually make a layout (layout_plugin is installed.) I'm seeing this screen:

It doesn't matter what I change "Layout" to, the "Layout Settings" section doesn't change. I'm somewhat familiar with Page Manager in D7, and expected there to be some sort of layout manager in there, allowing me to choose panels/blocks/etc. I know there's a "Block Page"--and this would work for me--but in any of the tutorials, I've heard something about Block Page NOT being for production?
Nearly EVERY video/tutorial I've seen uses some other version of panels/page_manager, and the look/structure has changed. So, I'm not sure if I'm doing this right or not, if it's broke, or if I just have no idea what I'm doing.
Panels, Page Manager and CTools was supposedly synced with their alphas last year, but they look like they've separated and I'm hesitant to use 5 month old versions of modules on a new release like D8 (particulary, CTools.)
Answer: Go to all recommended versions.
I was using different/more recent dev/alpha/beta versions of certain modules, but when I went to the recommended versions of...

panels (8.x-3.0-beta4)
page_manager (8.x-1.0-alpha23)
layout_plugin (8.x-1.0-alpha22)

... everything seemed to work okay. This was as of 7-6-2016

Creating a layout with Page Manager


How long it takes to design a nice font

Question: Wondering how long (rough estimate) it would take one who is skilled with vector tools to design a full featured font with font hinting and everything.
Comment: I'm afraid this is really too broad to be properly answered but the shortest I've seen was two weeks full-time (9am to 11pm) with a team of 4 designers in a student context with a highly skilled mentor.  [Crafting Type](http://craftingtype.com/) gives a 3-day intensive workshop but I'm not sure it includes all you have listed.
Comment: That said, don't underestimate the value of taking a step back to re-assess your work. I had a classmate back in the day who had been working on a serif for the past 4 years as a hobby. There really is no limit to how much time you can dedicate to something like designing a font...
Comment: I can only speak for myself. I'm NOT a font designer, but I'm skilled in Adobe's applications and I have more than basic knowledge on fonts. Still it was a great challenge when I agreed to make a font for a customer. The customer only paid for about 12 hours of work but in reality I spend more than 40 hours. It was a VERY simple font based on the nordic runes and only caps. I also have a personal project where I after 40+ hours still only have the capital letters and no kerning. It's incredibly time consuming!
Comment: It varies. Give yourself a treat and read about designers of nice fonts and how they work their craft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_type_designers
Answer: It depends the font type and the family styles included in the design.
The factors to consider:

The size of the family
The complexity of the project
The personal workload

24 hours
Hard to believe but James Barnard certifies it here. Even being a relatively simple design and only one style, 24 hours I think it's too tight (and unhealthy :-)). But the step by step description is very interesting and can help to make a font design schedule.

Three months
In the nineties, each issue of the quarterly design magazine Emigre used to come with several new fonts designed exclusively, this means that Zuzana Licko and her team designed at least five fonts in three months. And of course, the magazine design. It's also true that most of these fonts have only one style.

One month
I use to be guided by the time that the international typographic design competitions give to present works to the contest. The most relevant give a period between six months and a year. What I think is quite correct and even exaggerated.
Dedicating exclusively to the design of the font, once defined the conceptual and formal basis, with four families styles, I think between two weeks and a month is a right time. Always depends the design type, it's not the same a Simple Geometrical Font than a Roman Family.
Answer: Depends on how many glyph's you do and how much kerning you need to make. If you design a font with only the English character set punctuation and no need for kerning (or autokeerning) then you can get away with a few hours.
Indeed I have designed a font with the constraint that I could only use a text editor (think notepad) and a command line call to font forge for the task. Using only my mobile phone* (sic). By limiting myself to uppercase characters +, -, ± and diameter sign it took me about 2 hours (except that the S was a bit horrible so i had to redesign it) to do this. It has horrible kerning but works.
This is close to what the font looked like at that point, the S is different but not much (S is the only character that was hard to make with the text editor and feedback time i had), some of the other glyphs have also very minor edits**:

Realistically though, a few weeks to a few months is more accepted. But can take years.
* Although is did prepare 1 hour to get the tools in place.
** here is what one glyphs design looks like in the text editor after it was done:
<code>glyph
%# B
newpath
25 0 moveto
25 100 lineto
67 100 67 60 20 arct
67 60 50 60 20 arct
25 60 lineto
75 60 75 0 30 arct
75 0 55 0 30 arct
25 0 lineto
stroke
</code>
Comment: Using only your mobile phone!!! That is amazing, wow :D I would love to see that, serious designing / editing from the phone, always wondered about that, seems hard.

How long it takes to design a nice font


Setting Vista to send only some traffic through VPN

Question: I use uTorrent to download files, and would like to do so with some level of encryption. I have signed up to http://itshidden.com to use their VPN service, and have connected to it using the Network and Sharing center.
However when i connect to the VPN all my network traffic, web browsing and uTorrent, is routed through the VPN. Is is possible to set it up so that the uTorrent traffic is sent through the VPN, but all other traffic such as web browsing is not?
Answer: It could be done with static routing - by connecting to the VPN, it'll be changing your default gateway, but you could still route other traffic via a different gateway.
To add a new route your use the command:

 route ADD 18.104.22.168 MASK 255.0.0.0  126.96.36.199 METRIC 3
        destination^      ^mask      ^gateway     metric^

Lower metric values get used over higher ones, so if your VPN gateway had a lower metric, you'd have to use route change.
You'd need to add either routes for all destinations you didn't want to reach via the VPN, or vice-versa.
Comment: I second this, i use Cisco vpn which does the same thing, it automatically adds routes for certain set of ip's so that they go on vpn while others go through regular route.
Answer: From what I understand about VPN, that would not be possible.  The idea of a Virtual Private Network is to create a tunnel from endpoint to endpoint such that your computer is logically on the far end network rather than on the near network.  If you have two network interfaces, you could possibly connect them both to your home network and only attach one to the VPN, but then I'm not sure how to configure Vista to send some traffic through one and some through the other...
Have you looked at enabling transport encryption in uTorrent?  I use Vuze, but I'm sure you can do the same thing in uTorrent.  I have mine set to use transport encryption and only accept connections from other using encryption as well.


monerod block height is 1,500,000 - How do i pop off 100,000 blocks and start syncing at 1,400,000 instead?

Question: What is the monerod command to pop off a certain amount of blocks? Say I am at block 1.5 million and I want to start from 1.4 million instead. What is the monerod command for this?
Comment: monero-wallet-cli  --restore-height 1400000
Comment: that doesnt work. its something to do with block popping
Answer: The command you are searching for on linux called:

./monero-blockchain-import --pop-blocks 100000

and on windows you need to use

monero-blockchain-import.exe --pop-blocks 100000

A detailed howto is on point 4 at this answer from dEBRUYNE.


Does lightning strike some places more often than others?

Question: Does lightning tend to favor certain locations over others?  For example, is it more likely to strike a tree than the ground?
Comment: It is more likely to strike the ground because there is more ground than anything else.
Comment: It doesn't seem to work like real-life lightning, which uses the shortest possible distance between cloud and ground such as trees/telephone poles and tall buildings. This may be arbitrary, but I have noticed that lightning favors the center of a biome area that's storming rather than the edges. Does that make sense?
Comment: Possibly a normal distribution over each biome? I'd love to see someone make a proper measurement!
Comment: Well, actually, real lightning doesn't just use the "shortest possible distance", it travels through ionized sections of air.  It just often happens that it finds a path to a taller object than a lower one, because it is closer.
Answer: Lightning does not favor a specific location or area to strike.
Comment: I'm going to mark this as accepted because I don't see any other answers coming and the only other answer seems arbitrary.
Answer: Here is a similar question on the preference of local position of lightning. But it's worth pointing out that lightning only happens in biomes that have rain and don't have snow. So desert, ice desert, nether (no rain), taiga, and tundra (snow) don't have lightning. (Theory from code reading)
Answer: No, lightning strikes random locations during thunderstorms. However, if you are trying to get something struct by lightning (If you are trying to get charged creepers), use a trident enchanted with channeling. They where added in 1.13, and channeling tridents will strike mobs with lightning when hit. However, they only work in open areas and during thunderstorms, and the target has to be a mob.


Export all of Sharepoint 2010 data (list, webapp data, etc. )

Question: I need to export all of Sharepoint 2010 data (list, webapp data, etc.) in to a easy to import file. Meaning I have "SiteName" with lists and webapp data, and I need all the information of that site in a file or in a new database. What is the easiest way to do this.
Answer: The only way I can think of to export SharePoint data is to use the Export-SPWeb PowerShell command: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607895.aspx
<code>Export-SPWeb http://sharepoint -Path c:\export -NoFileCompression
</code>
Use the NoFileCompression parameter and it will generate a few XML files and a bunch of other files in the path you specify.
Look for the manifest.xml file and it will have everything you need to restore your data.
If you just want to export from SharePoint to import again in another server you can either move the database or do the export and then ran an Import-SPWeb command with your exported data.


What is the role of triton in buffer for western blot assay?

Question: What is the role of triton in buffer for western blot assay?
I understand it has to do with preventing non-specific binding of the antibody.
Answer: That's exactly it. Triton is a detergent and incorporating it just makes it a little more difficult for everything to bind. Here's how I imagine blocking buffer working:
PBS/TBS: buffering pH
milk/BSA: uniformly interacting with the entirety of the blot. The idea is that these will a) adsorb to the parts of the blot that don't already have much sample in them (since "empty" areas of the blot would otherwise adsorb the detection antibody/ies (this is a source of nonspecific binding).
Triton (or, more commonly, Tween-20): OK, now think about what's on your blot. Your antibody will have weak interactions with just about anything there. A detergent interacts with everything it touches (antibody and adsorbed proteins on the blot) to reduce binding affinity in lots of these interactions (although, some interesting counterexamples can be found here), thereby making the less-favorable binding even less favorable, decreasing the chances of your detection antibody retaining these weaker (off-target) interactions. The preceding article also suggests that the use of nonionic detergents lowers the signal intensity of the Western (and to a different degree across proteins).
Comment: Low concentrations of nonionic detergents can help to solubilize a complex mixture of proteins.  In other words, some of the antibodies in the serum might precipitate, which would effectively lower their concentration in solution.  If some of the primary antibody precipitates and binds to the filter then it could lead to a higher background signal when it is recognized by the secondary antibody, prior to the detection step.


What is the last piece to be developed, and why?

Question: Statistically speaking, for white and black, what is the last piece moved from its starting position, and why?
Comment: do you mean the last piece moved in the game when it ends or the last piece moved at any given time?
Comment: +1 @Andrew: Last piece moved from its default starting position on the board. For example, all pawns start on the second row, but I would guess that a given pawn is not the last piece moved statistically speaking.
Comment: Although not a direct solution to your problem, Oliver Brennan's answer to "What are the chances of survival of individual chess pieces in average games?" may pique your interest: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-chances-of-survival-of-individual-chess-pieces-in-average-games/answer/Oliver-Brennan
Comment: How do you count games, where there is more than one piece that hasn't moved by the end of the game? I would guess that this is a large proportion of all games, where some pawns haven't moved yet.
Answer: I think a good approach to this is to see what pieces most likely move first.
Central pawns normally always come out.
The bishops and knights come out early
If you castle early, one of the rooks plus the king will have moved
The other rook is sometimes left stationary unless there is an open file.
The queen normally gets into play.
Since you want to keep the king safeguarded, especially if castled, I would say most players would try to move the pawns in front of the castled king last or leave them on their original squares.
Comment: There was a funny game between Tal and Karpov where Tal played e2-e4 at move 101 "for fun". A serious game in a strong tournament. Ended with draw.
Comment: well, you answer is incorrect as he is asking about developing pieces. You cannot develop a pawn, you move a pawn.
Answer: There are so many factors that would affect that. Player strength, for one, as weaker players tend to play heavy pieces first (beginners always have to be told not to push their rook pawns and bring their rooks out in front of their pawns).
Next, the opening choice affects it strongly, because that can dictate both castling and pawn structure.
Since O-O-O is rarer than O-O, a good guess for the last piece is the QR, because every other piece has to move before it can. But pawns figure in as well, and given the rarity of queen side fianchettoes I'd guess the b-pawn might even nip the Rook for last moved.
What's the purpose of the question, aside from idle curiosity? Is there a principle you're aiming for?
Answer: We can remove a few unlikely contenders:

The central pawns are developed quickly in most games to control the center and aid development.
The c-pawns are also frequently moved in the opening.
Knights are frequently the first real pieces to be developed since their development clears space for the king to castle and controls the center.
Bishops are also developed early in most games, primarily for the same reasons as the knight.
Kings castle early in most games.
Since O-O is more common than O-O-O, we can also safely rule out the king's rooks.

That leaves us with the queens, the queen's rooks, and the a-, b-, f-, g-, and h-pawns. Among the pawns, I think the b- and g-pawns are most likely to move first, since the fianchetto is a relatively common maneuver. Among the two remaining pieces, the queen is generally developed earlier in the game than the queen's rook, so we can rule her out.
Now, we're down to the queen's rook and three pawns. Even though I initially thought the f-pawn was going to be the most frequent last piece developed, a quick look at my games says otherwise. The vast popularity of the Bird's opening, as well as frequent kingside attacks, ensures that the f-pawn is rarely the last piece developed.
I'm also going to rule out the a-pawn, since it is moved frequently in openings such as the Sicilian (e.g. the Najdorf) and the Ruy Lopez (e.g. main line).
With only the h-pawn and the queen's rook remaining, it is hard to make a comparison without statistics. While, in most games, the last piece to be developed will be a pawn, the large number of pawns relative to the number of likely pieces makes it possible that the queen's rook is the single, most statistically likely piece to be developed last.
Answer: The rook or the queen. Typically
Knights & Bishops should be developed early
Queen should be out after the minor pieces are out
The rooks are out last and usually come out via castling. Sometimes, it stays there and attacks from there (e.g. in the Sicilian Yugoslav attack, white players usually castle queenside and push the h-pawn, with the rook staying on h1)
Answer: I'd say the queen for the very reason she isn't moved much early on - because she is more susceptible to attack!
Also, isn't knights before bishops a rule for the opening that holds true under most circumstances?  I say this because that would nearly eliminate the knight from contention, or would in tournaments anyway.


Open source projects to gain demonstrable experience in implementing modeling in C++

Question: I have a mathematics background with a PhD in mathematics (not related to stochastic processors or financial mathematics) and have been in derivatives valuation for around 6 years. When applying for quantitative finance roles I tend to struggle, as although I have a knowledge of C++, often, it is requisite to have some sort of demonstrable background in implementing pricing models - this is experience I do not have. Could someone point to some open source projects or other initiatives that I could take part in so that I can gain this experience, and also use it as example to potential employers to demonstrate that I have been able to build up the requisite experience. Would greatly appreciate any suggestions, including input from those who have been roles responsible for hiring, with regards to which sort of experience would count as valuable.
Answer: I would give GitHub a try.  Searching for option pricing or machine learning or anything like that yield a ton of repositories with implementations that you can look through and learn from.  Here are 2 search links:
GitHub Search for C++ machine learning
GitHub Search for C++ option pricing
After gaining some level of comfort, I would look to improve the quality of your coding.  Submitting working code to the Code Review SE would work well if you were looking for people to critique and give you advice on the structure and set up of your code. You could also search there for implementations and take note of the suggested improvements.  Here is a search I just did.  I didn't look at any of the results but there are some there:
Code Review SE search for C++ option pricing
Code Review SE is one of the best resources I know of for improving your coding from practical, working implementations.
I hope this helps.  Good luck in your search.
Comment: @DonShanil I would say GitHub.  Firstly, you can contribute to any project on there (assuming they accept your commit).  Secondly, you could fork a project into your own repository and add to it for your own needs.  That would be a way you could display your own body of work as one that adds value to existing projects.  A third way would be to write your own option pricing model and host it there and show it to an interviewer.
Comment: Thanks very much - this is very helpful. Would you also know (as a second step) of any open source projects or forum's where I can see which projects are going on, specifically in the derivatives pricing field - say for example projects similar to Quantlib. This may also help to get an understanding of what's going on and relevant. Would Github be the place for this as well? Thanks again for your response.
Comment: Thanks mate. Appreciate taking the time to answer. Cheers.


Does skiing over things like sticks, leaves, roots and tree needles damage the skis?

Question: Obviously cross/back-country skis can be damaged by skiing over things like rocks, stones, gravel and asphalt. What about other, softer objects exposed when the snow starts to melt, like sticks, roots, leaves, fir tree needles, soil, etc? How damaging to the skis can these be to slide over?
Answer: You definitely need to be concerned if you are using waxless XC skis with fish scales under foot. Skiing over hard dead sticks can break off the edges of these scales (or wear them down over time) making them less effective on climbs.
For smooth bottom skis, pine needles, roots, etc will likely do nothing more than scrape the wax off your skis (which if you are using XC skis with kick-wax, you might need to re-apply mid-day, while if you are downhill back-country skiing, having a little glide wax in your bag might not hurt.) See this answer about how often one should wax skis.
Other than that, you do run the risk of more serious damage (gouges) by skiing over hard dead branches or roots, so be gentle. At the end of the day, if there is visible damage to your skis, repair and re-wax as normal.
Otherwise, if there is no physical damage, it might not be a bad idea to re-wax anyway given that you know you skied over somewhat abrasive surfaces.
Comment: I'd like to add the bigger nuisance of pine needles and leaves is that they stick to the bottom of the ski and affect your glide.
Comment: Thanks for the advice! I should have mentioned that I have waxless skis, but you've covered all the bases already ;)


Working from distance as a postdoc for a Company

Question: Almost 5 months ago I got an offer for a postdoc in USA. As we knew due to my nationality it will take some time to get the visa, I started working on the project from distance. Even though, my postdoc will be in USA but the project I was working on, was for a company in Canada which has some collaboration with my future postdoc supervisor. Yesterday, I have received an email from supervisor that the company would like to pay me some salary in a consultant basis. I am totally unfamiliar with USA and Canada system and have no idea what does this mean. What should be my expectation for this payment? Will it be the same as my future postdoc salary? Or it may be much lower? I have been working fully on the project and personally expect full salary. Any experiences and advises? Thanks
Comment: You shouldn't work until you're getting paid
Answer: Only the company can know how much they're prepared to pay, so we can't answer that. It could be more than the postdoc salary, it could be less. It could be higher, but for fewer hours. A consultant position might come with much fewer benefits. You really need to negotiate this with them.
For the future, you'd ideally negotiate this with them before you begin to work. If the company is unscrupulous, or if they didn't give the green light to start the project, you might never get paid at all for the months you've worked. If there is an actual written contract it's much harder to pull stuff like that.
Answer: We can't know, it really depends on your particular situation, the relationship of your adviser with the company, company policy, and other factors we do not know.
Job contracts, like most other things in life, are made between individuals and reflect the relationship they have with each other. Talk to them about what they want to achieve, what they propose to pay you, and what you hope to be paid -- conversations are what make negotiations work.


Calculate hourly wage from annual salary offer?

Question: I recently took a new job and accepted the pay at an annual rate. When I got my first pay check I saw that I was being paid hourly. The problem is that if you multiply my hourly wage by 40 * 52 or use the 2087 average for hours in a work year my pay comes up 1.5% short of the agreed upon amount for a year. Is there another calculation that is legitimate that gives them this hourly wage or are they just shaving the salary?
Comment: @CuriousEMP2727 52 * 7 == 364 days, which is short of a full year. It's not that there are 53 weeks in a year, but that a year spans 53 distinct weeks. One paycheck a year will contain money earned in two different years.
Comment: Why would there be a 53 week scenario? There are never 53 weeks in a year.
Comment: I'll leave this as a comment but I've seen some use a 53-week year. Given that 52/53 is roughly 98.1% that would make a 1.9% difference. Not sure if this is the reason why you see the difference you are seeing here. You should probably just ask HR straight up.
Comment: ApplePie brings up a great point. Each company/payroll system might handle the 53 week scenario differently. Some adjust their rate, others leave it as is. This also changes depending on if you're being paid bi-weekly.or semi-monthly(?)
Comment: So they round up from one day to short a week? Won't the effect be I'm earning less annually than what was offered?
Answer: First, double check that you aren't reading it wrong. Ensure that the number you are pulling is based off of the pre-tax hourly rate (usually this is on the leftmost side before any deductions are calculated out.
Next, look over the employment contract that you signed when you first started working there. Ensure the offered salary is the amount you expected and that there were no stipulations for additional deductions for other things.
If everything looks correct, bring all these things over to payroll and ask them to correct it. To be perfectly fair, mistakes happen ALL THE TIME in payroll / Human Resources. You would think this is something that is easily automated out, and it should be, but it's not, and simple mistakes happen all the time.
They should not only correct the rate, but also pay you back for any missed wages within the next paycheck or 2 (You can help them by calculating how much pre-tax you are still due).
Then triple check the next check to ensure the rate is correct, and that you are also given the missing amount owed to you.... not to be cynical, but they will probably mess up one entry or the other in the correction as well. Just keep patiently returning to them with the new correction every time until all accounts are settled.


Lack of 'determinism' in Ethernet bus

Question: While reading this website, I found out tha there is lack of 'determinism' in the Ethernet network bus as compared to some other buses like 1553. What I understand is that Ethernet is a single master full duplex serial data bus. But I cannot understand what is reason for it to be non-deterministic is data communication? If a terminal A wants to send data to terminal B when both are on the same shared Ethernet bus then A can do that without any chance of missing the data. Then why it is called non-deterministic bus?
Comment: No, it isn't "single master". It's a peer-to-peer network, and any node can transmit at any time as long as it thinks the line is idle.
Answer: Etherenet is based on CSMA/CD,  which signifies carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection. It's not single master, any device can send and recieve independly, like multi master / multi slave, so that's why collisions happen. In such case the message sending is repeated, for both devices that had collided but each has it's own random timer, so that one takes over faster.
Determinism is more than just delivering a message from point A to B, but also at exact time.
Comment: I think this states the answer well and in few words. Industry uses modifications of Ethernet such as EtherCAT to provide deterministic networks.
Comment: @Transistor My mechanic would say: that's another pair of gloves. Indeed in a realtime process an information at exact time interval, even with slow update time is more valuable than fast update with jitter. EtherCAT is still unbeatable for this task.
Comment: So compared to Ethernet can we say that bus 1553 is more deterministic?
Comment: Many aspects come here: physical layer, hardware layer and protocol layer. For dterminism the most challenging part is the protocol layer Hardware has to be such that is not susceptibe to jamming and possibly a failure of one device doesn't affect the others. While the protocol has to synchronize all those devices, to send their data at exact time.
Answer: It is deterministic only when exactly two nodes are directly connected with an error-free full duplex cable.
When there are three nodes, two of them can happen to send something to the third node at the same time. Packet collision would be detected, so they'd retry after a random amount of time. Then there is a nonzero probability that they delay the same amount of time, and there will be a collision again, and again, and again...
Comment: How do we get to know if a certain bus is deterministic or not? Is it the 'packet collision' or some other parameter?
Comment: It'd be deterministic if all of the data is guaranteed to arrive in a predefined amount of time. It's not deterministic if some data can be lost or delayed indefinitely.
Comment: Can you name 1 or 2 data interface buses which are deterministic?

Lack of 'determinism' in Ethernet bus