Do you get a gold when playing Trading Post?

Question: The symbols for Trading Post show a one gold symbol above the symbols for the resources.  Does this indicate that playing the card gives you a gold (in addition to getting a discount from it), or is it just supposed to remind you that you now only have to pay one gold for the resources shown?  We've always played that you get a gold for playing it, but the rules don't seem conclusive either way.
Answer: No, you do not receive any coins. It is indicating a discount. You only pay {1} Coin instead of the normal {2} from the neighbor in the direction to which the arrow points. You can contrast this with the Tavern card.
7-Wonder's rule book (page 12).

Tavern Icon - the card is worth the amount of coins pictured, the coins are taken from the bank only once, when the card is played.
Trading Post Icon - starting on the turn following the one in which this building was constructed, the player purchases raw materials from the neighboring city indicated by the arrow for 1 coin instead of 2.
Clarification for the Eastern Trading Post, the Western Trading Post and the Marketplace: arrows show to which neighboring city or cities to which the discount applies.
Comment: We always looked at that and thought that since the 1 resembled the 5, and it says "the amount of coins pictured" (implying that it could be something other than 5) that it applied to both cards.  Guess that isn't the case.
Comment: It took me WAY too long to realize that this question (and answer, obviously) is about *7 Wonders*, and **not** Dominion!
Answer: No, you don't receive any money for playing Trading Post.  It's just a reminder that one gold is your new cost for resources purchased from your neighbors.


Confusion between register size, address size, data size

Question: I started learning about pointers in C++ and I figured I should educate myself a bit on how memory works and is accessed. I read that when we say a processor is 64-bit, it has a 64-bit register and can access 2^64 address locations. I also read that it can fetch 64/8, so 8 bytes of data at a time, but the data bus is not the same thing as the register right? Do they need to be the same size or does that just happen to be the case usually? And is it the size of the register or the data bus size that determines what we refer to it as, such as 32/64-bit? Also is there a difference between register size and address size?
Comment: There are so many differences and variants and variations that it's almost not worth trying to consider how they relate at all.
Comment: See [this related question](http://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/169264/15805).
Answer: Width of the processor will be defined by the width of the registers inside. The ALU will be able to process the registers directly. The data bus width and the address capacity seldom defines the processor bits.
PS: A 32 bit compiler and a 64 bit compiler gives different results on a 64 bit machine.
Comment: The ALU does not need to be the same width as the address space.  You can use carry out bits and successive additions, subtractions, multiplications to design a circuit that behaves as if the address width was the same as the ALU width and the registers etc.  Look at the Intel 8086.
Comment: @Matt Yes. ALU does not need to be the same width as the address space
Comment: ALU doesn't even need to be the same width as the registers.  This is all up to implementation, but if the designers include a diagram then you can depend on that as a reference.  I can design a 32-bit register and 16-bit ALU using state machines and achieve something that feels as if it we're 32-bits
Answer: When you refer to a 64-bit or a 32-bit it doesn't need to imply any register width or bus width alone.  You can multiplex a bus such that it reads 64 bits in two reads or four reads etc.  A CPU design can be as creative as the engineer behind the logic blocks.  A good example is the 8086 with a 20 bit address space and a 16 bit data bus.  The software that you write in C++ wraps on top of many layers of compilation and hardware state machines such that this is abstracted away.  In RISC design you'll find that registers width and ALU width are almost always the same width, but in CISC design this does not need to be the case so much.
Comment: -1: when we call a machine N bits that mostly does *not* refer to the memory address space (that would classify all the classic 8-bitters as 16-bitters!) but to the dominant width of the ALU, datapath, and registers.
Comment: Wouter is right. This answer is completely wrong. Most 8 bit CPUs have anywhere from 11 to 16 bits of address space. Then you have the problem of Harvard machines having different address space for program and data.
Comment: Ok I retract that it mostly refers to the Address space.  That was not a major portion of the point I was making so it isn't "completely wrong".  In Intel systems we say 64-bit/32-bit because we're interested in the memory address space.  If the CPU uses 32-bit registers it doesn't mean it can't support 64 bit math.  If you're using a Microprocessor you're more aware of the actual hardware in which case they'll specify what the address width is and what the data width is.  In more complicated CISC CPU designs you work at some level of abstraction even in assembly code.


Fallout 4 saved games in different versions

Question: I used to have Fallout 4 in physical cd, now I want to buy it in digital format. My saves are still going to work or I have the risk to loose my information because of the difference of versions?
Answer: First of all, as far as I know, Fallout 4 requires Steam either way, so you actually should already have a digital version, because even if you used the DVD you need to register the game on Steam and thus are able to download it later on and it's kept up-to-date automatically.
In case I'm mistaken (or you played a pirated version and now want to buy):
There shouldn't be any problems. There are no savegame incompabilities between official versions, so it won't matter, if you played an old version.
Just be mindful to reinstall any mods, if you used them and watch out for their required version. If a mod is outdated, you might have to remove it completely, which could cause some problems, but this is unrelated to switching from DVD version to steam version.
Comment: right: the DVD version requires and uses steam to install (not all of the game is on the disc), so....


How to stop an alcoholic from driving- distance is an issue

Question: I have a family member who is an alcoholic and I think has been driving drunk. I want to report him and potentially get his license taken away, but no family or friends live close to him, so we have no way to know when he is actually driving. Is there anything we can do?
Comment: What is your Jurisdiction?
Answer: In the US, there are various grounds for revoking or suspending a driver's license. Non-payment of child support or conviction for a drug offense could result in suspension, conviction for DUI, having too many "points", leaving the scene, reckless driving, racing, road-rage offenses and other driving offenses. Driving with a suspended license generally results in revocation.
In no state is "being an alcoholic" grounds for suspension. However, you can privately voice your concerns to the local police, who may catch him in the act. Privately, since a defamation lawsuit would complicate your life.


Viability of argon-oxygen atmosphere

Question: Can humans breathe an Argon-Oxygen atmosphere, where Argon substitutes the inert Nitrogen gas which currently populates our atmosphere? I didn't quite know which forum to stick this one in; I put it here because I only want to know if such a mixture of gases can be feasibly inhaled, without the prospect of early death by some physiological component.
Answer: One may think that Argon, being an inert noble gas, causes no harm at all and can perfectly replace N2 in a mix with oxygen. After all, you've been breathing Argon your whole life, since approximately 1% of the air is Argon:

However, we are talking about a raise from 1% to 78%... and there are possible consequences here:

Argon is way denser than N2: Argon has a density of 1.784 g/L, while N2 has a density of 1.251 g/L (O2 has a density of 1.428 g/l). So, Argon is 40% denser than N2 (and also denser than O2 and denser than air). Without taking into account ventilation and other forces, there is a risk of argon not mixing properly with the incoming "air" in your lungs.
Argon is a narcotic: This may sound strange, but there are evidences that Argon has sedative properties. According to Nowrangi, Tang and Zhang (2014):

Argon gas is considered a small noble gas element that has been applied in a number of fields. It has been generally classified as a
  nonreactive or inert gas providing a view that it does not contain
  any biologically active characteristics. In fact, argon has
  demonstrated characteristics such as narcosis [...] The mechanism in which argon displays its anesthetic ability has been suggested to be from the stimulation of γ-aminobutyric acid type-A receptors. (emphases mine)

As an additional information, there is an Argon-Oxygen mix, called Argox, which is used for decompression research only, not as a scuba-diving breathing mix.
Also, this question from WorldBuilding has some interesting information (and some wrong information as well).
In conclusion: this Argon-Oxygen mix is not harmless.

Source: Nowrangi, D., Tang, J. and Zhang, J. (2014). Argon gas: a potential neuroprotectant and promising medical therapy. Medical Gas Research, 4(1), p.3.

Viability of argon-oxygen atmosphere


Can't Get UFW Firewall to Allow Anything

Question: I'm trying to set UFW (using GUFW) to create a firewall that only allows network connections when OpenVPN is connected.
So in GUFW I deny incoming and outgoing connections and enable the Firewall. I then create a rule that allows incoming/outgoing of the openvpn service.
Interestingly, with these settings I'm able to make a VPN connection using Network Connections, however I'm unable to browse. Note that without these rules I'm unable to make the VPN connection.
I've also tried creating a rule using the OpenVPN ports and VPN IP address with no success.
To troubleshoot, I delete those rules and create more broad rules of allowing incoming/outgoing HTTP and HTTPS. With these rules in place, I'm still unable to browse online. I tried this while creating rules with my IP address, and no luck.
Here's an example of my current rules, which is not allowing me to browse.
user1@vuser-pc1:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
80/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere
443/tcp                    ALLOW       Anywhere
80/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
443/tcp                    ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

80/tcp                     ALLOW OUT   Anywhere
443/tcp                    ALLOW OUT   Anywhere
80/tcp                     ALLOW OUT   Anywhere (v6)
443/tcp                    ALLOW OUT   Anywhere (v6)

Is there something I'm doing wrong?
Edit: If I set "allow" outgoing, and then create rules to disallow http/https connections, the rules work. I cannot browse. It is strange to me that in this case the rules work to disallow, but I can't get it to allow.
Answer: It's because a browser is changing the port:
Try this for know the port:
netstat -anp | grep

But it's changing a lot (in my case).
Similar inverse problem: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/106974
Comment: But if I set the firewall rules not based on Port but on IP, it still doesn't work.


How to print 'µ' in the serial monitor?

Question: I have been trying to print the letter µ on the Serial Monitor of Arduino IDE but I failed to do so. Is there any way to print µ or any other Non ASCII characters such as Ó,ß,Ô,Ò,õ,Õ,þ, etc using Serial.print()?
Answer: Most of what follows has already been covered in previous answers. I am
posting this nevertheless because I feel no answer so far makes the
whole story clear enough. Let me break down the question into two
sub-questions.
1. How can I get non-ASCII characters correctly print on the serial monitor?
The answer is simply send them as UTF-8.
That's really all there is to it. The serial monitor expects you to send
UTF-8, and it will print the characters correctly only if you use this
encoding. But that brings the second question:
2. How can I get the characters as UTF-8 in my Arduino program?
Here you have several options:
Option 1: encode them yourself
For example, the Greek letter "μ" (U+03BC) in UTF-8 is (0xce 0xbc). You
can send those bytes explicitly, like
Serial.write(0xce);
Serial.write(0xbc);

or, more comfortably, like
Serial.print("\xce\xbc");

The second syntax is more convenient because it allows the character to
be embedded within a longer string.
Option 2: let the Arduino IDE encode them
If you can get the characters in the IDE's editor window, either with an
appropriate keyboard layout or by copying and pasting from another
application, then you can use them as is in the string:
Serial.print("μ");

The editor will save the source code as UTF-8, and those UTF-8 bytes
will go undisturbed from the source file to the compiled program, to the
Arduino memory, to the serial port, and finally to the serial monitor.
This option is the best for readability. However, it is somewhat
fragile: if the source code ever gets re-encoded (e-mail clients and
servers sometimes do that), then the resulting program will not work as
expected.
Options 3: let the compiler encode them
You can ask the compiler to do the UTF-8 encoding for you with the
syntax
Serial.print(u8"\u03bc");

Here, the escape sequence \u03bc is a way to represent the Unicode
character U+03BC (i.e. "μ"), and the u8 prefix means that you want the
string as a byte array encoded in UTF-8.
Note that, in practice, the u8 prefix is not needed, as the gcc
compiler assumes UTF-8 by default. I would keep the prefix anyway
because it doesn't hurt to make the encoding explicit, and it may avoid
angering some language lawyer...
Note also that the syntax above only works for characters U+0000 through
U+FFFF, i.e. the basic multilingual plane. For other Unicode characters,
you have to use the syntax \U + 8 hex digits. For example, the
character "" (U+1F60E: smiling face with sunglasses) can be printed
with:
Serial.print(u8"\U0001f60e");

Clarification about UTF-16: A common misconception has it that with
\u you write the characters as UTF-16 code units, and with \U you
write UTF-32 code units. But it is incorrect:
both syntaxes are used to describe a
single character (technically, a code point), irrespective of the
encoding. Since the UTF-16 encoding for "" is (0xd83d 0xde0e), one
could be tempted to write
// Write as UTF-16 code units in the source code.
Serial.print("\ud83d\ude0e");  // WRONG

but then the compiler rightfully complains
error: \ud83d is not a valid universal character
error: \ude0e is not a valid universal character

So forget about UTF-16. There is no UTF-16 involved anywhere, except in
the internal representation used by a Java widget used to implement the
serial monitor, which is a completely irrelevant implementation detail.
Answer: The Serial Monitor uses Unicode, so sending characters in that format is possible.  The UTF-16 code for µ is 03BC, and you can send it by prepending \u:
Serial.print("\u03BC");

The actual stream of transformations is you provide Unicode (essentially UTF-16) in your string. C++ then converts that into a stream of 8-bit characters in UTF-8 format, which is then sent down the serial connection. Java then receives those and interprets them as UTF-8, recombining them back into the original UTF-16 characters for display in the JTextArea that comprises the Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE.
This complex transformation is done because:

UTF-8 is easier to stream over an 8-bit data link, but is very hard to work with in a program (because of variable-length byte sequences), and
UTF-16 is hard to stream (and breaks ASCII compatibility) but is far easier to work with programmatically (since it is just fixed size 16-bit characters).

So your 0x03BC gets transformed into 0xCE,0xBC which is the UTF-8 representation of the Unicode character 0x03BC.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/81360/discussion-on-answer-by-majenko-how-to-print--in-the-serial-monitor).
Answer: It depends on your operating system, the arduino version and perhaps even on the selected board.
You have selected a weird character, because there are two versions: the micro µ and the mu μ.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(letter) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-. They are not the same.
In linux with the Arduino 1.8.5 and Arduino Uno board, everything supports UTF-8 (the Arduino ide, the serial monitor and the ino file).
To test it, I have written the micro character with AltGr+m in the sketch. It is stored in the ino file as C2 B5, which is UTF-8. It shows in the serial monitor as µ.
With gtkterm, it shows as a µ, and in hexadecimal and it shows C2 B5. That confirms that everything is UTF-8 in linux with Arduino version 1.8.5.
The Unicode "\u03BC" shows a µ in the serial monitor. It is stored in the ino file as 5C 75 30 33 42 43. That is not UTF-8 and not UTF-16, but ASCII for the characters "\u03BC". That is okay, since that is what is typed in the sketch. With gtkterm it shows a µ and CE BC in hexadecimal mode. The CE BC is UTF-8 for mu.
That means the Unicode is translated to UTF-8. Perhaps the compiler translates it to UTF-8?
These are the only tests that I did. It is just a very small part of all possibilities.
Conclusion:
Try to type µ (mu or micro) in the Arduino ide editor.
Using AltGr+m will only work if you have selected a certain keyboard settings. Perhaps you can copy the character from the Wikipedia page.
Using Unicode "\u03BC" seems to be possible.
[ADDED]
The internal format of text in Java was UTF-16, but only a fixed two byte format, not the four bytes. It was therefor only a subset of the Unicode characters. The newest Java version supports the real UTF-16 format for user strings, and thus supports all the Unicode characters.
The data that is stored to a ino file and the data that is transmitted to the serial monitor can be ASCII for normal characters with the addition of UTF-8. Most special characters that I use require two bytes in the UTF-8 format.
For Majenko: look at the binary data of a ino file and the binairy serial data. It is not a fixed two byte per character, but just one byte for normal characters.
I still don't know who translates the Unicode description of a character to UTF-8. It would be indeed weird if the compiler did that, so somewhere Java might automatically translate that.
Comment: @Majenko , I think you need a night sleep and have a look at it again. In the past the ino file stored UTF-8 characters but the serial monitor did not accept them. The arduino version does matter. In the past there were a number of differences with UTF-8 in Windows and linux.
Comment: It depends on none of those things. It depends purely on what is receiving the raw bytes as to what you place in your sketch. Since that is Java, and Java use 16 bit UTF-16 (regardless of operating system) you embed 16 bit UTF-16 codes in your strings to display things in your serial monitor. If you are sending to something else then you embed the correct codes for whatever you are sending to. But since this is the serial monitor then it is UTF-16 and will always be UTF-16.
Comment: No one cares about UTF-8. Only UTF-16.
Comment: And saving UTF-8 in the ino file has nothing to do with sending UTF-16 to the serial monitor.

How to print 'µ' in the serial monitor?


Object rotation in node

Question: I have a field of ellipsoids with various rotations. I'd like to colour them by their rotation. Is it possible to get an object's rotation in a cycles material node?
Comment: AFAIK, For controlling via location, you can use **Object Info** node. But via rotation... It would be a nice feature too. A new vector type for object Info node. :) I bet currently you have to script for batch control.
Comment: I wonder if adding it would be trivial.. I might have to see if I can get myself on the development team :)
Answer: Sort of..
You can insert a "Value" node (under Input) into your Cycles shader, then add a driver to it (right-click the parameter and select Add Driver); get the driver to copy the rotation axis of whatever object you want to use:

With the Value node selected, go to the Graph Editor.
Switch mode from F-Curves to Drivers.
On the left hand side of the editor, find the "Value" inside Material > Shader Nodetree and click on it.

At this point you might need to reveal the panel at the right hand side of the editor - hit N if you can't see it.

In the "Drivers" panel, change "Type" to "Averaged value".
In the variable panel, make sure "Transform channel" is selected, then specify your Object from the input by name, change Type to "X Rotation" (or Y rotation, etc) and you should see its current value appear.

You can then attach the output of your Value node in Cycles to a Hue/Saturation node, or to the Fac of a Mix node to alter the colour. If you want each rotation axis to be available in the material, add a separate value for each rotation axis.
If you want to do something like map each axis directly to a part of the colour - e.g. X becomes R, Y becomes G, Z becomes B - add an RGB input node instead, right click the colour and add a driver to that. You can then find it under "Drivers" the way you might have found the value, and you can drive the four different components of the colour (R G B and A) individually.
Worth noting: the rotation value will hit the driver as radians, not degrees. It's also possible that the driver will get an input which is less than zero - you can get around this to an extent by setting the Type to Scripted Expression and using an expression like "abs(var) % pi" to keep the colour away from black.
There's an annoying drawback to this method though: as far as I know, you'll need to set the driver and material up separately for each object - so you'll end up having as many copies of the material as you have colour-changing ellipses. If your Cycles node setup is particularly complicated and you still want to be able to tweak it, you might try Grouping all the nodes in your material except for the Value, but use the Value as an input to your group. If the Object Node had X/Y/Z Location/Rotation/Scale, this wouldn't be necessary.
Comment: Well it works.. the annoying drawback to pointed out is going to make this impossible though (I'm applying the material to a couple hundred or so objects), so I'll have to script it.
Comment: I can't get this to work.  I've tried using rotations between -1000 to several thousand degrees to see if range was a problem and there is no difference in the output.  Oddly enough, if I change the slider for the Value node, the rendered output changes even though I get a message saying  "Cannot edit a driven value, see graph editor for the driver setup."
Answer: Thank you to quollism who mentioned drivers can do this, i've attached some visuals to help guide the process.
To get data into a node that isn't normally supported by existing "Input" nodes,
we can use Blender Drivers

I find it useful to having a animation playing working with drivers. animation playback is recommended

Rotation in blender is often represented as an XYZ Euler, first x, then y, then z, so we need to copy three values to copy a rotation
I recommended adding one "combine XYZ" converter, since this will directly operate as a vector in nodes, but three individual "input values" works too
select the rotation source, I believe this value, when sampled by the driver will be "fully updated", including all parent transforms in its transform. Copy this, Object -> Rotation, X  right click "Copy as New Driver"
select the rotation destination (our Combine XYZ's X input),  right click "Paste Driver"

repeat for all X Y Z components,
this works in compositing and geometry nodes too I believe.

Source X
Copy as New Driver
Dest X
Paste Driver

(repeat 3x)

Shown below is a visual of the process,
(its too big to be a gif so it won't embed directly)
https://i.imgur.com/X9g1D02.mp4

Object rotation in node


Eclipse C++ Unit Testing without Unit Testing framework

Question: I am looking for some ideas on how to implement a Unit Test framework without any existing unit test tools like Google Test Runner.  I am on a closed network without internet access and so whatever method is determined needs to be hand written and configured.
Comment: I'm not familiar with dependency management for C++, but if it's anything like the tools available for Java (e.g. Maven, Gradle) you should be able to host dependencies in a repository inside your own network.  Has this been considered/ruled out?  As an example CMake apparently has a find_package method that looks in a local directory rather than a central repository.  This seems like a more reasonable approach than rolling your own test framework.
Comment: I tend to agree with c32hedge that as the current question reads you need to code from scratch. As if you are in a nuclear bunker waiting on a post apocalypse event to go by. Maybe you can give a bit more context of why you need to develop something from scratch?
Comment: I've looked and asked around.  We're going to try and figure out how to get something like the Google framework or Cute but just not sure if that will happen.  I don't believe there is anything in our local repository.  Just eclipse is used, they don't link up to any repository.
Comment: I agree with @anonygoose, this feels like a very odd question. Surely there is some way of getting tools from the outside world onto your internal network. Carried to the extreme, limiting yourself to the internal network would mean writing your own OS and programming language from scratch as well (just using this as an illustration that there's probably a better way to do this).
Answer: There is a lot of documentation of how to build your own Unit Testing Framework, maybe this is a starting point: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7049329/how-to-write-a-unit-test-framework
For Eclipse you could look at the code from other frameworks plugins to see how you can make your framework integration better with Eclipse.
Unit-tests mostly instantiates a class and calls some methods. Then there is a assert function for the result. You could write your own assert library, but I think C++ has one shipped by default in cassert.
You don't really need a test-runner. Probably a new C++ program with methods that execute code with asserts could be enough. Build, run the separate test program, verify it did not throw an assert exception with a try/catch. Of Course as your program grows a full-blown testing framework will make it easier to read failures.


Engraving rules for lyrics (Word "didn't")

Question: What is the correct way to notate the word "didn't" if the "di" part correspond to one note and the "dn't" part correspond to another? Being a non-native English speaker I feel like I should write "di-dn't", but references give me mixed answers about the number of syllables in this word. Should I use the hyphen (and if so, how to divide into syllables?) or should I use the underscore (extension line melisma notation), like "didn't _"?
Answer: So, there is actually a rather comprehensive set of rules regarding syllabification in music, and it differs immensely from standard dictionary syllabification. Dictionaries are made for giving definitions of words and are concerned with etymology and word roots and such. The rules for musical syllabification are made to be the most useful to a singer reading them and are thus, often rather different. The rules are not set in stone, but generally, you should follow them when possible. You can find a great rundown in Elaine Gould's Behind Bars. I've copied the relevant passage (p. 243) below for you on syllabic consonants.
In this case, as with the example of "couldn't" given by Gould, "didn't" should indeed be "did-n't."
Also, to address the second part of you question, definitely go with a hy-phen and not a word extension___ if you want one syllable sung on one note and the other sung on another. If you did it with a word extension, it would mean that the first syllable is sung on both notes, and the "dn't" would be squeezed in there at the last possible minute. Neither result is wrong, but since the result you want is two syllables on two different notes, a hyphen it is.
;-)
Answer: In cases like this, it's best to consult a dictionary to determine the official syllable breaks for these words. Even as a native English speaker I have to do this sometimes!
Merriam Webster actually breaks the syllables as di-dn't, which is not what I expected. (This is the blue text underneath the word at the top of the page; the hyphens indicate syllable breaks.) But then they also include did-n't as a possibility...and they even have a one syllable option!
Since Merriam Webster shows all possibilities, I would personally recommend did-n't; somehow that seems more intuitive to me. But when a dictionary only has one option, definitely go with that one.
Answer: For sure there are two syllables in the word "didn't." Even in the extended version of this word, there are two one-syllable words ("did not"), which add up to a total of two syllables. I would say that the best way to notate this is "did-n't." This is due to the fact that the first syllable of this word is "did" and the second syllable is the "n't." When was younger, I was taught to clap when I said each syllable and this helped me to figure out where the syllables are in words.


Reasonable atmosphere for an Earth-like planet orbiting a K dwarf star (including abiotic oxygen)

Question: I would like for my planet to be close to Earth's size (so similar gravity), with much of the surface covered by water, containing atmospheric oxygen from abiotic processes (the photocatalytic reaction of titanium oxide on the planet's surface perhaps?), a comfortable temperature (so most likely there is CO2 in the atmosphere), maybe around 0.5 AU from the star, but I'm open to anything that's realistic. The ideal atmosphere would be "almost" breathable, some trace poisonous gases are fine, too little oxygen is also okay (my characters have ventilators, and possibly technology which can extract and concentrate oxygen gas from the air). I'm happy to tweak any parameters necessary.
Thanks so much!
Comment: Hi Johnny! Thanks so much. You are so sweet. :)
Comment: Hey Susan. Welcome to WBSE! I reviewed your question, and it seems really interesting. I hope you get a good answer soon :)
Comment: Thank you! It is kind of you to say. I don't think I can give a proper answer to your question as to the development of the planet and its exact atmosphere, but I found some useful data on oxygen levels. I hope my partial answer is acceptable and useful to you.
Comment: Good question, I always thought oxygen are byproduct of biology but I am not sure.
Answer: Despite  the ability of titanium dioxide to breakdown water into hydrogen and oxygen, I doubt very much that this reaction would be sufficient to provide more than a trace of oxygen.
The problems are many fold, the reactivity of oxygen, the blocking effects of the atmosphere, the formation of ozone and the weathering or covering of of exposed TiO2 by other rocks or deep water.
So the best option might be to have some form of concentrator to extract low levels of oxygen from the atmosphere.
Note if by some means the environment you describe did exist abiotically, it would not remain abiotic for long once people had arrived. Even if using fully pressurised suits (probably not required) some bacteria and other life forms would escape and multiply rapidly.
Comment: Thanks so much, Slarty, for your reply! I have searched the web for other options for oxygen without life, and am coming up short! But I would love to have a scientific explanation for oxygen in the atmosphere. How fascinating about the bacteria--I never thought about that. Makes perfect sense. Life is pretty amazing, right?
Answer: Since you mentioned oxygen deprivation might be something you want to explore for this planet, I managed to find an article with detailed information on it, from OHSHA.
I can tell you from high altitude diving, that oxygen deprivation is a serious problem. It can render a crew so senseless, that they start pushing each other out of the plane, wrestling for controls, and all sorts of idiocy that it's a wonder anyone survived. And then, they don't remember a thing after the fact.
Suggestion
For your planet, you could make it so that you have just enough oxygen if you sit and rest... but any exertion which the main characters perform will put them in danger of hypoxia, in an environment where you need to keep your wits about you (especially if there are predators).
This could be quite exciting for a story, the tension of being in danger even when you're safe, and in such a sneaky manner at that. If you want an element of tragedy, you could mention that background characters keep underestimating the low oxygen, and having accidents, to reinforce the insidious poison... which is no poison at all.
To get this effect for the early stages of visiting, if you want it, probably something like 16% to 17% oxygen in the atmosphere. You might even want 14%, if you figure the people are adapting to the environment; but it might make it less insidious, as they could learn fast there's just not enough oxygen.
Adapting
Note that there are some mountaineers who wouldn't use oxygen on Everest... they're not common, and they're incredible in their own right (not sure how many are still alive today). Everest has something like 6% oxygen near the top, and about 10% at basecamp. Of course, you're not just living up there as your space explorers will be, and other climbers considered it insane.
If you did want your people to eventually adapt, naturally, maybe something like 15% oxygen or a bit more. Technology could change this considerably.
Source and Quotes on Oxygen
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2007-04-02-0#:~:text=Human%20beings%20must%20breathe%20oxygen,air%20is%20considered%20oxygen%2Ddeficient.

when the oxygen level of their breathing air drops below [19.5 percent oxygen]. Below 19.5 percent oxygen . . . , air is considered oxygen-deficient. At concentrations of 16 to 19.5 percent, workers engaged in any form of exertion can rapidly become symptomatic as their tissues fail to obtain the oxygen necessary to function properly. Increased breathing rates, accelerated heartbeat, and impaired thinking or coordination occur more quickly in an oxygen-deficient environment. Even a momentary loss of coordination may be devastating to a worker if it occurs while the worker is performing a potentially dangerous activity, such as climbing a ladder.

Concentrations of 12 to 16 percent oxygen cause tachypnea (increased breathing rates), tachycardia (accelerated heartbeat), and impaired attention, thinking, and coordination (e.g., Ex. 25-4), even in people who are resting.

At oxygen levels of 10 to 14 percent, faulty judgment, intermittent respiration, and exhaustion can be expected even with minimal exertion (Exs. 25-4 and 150). Breathing air containing 6 to 10 percent oxygen results in nausea, vomiting, lethargic movements, and perhaps unconsciousness. Breathing air containing less than 6 percent oxygen produces convulsions, then apnea (cessation of breathing), followed by cardiac standstill. These symptoms occur immediately. Even if a worker survives the hypoxic insult, organs may show evidence of hypoxic damage, which may be irreversible

I hope this was helpful. Good luck with the story!
Comment: Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply!  Chances are that yes, there won't be sufficient oxygen on the planet for actual human survival, but I would love to figure out how to get more than trace amounts in the atmosphere abiotically. My goal is an uninhabited planet, with the eventual goal of terraforming. I just don't know how 10% or more of the atmosphere can be oxygen without life…which would be great to explain scientifically!  By the way, what great ideas for the low-level, constant tension of always being in danger! No need for toxic gases! Though I would accept those, too, haha!


Ground cover - maximizing value

Question: I planted some fava beans a few months back as cover crop in my vegetable raised bed. They grew very well and as suggested my members of this group, I cut the top part and left the roots inside to provide nitrogen. I am wondering what to do with the top part. I think the recommendation is to bury that I the soil and it provides additional nutrients. Do I have to bury those ASAP or after it dries up?  Also, how deep do I bury it and can I bury it next to the roots itself(between the rows I planted)?
Comment: by "plant it next to the roots" do you mean bury the foliage, or do you want to grow another crop there?
Comment: I meant bury the foliage. Edited the post.
Answer: Fava beans are a favored fall cover crop because they enrich the soil, protect against nutrient loss, feed the rhizobacteria, and produce a high protein food.
It's usually sewed straight after your summer crop so that you get a month or so of growth and nitrogen fixation before the cold weather sets in slowing growth down.
It should be cut to the ground two weeks before you do your spring planting. The roots can be left to decompose and release their nitrogen. If you leave your planting too late, you'll lose some of the nitrogen released by the decomposing roots. But you should leave any greenery to dessicate so that green bugs don't get a chance to cross over to the next crop.
Typically green manures are either dug into the ground or left as a mulch. Fava beans are rather woody so may take a longer time to decompose and release their nutrients. You may be better off adding your compost to the first few cm of soil and use the cut fava bean growth for your compost heap as it provides a good source of structural carbon. I believe the biointensive method is to use it for creating compost.
Comment: They say let it dry for a week, and then fork it into the soil. If it's in the soil, you'll lose less nitrogen then if you leave it in top. It will then compost in the soil.
Comment: I don't have a compost bin so should I just bury it in the soil and do I do that right after cutting or let is dry up a bit before burying?
Comment: I did what you suggested. After a week the ground cover is growing again. What type of tool do you recommend?  I just used my pruner.  Also if I leave the top as mulch will it not attract a lot of pill bugs?
Comment: Did you cut it to the ground with your secateurs?  And they're not seeds that have fallen that are sprouting?  But if it's growing again, pull the roots out and dig them back in again.
Comment: I did cut it to the ground (almost).  Some were sticking out and the growth is coming from there and is not new growth from seeds.  I was concerned about pulling the roots because I read that it is not recommended and best to leave the roots as is so they can be more effective in dispensing the nitrogen
Comment: Fava beans are annuals so if they're growing again I guess you might have cut them early in their life cycle.  You won't lose nitrogen if you dig them straight in again.
Answer: Firstly, you should dig the bed over to break up the beans' nodules and release nutrients evenly throughout the bed.
You don't even have to bury the top growth: you can lay it on the bed as a mulch. Doing this it'll make no difference whether or not it has dried out, although damp foliage is heavier thus less likely to blow away. Mulching will feed the soil for the next growing season whilst preventing weeds colonising the bed and converting the nutrients.
Otherwise, you should dig them into the top 10 inches of soil. Leave the bed for a couple of weeks before replanting, since the breaking down foliage will affect new growth.
Unfortunately, according to the RHS ( https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=373 ), only fix nitrogen into the soil during the summer. Unless you're bean plants were about to flower you might not be turning much into the soil.

Ground cover - maximizing value


Consequences of inrush current out of specifications in AC/DC power supply

Question: What would be the consequence of an inrush current bigger than acceptable limits at the output of a AC/DC power supply? We are currently using a MeanWell model (GST160A15) whose datasheet reports a maximum inrush current of 120A. We are using the power supply to power a control card. We just figured out that the inrush current flowing into the control card is in excess of 175A with a following negative pulse of ca 200A. The whole is happening into the Mhz frequency range. The measurements where taken with a Tektronix 100 Mhz oscilloscope and a shunt resistor - because the current measuring instrument we have just arrives in the range of 500 KHz.
We noticed that 1-2 power supplies out of 15 got broken in a time span of 6 months. Could the failures be entirely due to the inrush current over specs? Or are they other possible reasons? Please look at the attached measurement.
Comment: Unless I'm reading this question incorrectly, the inrush current refers to what it takes and not what it is capable of supplying.
Comment: @Francesco. Have you cut open the failed modules and looked at the failures?
Comment: That depends on the supply. Anything from a dropped voltage to permanent damage to the supply and/or the supplied circuitry might take place.
Comment: @JackCreasey to be honest I didn't. I was hoping to get the units substituted as it could be a failure related to poor construction quality.
Answer: The inrush current of the GST160A15 applies to its inputs i.e. how big the surge of current it might take when it is initially powered. This isn't an output spec for anything connected to it's outputs; it's an input specification.
The inrush into the control card may well be what you said but that does not relate to what the Meanwell power supply takes from its power source.

Could the failures be entirely due to the inrush current over specs?

No but you need to read the data sheet carefully about what current may damage the Meanwell supply due to an excessive load on the output however, I suspect that it protects itself.

Or are they other possible reasons?

Yes, possibly other reasons that may not be at all related to the observations posted in your question.
Answer: Usually one of the prime failures in 'Brick' type power supplies is the input capacitors (it is these which cause the inrush current you see specified by Meanwell). These might help you: IBM on general power supply failures and Corsair on capacitors (both low and high voltage) in particular.
Having seen testing done on thousands of 'Brick' and PC type power supplies, high inrush current is solely due to turn on where the primary side capacitors are fully discharged and the AC input voltage is at it's peak. This is the only time you can see inrush current in the hundreds of amps range. In mass production unit tests the solution to these high inrush current is to use an SSR (zero crossing) to turn them on. This ensures that the line voltage is close to zero when you turn them on. We used to do this in racks of tens to hundreds of PC's under cold boot tests otherwise we could pop the main breaker.
The best power supplies will have PTC inrush limiting, but this can only do so much and is a failure component itself.
This problem is largely eliminated by PFC power supplies where the input capacitor size is markedly reduced.
Load inrush (on the output of the power supply) is usually less of a problem since the power supply should shutdown or chirp till the load side capacitors are charged, though this may be an operational problem for you. TI have a good paper on this. The load inrush current is reflected through the DC-DC convertor, but is normally much much less than the input inrush current.
Comment: @Francesco. Correct, internal physical damage in the 'Brick' is the typical result. You will mainly see the failures in the rectifier diodes, capacitors, PTC and of course in many cases the safety fuse will blow. I doubt you'd see this reflected as damage on the output load circuits since they are transformer isolated from the input.
Comment: Good suggestions indeed. I understand now that input inrush current has nothing to do with output load "surge" current. On the other hand it feels that such a high current  - up to 20 times higher than maximum load current of the power supply - may damage some internal components in the power supply over time. Am I thinking totally wrong? On the other side this current peak may cause aswell other problems in my control card, such failures or unwanted behaviours. Or?


Custom Site template not available in office 365

Question: In office 365 i created a site template using this. The template is available in solution gallery and is activated.But when creating a new subsite, In the template selection I cannot find the custom tab with the new template created. When I try to create the subsite using sharepoint designer I can see the template. How an I make the custom template available in the site , so that I can create a subsite using the custom site template using the site
Answer: Go to Site Settings -> Page Layouts and Site Templates (in Look and Feel Section) and check if your custom template is selected there.
Comment: You are a genius :)
Comment: Glad to help. If this works please mark it as answer.
Answer: For those who are having issues with the custom tab not showing up when you want to apply a custom template to a site collection. Make sure that the setup language of the site collection is the same as the language from where you made the template. It took me over 12 hours to finally figure this out.
Wanna save you the trouble!
Comment: This is the issue I had in SharePoint online. Had to use the same language for the subsite as the site collection was created with...
Answer: It can be done, but you need to download the site template as a solution file and then re-upload it to the solution gallery every time you create a new site.
Here is the full answer:
Create site collection using custom site template SharePoint Online


Nikah and Walima

Question: I had my nikah done last June, but now my husband and I want to live together but my mother-in-law is not allowing us to do so and my in-laws are not letting our walima happen this year.
My parents talked to them about the walima to be done this August but my in-laws are avoiding them.
I live away from my parents because of my job and my husband is also in the same city away from his parents and I am alone in this city.
What should I do and what are we supposed to do?
Answer: This is the Sunni view as per the Qur'aan and the Sunnah.
The word NIKAH means marriage. If your nikah is done, there's nothing to stop you from joining your husband. But I do hope you really mean nikah and not a mere proposal. The nikah covers the marriage contract and both parties have agreed to proceed in their lives and married people.
I know this is a common custom amongst many Asian folks but this is not correct.  Once you complete the nikah, you are married.
If your folks insist on a delayed waleema and staying away from each other, that's a personal issue.
And Allaah knows best!
Comment: Yes the nikah is done but rukhsati is pending. Are we still allowed to live together
Comment: @user5065 Yes you are allowed to live together. Rukhsati is strictly a cultural thing and it has nothing to do with Islam. In Islam you do the nikkah and you are married and you can live together. Allah as well as your local law has given you permission. Your parents do not overrule Allah's permission.
Comment: According to my knowledge, *walima* is generally held after the *rukhsati*. And *walima* does not have to the next day or the second day. Although it is recommended to have a *walima* for must.

Nikah and Walima


Why do Jedi and Sith masters limit themselves to only one apprentice?

Question: I'm not sure what the benefit of only having one apprentice is, maybe a time and attention type of thing?
Answer: Synopsis:

For the Sith, it was self-defense / keeping your apprentices from killing each other.
For the Jedi, it was better for training in a 'Way', and keeping close watch to keep them from sliding to the dark side as their skills develop.

Long version:
It's a different motivation for Jedi and Sith.
For the Sith, it was

to keep there from being some much infighting between the apprentices, as you saw before the Rule of Two was instituted.
to avoid the possibility of them ganging up on the Master.

Bane learned from Revan's holocron that, in times past, students of the dark side who were impatient and hungry for power would make alliances with his Master's other apprentices in order to defeat him and take the mantle of Master.

The Jedi, on the other hand, didn't really limit it until the student had reached a certain point. (Remember the Younglings that Vader slaughtered?  All in class together.)
But once they reached a certain point, it was important to maintain a very close relationship between the Master and the Apprentice, as the temptation to slide to the Dark Side could get very strong as one gained more power.
The training was more than just in the Force and tactics, at this point, it was an attempt to train an entire way of life; that worked better by having the student constantly with the teacher, and that they could focus entirely on each other when it came to learning.  (Students would rarely learn the same things, at the same pace.)

Some extra History (courtesy of Wookieepedia)

At some point after the Great Sith War, the High Council was first convened and set in place the bylaws of the Order. During this period, the term Padawan was introduced and Masters were restricted to taking only one at a time. Over time, as the Order flourished, the High Council decided to enforce even stricter standards such as a cut off age for Initiates to be selected for apprenticeship. At the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, which housed the largest of the academies of the era, an annual Apprentice Tournament was created to not only test the students at the academy, but also to aid in the selection of apprentices by prospective masters. While it set the rules of the Order, the Masters on the High Council typically avoided direct involvement in this selection, preferring instead to allow the Force to bring a Master-Padawan pair together
Comment: `to avoid the possibility of them ganging up the the Master` is an especially important one as the Sith aim to have a successor that is more powerful than they are. If you have your students ganging up on you then the state of the Sith will degrade as the knowledge their master had will be lost and the Sith will become weaker for it. The Jedi didn't have this concern, one dead master wouldn't bring down the whole order.
Comment: Why would the Sith *not* want infighting between apprentices? Wouldn't it perfectly fit the Sith ethos that the apprentices kill each other, and only the strongest survive to challenge the master?
Comment: That's a new question from the original with a different supposition of the situation.
Answer: For the Jedi, one might pay attention to the word "knight". Traditionally, European knights had a single squire who served as an apprentice (although having more than one wasn't uncommon, if the knight could afford it). The Spartans had a similar system, where as part of the agoge, a Spartan boy would be paired up with a young Spartan man, which was, the pederasty aside, served as an instructional tool for the future Spartan soldier to learn the tools of the trade and become indoctrinated into Spartan culture.
Having only one at a time allows focus on instruction that isn't really possible with multiple apprentices.


Odds of this happening in euchre

Question: Last night in euchre, 4 times in a row around the table we all turned up the Jack of spades. All good shufflers and we had 2 splits and 2 no splits. I know there are many variances in determining the odds of a given situation in a euchre game, but, is there anyone whiz out there that can break it down? What are the odds of 4 different dealers flipping up the same card consecutively?
Comment: Wikipedia say "[Euchre] is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards" You'll need to say how many cards you were playing with and if the deck included jokers.
Answer: Assuming a Euchre deck with 24 cards (9, 10, J, Q, K, A of each suit, no joker) and perfect shuffling, the chance that the 21st card in the deck (the card that gets turned up) is a particular card is 1/24. Thus, if you play 4 deals, there is a (1/24)^4 = 1/331776 = 0.0003% that all four deals will turn up the Jack of Spades.
There's much higher chance of all four deals turning up the same card: (1/24)^3  = 1/13824 = 0.007%. That's because there's a 100% chance that the first deal turns up some card, and each subsequent deal has a 1/24 chance of turning up the same card as the previous deal.
If you play N deals over the course of the night, the probability that at some point all four deals turn over the same card consecutively is (N - 4) * (1/24)^3 (the sequence can start on any but the last 3 deals, and the probability of the sequence is (1/24)^3). This works out to about 0.1% if you play 20 hands and 0.7% if you play 100.
Answer: The odds of turning up a given card that occurs once in the deck are 1 in N, where N is the size of the deck. Since you say the shuffles were all good, this means the trials are all independent. So the odds of it happening four times are
(1/N)^4
If N is 24, this comes out to 1 in 331776.
If N is 32, this comes out to 1 in 1048576.
If you don't restrict it to the Jack of spades, then, obviously, you're reducing the number of trials by one: the first draw sets the card and is not a trial itself. So for drawing 4 of the same card, whatever the card, you use (1/N)^3 to calculate the odds of the subsequent three draws matching the first one.
Comment: Worth pointing out that with a standard deck of cards (N=52), the answer is 1 in 7,311,616...not as unlikely as you might think! Across America, say every family carefully shuffles a deck of cards then selects a card at random. They write the card value down eg. `9D`. Repeat this another 3 times and compare the card values. Dozens of families will see the "miracle" of all four cards matching.
Comment: As the other answer points out, this is correct ONLY iof yiu specify the card in advance. If the question is the chanve of getting **the same** card four times i a row from a deck mof N cards it is (1/N)^3 not ^4, which makes a significant difference.
Comment: Yes. The explanation of the odds can be used in many different cases, sure.

Odds of this happening in euchre


Is there a midrash that says all of the water in the world split at the time of the splitting of the reed sea?

Question: Is there a midrash that states that all the bodies of water split during the splitting of the reed sea? If yes, I would think that such an event would be recorded in some secular history book? Are there opinions that said midrash should not be taken literally?
Comment: It's not so simple. For a full treatment of how we deal with midrashim see here: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/53349/is-belief-in-midrashim-optional
Comment: Does this answer your question? [does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?](https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/4037/does-one-have-to-take-a-midrash-aggadah-literally)
Answer: You are thinking of the tannaitic Midrash Mekhilta, which says, in the first account, that during the parting of Sea of Reeds, all of the waters in heaven and earth – including waters in pots, pitchers, and drinking cups – split, and that this miracle remained in place until the Israelites were able to escape on dry land. In the second version, there are, twelve paths that opened up in the sea, one for each tribe.
The question also asks about Midrashim. Maimonides wrote in his introductory comments to the Mishnaic tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter Chelek, that people who take midrashim as truth are fools, while those who reject them out of hand are also fools, because midrashim although not true were designed to teach lessons. People need to mine midrashim to uncover moral lessons embedded in the tales. They are parables.


Problem sharing dial up internet through a network on XP

Question: I've got 2 computers in a network, 1 with a dial up connection connected to another computer with a crossover cable. I've enabled internet sharing (with the wizard) on each end, and created a shared internet connection between them. I can remote into the slave computer with the host, the host see's the slave on the network, but the slave doesnt see the host. When using the slave to look for workgroup computers, I keep getting  permission errors with the workgroup. The shared connection is established though, or it says it is, but I dont get a connection to the internet. I get a correct IP address, and the gateway of the slave is the ip of the host. When connecting to the internet, the DNS is resolving IP names, so I'm nearly there...Everything I've read tells me it should be working. I have a feeling it has something to do with the fact that the slave computer can't see the host through the network, nor can it ping it. Yet, it shows a shared internet connection with the host as connected.
Answer: Here's a good site for manually configuring ICS in XP.


Perfect elastic collision and velocity transfer

Question: So my teacher told me that when you have two identical balls in a perfectly elastic collision, the first ball A will collide with B and afterwards A will stop and B continue. Why is this? Doesn't Newton's 3rd law imply both balls would get an equal force into opposite direction during the collision? And if A was heavier than B, does A continue in the same direction after elastically colliding with B (that's the only logical result I can think of if this is true).
Comment: Additional constrain: the problem must be one dimensional. As to why, it is the only way both momentum and kinetic energy can be conserved. (And conserving kinetic energy is what "elastic" *means*.)
Answer: In any collision, momentum is conserved. This means
\begin{equation}
m_1u_1 + m_2u_2 = m_1v_1 + m_2v_2
\end{equation}
For a perfectly elastic collision, kinetic energy is also conserved
\begin{equation}
m_1u_1^2 + m_2u_2^2 = m_1v_1^2 + m_2v_2^2
\end{equation}
Solving these equations simultaneously ($v_1$ and $v_2$ are the variables)
\begin{equation}
v_1 = \frac{u_1(m_1-m_2) + 2m_2u_2}{m_1+m_2};\\
v_2 = \frac{u_2(m_2-m_1) + 2m_1u_1}{m_1+m_2};
\end{equation}
when $m_1=m_2$, these reduce to
\begin{equation}
v_1 = u_2;\\
v_2 = u_1;
\end{equation}
You can check out what happens for other cases as well ($m_1 >> m_2$ or $u_2 = 0$, etc.)

EDIT:
If you look at it from the point of view of forces, you will see the same force act on both objects, in opposite directions. This will cause an acceleration depending on the mass of the object ($F=ma$), but only for the tiny instant that the two are in contact. Now, for example, considering equal masses, the force would decelerate the first object to some velocity, and accelerate the second object to the same velocity (because both have equal masses, and the force acts for an equal amount of time). From the momentum equations, we find that the velocities are swapped.
Important point to remember: Force is not velocity. The same force can produce different accelerations and hence different velocities for different masses.
Answer: This is a very interesting question. The problem is simpler in kinematics. However, if we view it as a problem in dynamics, invoking forces and Newton's laws, then the question becomes a natural consequence and the answers become rather complicated.
The question is one of reference frames, in kinematics. The collision is viewed from the laboratory frame of reference where ball B is at rest (this is not spelt out, but implicit, in the question) before collision. Since the two balls are identical, Ball A transfers all of its momentum to B and comes to rest after collision.Ball B starts moving with the momentum gained from A with the same velocity with which ball A was moving before collision.
If the collision is viewed from the center of mass (CM) reference frame, then and only then, the use of concept of force and Newton's third law applicability, become useful and meaningful. In CM frame, B will not be at rest before collision and A will not stop after collision. In CM frame both A and B move with equal speeds in opposite directions along the same line, before collision. After collision each reverses its direction of motion keeping the speeds the same and move away from each other along the same straight line.
Here the concept of force, and Newton's laws become helpful and the solution becomes one of dynamics, which is not as simple as the kinematics solution.
In the case of unequal masses with A having higher mass, your logic that A coninues to move after collision in the same direction (with reduced speed) is right (lab frame).


launchd: ask user before performing tasks

Question: Is there a way to get a user-defined launchd task (i.e. like the one in this question) to get user confirmation before executing the task? A popup like the one for scheduled sleep (with yes/no and a timer in case of no user input) would be great, otherwise a simple yes/no popup would work.
Answer: Make launchd call this AppleScript. It displays a dialog with a timeout and calls a shell script if the user selected "Ok".
set timeoutInSeconds to 60
set abortOnTimeout to true

tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
    try
        set dialogResult to display dialog "Do you want to execute?" default button 2 giving up after timeoutInSeconds
        on error number -128
            return
    end try
end tell

if gave up of dialogResult and abortOnTimeout then
    return
end if

do shell script "/path/to/yourscript.sh"

Answer: Launchd agents are allowed to interact with the GUI, and even daemons can use osascript to display dialogs.
You could also use something like this in a shell script:
osascript -e 'tell app (path to frontmost application as text)'
display dialog "Continue?"
end' || exit 0

The script exits with an error if the user presses the cancel button or closes the dialog. You could also tell a background process like SystemUIServer to display the dialog, but you'd have to add something like activate application (path to frontmost application as text) to move focus back to the previously focused window.


What type of testing should I be starting with for a big PHP site?

Question: My title explained it all. I have a site to be tested which has almost 100 million lines of codes. This site hasn't been tested yet. I don't know what type of testing should I start with. Should I start with some automation or manual testing? I thought of testing with QTP, but before that thought of consulting with the greatest experienced tester community.
Comment: What does "100 million codes" mean?
Comment: the literal meaning..
Comment: (shrug) I "literally" have no idea what you mean.
Answer: With something like this, that's huge and has no prior testing, I'd say that your first priority would be exploration (most likely manual) to both gather information and to determine the best approach to build regression for it.
I'd approach this way:

Manual exploration, focusing on independent clusters of functionality and testable material. Some of the things I'd look for include data validations (how they're handled, whether they need to be tested at multiple levels such as web-front, database, etc), interfaces between modules, common navigation and process flows, areas that fit the 80/20 rule (the 20% of the application that will be used by 80% of users).
Prioritize modules/function clusters/process flows (depending on the nature of your application, any of these could be the most sensible base for your regression test cases - I work a lot with point of sale software, so a process flow based around "sell something" is my most common test case) - you probably want to work with a subject matter expert to determine this. Also seek out areas with the biggest potential return on automation time. No matter what there will be a large up-front cost to automating, so choosing high-priority test cases that are a) mission critical, b) relatively simple to automate, and c) have a high regression risk is a way to strategize (an example from my experience - the software I test has to support tax rules in multiple different countries. The short-form tax regression automation is in two separate automation projects and runs for a total of 16 hours. The same regression would consume 5 testers for over a week and be much less accurate - but it took a LONG time to build and generating accurate baselines was pure misery. That said, it's saved my bacon often enough to be worth every minute of development).

Choose a tool that makes sense with the application you're working with. There are numerous excellent tools for web application testing, but given the size of the application and the use of PHP, I'd guess there's other interfacing involved, such as databases. You want your tool to access that as well, both to store test data (reading a text file also works for this. I'm working with test harness in the form of a relational database built in CSV files, and a data store that's its own relational database in CSV files). If it can reliably do what you need, then any tool is good - but you need to make sure you (and anyone else involved) knows how to use it.
Mix exploratory testing and building of automated tests within each module in turn, starting with the top priority and working down.

Most important, make sure that everyone you're working with knows this is not going to be fast, easy, or cheap (if only in terms of time invested). You need to make sure the people you're working with know what to expect in terms of increased complexity generating increased testing and automation time.
Good luck!
Answer: 100 million (codes? lines? or something else?) and the site hasn't been tested at all?
You should consider some manual functional testing first. No sense in looking at automation if you aren't even sure the site works at all.
Do you know the requirements? Is it at least clear what the site should be doing?
Answer: Well, who are you testing it for?
What do they want to know, in general? What kind of decisions will they make as a result of the information you find for them?
What oracles do you have - i.e. what can you use to help you understand when you might be seeing a problem? Don't get too stuck on "requirements" - if it's never been tested ever ever, then I doubt you have any. Think laterally - you could make use of people like product owners, users or support staff who you can ask about desired behaviour, documentation such as help guides, comparison with competitor's sites (industry standards), and so on.
Do you have anyone else to help you with this testing? Are there any tools that you can use to help you, and what kind of testing environments do you have available, if any?
How soon does your client want to get this information? And in what form? And how often? If they're not too sure, you might want to suggest that you start out by giving them a sample report quite early, and then they can figure out what they like and don't like and let you know.
Testing is an investigation: if you don't know what your client wants, or worse, if your client doesn't know what they want - you have little hope of providing them with useful information. Figure out your mission first: I use my own mnemonic to help guide my questions, SORT (Scope, Oracles, Resources, Time) - you might notice that's how I've structured the questions above. If the client has never had any experience of testing before, you may need to guide them a little by suggesting options. Whatever you do, it's essential to ensure that you review with them on a regular basis to make sure they're still happy.
For any testing project, you should be starting off by discovering this kind of information. If you have that, let us know. If you don't have it - go find out! (You can begin testing once you know some of it - it's likely to be a gradual process and you'll probably uncover more and more as you go, but if you don't know ANY of the above, you should be talking to your client.)
Answer: You (or better application owner) should split application into function zones/features by priority. Proper organize your tests which makes easier maintain them. Type of testing depend on application itself. Some application behavior is more efficient to test with automated tests (especially when it be planed to repeat test time to time). But there can be web application features which could be not efficient to test with automated tests (hard to write automated tests for it or it takes lots time). So in reality mixed testing styles often used. Which automated testing framework you choice depend of your personal experience and needs.
Comment: @PhilemonphilipKunjumon, yes you should categorize application into sections. I recommend use automated tests if it efficient (and possible) whatever it can adopt (system and/or regression). Some application possible cover mostly cases using only automated tests, but some application have very complex places and it much faster test manually then make research and write automated tests.
Comment: Thanks Xeranas for your responce... So you mean that first of all i should catagorize the full web application into functional and non functional sections and then do the functional testing first with automation and then afterwards do the regression manually.
Answer: The other posters have made excellent points.  When you get to where you are ready to start adding automation to the web site testing, I have found WATIR to be extremely helpful:
http://watir.com/
Answer: My first question would have to be why did you let it get to 100 million lines of code without testing anything so far?  Have any of your developers done any unit testing at all?
If your developers have carried out some unit testing then you may be out of the starting blocks already. Build this up with some exploratory testing initially. Whilst you're doing that look at creating a more structured test plan which will allow you to prioritize your testing.
I'd agree with the post above that you could start by breaking the app down by functional area. Then talk to the developers and end users. From the end users get a feel for which parts of the application are most critical to them and which areas will be used most frequently. From the developers find out which areas/features of the code were the most complex to implement. From here you can list the functional areas by priority and risk.
You've got a lot to do here. So if you can I'd engage the end users early in this too. That is assuming that they don't mind seeing the unfinished, untested product. If putting a poor quality product in front of the customer early on is likely to give you bad press then avoid this. However, if they don't mind helping out with a bit of feedback then it's another few pairs of hands to the pump.
Personally I'd steer well clear of automation until you've got a good manual test process in place first. If you don't understand what you're testing from a manual perspective automation will just add another layer of complexity. Wait till you've got a good feel for the application then you can start thinking about which areas of the application will be well served with automated testing.
Hope you've got plans to get a good team of testers on board to help you with this.


Is it harmful for my cat to be near/on my electronics?

Question: My cat comes running into the room whenever I turn on the tv or stereo and sits right next to it. If I turn it off, he meows over and over especially when I turn off the music. He also lays on the DVD player, stereo receiver and tries to get on the tv. Will that harm him?
Answer: No, it won't harm him, though it may shorten the life of the electronics.
He likes lying on these devices because they're warm.
The risk is that by doing so he may block ventilation that they need to keep their components within their intended operating temperature range, or fur may accumulate inside them with the same effect.
You'll need to decide whether the risk of breakdowns occurring sooner is an acceptable cost for keeping your cat happy, or whether you want to declare these off limits and let him find a warm spot somewhere else.
He also may come running into the room because these noises indicate that the human will be there for a while and he likes being near you. My cats definitely respond to the noise of my turning on the living room lights that way; it usually means I'm settling in to read for an hour.
(Though it's also true that some cats do seem to understand music at least enough to like some kinds. They probably can't play the prediction game which makes music so much fun for us, but maybe they can at least hear basic chords or rhythms. I'm sure someone has tried to do a study on that.)
Re "electronics radiation": @Rotem, what radiation are you talking about? Most of what most electronics emits as electromagnetic radiation is infrared -- heat -- plus a bit of 60-cycle hum (which we're all immersed in anyway). Electronics equipment is shielded to prevent emitting (or, more importantly, picking up) RF, and the amount it would emit would be less than a toy walkie-talkie even if unshielded... far less than a cell phone.
If you have a specific concern, we can address it more precisely. But electronics is not usually a hazard, unless you start talking about microwave ovens or high voltage. Really.
Comment: I don't think that the electronics radiation is a good thing..
Comment: The radiation from electronics is the same thing as light from the sun, but even less powerful.
Comment: Don't forget that AV receivers generate more heat per surface area of device compared to things like a TV or DVD player. That is why they have more ventilation than the other devices. This makes the AV receiver one of the warmest devices for your cat to lay on/next to.


Why is the front brake always on the left?

Question: You often signal on a bike like you signal a car, with your left hand. This lets most people keep their good hand on the handle for steering. Some of my friends, though, signal with their right hand so they can quickly pull the front brake if they need to. Why aren't bikes made with the front brake on the right side, so you get both good steering and emergency braking?
Comment: Answer: it's not. As the question jimirings links to says, the convention varies from place to place, and individuals can easily swap if they want to.
Comment: This doesn't affect me at all (I bike left-handed), but it's been bothering me for a while.
Comment: @jimirings I read that question as "why do we have the convention we do", which makes sense. My question is more why we don't modify bikes to make that convention safer.
Comment: Actually, it depends on which side of the ditch you're standing on.
Answer: Emergency braking with one hand off the bars will end in tears regardless of which hand is on the bars. Skilled riders can steer accurately with either hand and often use their less dominant hand to steer while grabbing food or drink or making adjustment to clothing and bike.
So is your suggestion safer - I believe its debatable, and even if it is, the difference is pretty marginal - how often does a rider have to pull an emergency  stop while signalling, and more importantly, of those cases, how often would it make a difference to the outcome? What is less safe is riding a bike that is configured differently from what you are used to, hence the convention. If you have ever had the joy of pulling an emergency stop on a bike wired "the wrong way" you will understand what I mean.
Where I live, convention is different to where you live, however, only a few riders think enough about to worry, and fewer have a need to deal with it. Those that do learn to either adapt to new bikes quickly or reconfigure their bikes to suit them.
Comment: It's not just emergency braking, fairly gentle stopping on a steep downhill requires some bracing against the bars to keep from sliding forwards.  If you're slowing for a right (UK) turn, signalling is not easy, but a pretty good idea as you're pulling out across the traffic - and you've only got the back brake.
Comment: skilled riders have been known to take both hands off the bars :) Taking a hand off the bars is a judgement call and there's one place on my commute that I rarely to never signal because the road surface is atrocious just where I would normally signal, so it's much safer not to signal.
Comment: @Ӎσ... Good point - I'd love to see one braking at the same time though :)
Comment: no problem, anything with a back pedal brake or fixie.


Client Side or Server Side Calculations?

Question: I was wondering about client side vs server side calculations regarding websites that provide some convenience type service. For example, an online website where you input a certain date and the website tells you how many days between today and that date. Or a website that tells you steps to solve the inputted math equation. Do these types of websites warrant server side calculations of any kind?
Comment: I think It depends on the nature of the maths. Probably, any client is capable to calc the number of the days between two dates. The client won't need a significant amount of resources to do It. Either the maths are rocket science. But if we were speaking about the Google's algorithm for searching, that would be another story.
Comment: Personally, having built a couple of server-client applications, I always start out performing as much as possible client-side, and progressively moving to the server side only when it starts to make sense, which is usually for me when the local compute time exceeds the server side compute time plus the latency.
Answer: There is no simple answer to this question. There are many different software architecture/deployment strategies that can achieve this. It all depends on how complex your application is and how complex can it become some day.
Let's start with a simple MVC type of architecture. Here you treat your client side code as mainly a view, your server as a controller, and transfer the model (i.e., your data) between the view and the controller. This allows you to keep all the logic in one place and serve multiple views (e.g., phone apps, websites, or even text prompt interfaces!). So far so good.
However, when you set out to do this, you will find yourself defining multiple MVCs inside your view itself. Delegating every single controller to the server side is going to complicate your design and/or degrade the performance (do you do 2+2 on the server side or the client side?). So at some point you have to stop building controllers on the server side. The art is in knowing where to stop.
Three simple guidelines can help. First, if a calculation/algorithm is a constant of the world and unrelated to the "business" logic of the application then you can generally code it on the client side. Second, you may not want to do so if the algorithm is complex (needs a lot of data from other/your own servers, needs a lot of CPU that your typical user won't have etc.). Third, you may not want to ship logic on client side that gives you a proprietary edge for the fear of someone reverse engineering your logic.
Let's take the equation breakdown problem. It is non trivial, can change for there are multiple ways to solve a given problem (including trivial step additions to simplify existing steps), and costly to build (so you may not want someone to steal your hard earned algorithm).
Comment: Thank you! I understand now, I think I will use a server in case the application becomes more complex and I want to keep it safe from theft.
Comment: @JayJuly you can always delegate non-critical and small operations to the client, releasing the server from extra workload.


How do asset managers make money

Question: I understand that asset managers and mutual funds earn income through the fees they charge investors. However, if my understanding is correct that is usually applied at the end of the year. So how do these funds earn enough monthly income to pay off their overhead expenses such as employee salaries, rent, and other expenses?
Answer: Most (nonETF) mutual funds deduct their fee daily. You don't see the deduction since it is hidden in the daily NAV announced by the fund; without the deduction, the NAV would be a tad larger. Note: if the fee is 0.365% per annum, 0.001% is deducted daily.
Answer: If you take it all at the end of the year, then you put it in the bank and spend as needed.
But I bet they take it out by reducing your yield.
(This all pertains to no-load funds, as opposed to front-loaded and back-loaded funds.)
Comment: @RonJohn - Sorry, I meant to tack that comment on the OP's question not your Answer... so there was no intended criticism or correction of your statement :->)
Comment: Front-load and back-load funds also have expense ratios over and above the loads, and no fund that I know of charges the fee in one lump sum and sticks it in a bank to spend the rest of the year.
Comment: As Dilip Sarwate indicated, you don't see fund  fees because they  remove their fee daily. Managed portfolios and variable annuities tend to charge their fee quarterly.
Comment: @BobBaerker well, I **did** write "But I bet they take it out by reducing your yield."

How do asset managers make money


Does Mind Blank provide protection from Turn Undead?

Question: If an undead character is under the effect of a Mind Blank spell, does the spell's effect offer protection against being forced to cower or flee from a turn-undead effect?
Answer: No. Mind blank protects against:

mind-affecting spells and effects (which are useless against undead anyways)
information gathering by divination spells or effects (which obviously turn undead isn't)

Turn undead isn't either. However, I suggest you look at different items of turn resistance if that is what you are after.
The spell Life Ward (Cl 4) from the spell compendium makes you completely immune.
Comment: Not that I find fault with the answer, but it is considered good practice to wait about 24 hours before Accepting, so as to not discourage others who may have a relevant answer to add. Accepting implies the question is done.
Comment: That spell seems to be just what I needed. Thanks! Accepting when it becomes possible.
Comment: My apologies. I will keep that in mind for the future - I guess I just got excited because I got an answer so fast.


Waswasa During Prayers

Question: I suffer from waswasa al qahri during Salah and just everyday life. In Salah, I get images of faces of people I see and I hate it. I don't know what to do. So what I do is imagine the name of Allah in Arabic الله and sometimes in english that word Allah because it makes me focus and gives me comfort that I am praying to Allah. Is this okay?
Answer: Brother 1 thing simple just reminde that you are standing in front of Allah(s.w.t) while praying think that Allah talah is watching you and praying namaz is talking with Allah (s.w.t) so think that you are talking with allah swt and allah swt is listening to you and you will start paying attention automaticly while praying

Waswasa During Prayers


What is your preferred distortion plug-in?

Question: What is your most used distortion plug-in?
With which other methods do you add distortion?
What are some of the best results you have achieved when applying distortion?
Answer: For sick and extreme effects... Decapitator! (I love this plugin)
http://www.soundtoys.com/products/Decapitator/
For specific tasks... Speakerphone..
http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Speakerphone/speakerphone.html
Also, plugins like Guitar Rig, Amplitube and GTR have lots of interesting distortion/overdrive components, plus a ton of invaluable tools for sound design.
Comment: +1 on Decapitator! everything Sound Toys makes is solid gold.
Answer: ohmicide!!!
absolutely wicked distortion, multi-band (4 bands), tons of interesting filters, endless mutations...
Comment: I absolutely love OhmForce plugins.
Answer: I love Isotope Trash.  very useful features.  Pre COmpressor, pre-eq, post eq, tons of distortions, cabinet modeling, and some bells and whistles - delays and such (the analog delay is nice and thick).
Answer: I have reached for the SansAmp PSA-1 many, many times. Great, versatile little plug-in.

(source: avid.com)
Answer: Audio Damage has a great multi-band distortion plugin called Kombinat.
Answer: SansAmp, Massey TapeHead, and Waves L1 - seriously, push that puppy hard to get a very unique distortion effect!
Answer: Something you'll probably find from me, a lot, is free plug-ins.
I use Atomsplitter's Destroyr almost exclusively for OD/Distortion... The only times it hasn't been as effective as I've wanted it, I either wanted more bitcrushing (which I use CMT Bitcrusher) or when I want a smoother overdrive, which I'll use just about any amp simulator for.
Answer: I have really come to like the amp simulater that is in Nuendo 4.  I've found it versatile, and usefull when I want to dirty something up.  I almost always still mix in the original clean track with the distorted one.  Depends on the situation of course.
I'm limited in third party plug-ins (I only have three), therefore I have to find creative ways to work with what I got.  I find most of the fun in sound design comes from that.


Is it haram for people to act as Prophets?

Question: In a film called Kingdom Of Solomon( which is about the Prophet Sulayman AS), a actor is portraying Prophet Sulayman. Is this haram because it is haram to act as Prophet Muhammad (Islamic films about Prophet Muhammad don't have someone acting as him as it is haram)?
Comment: The fact is we are encouraged to act upon the Prophet's PBUH Sunnah. In many cases it's an OBLIGATION to act like him PBUH. I always find it aggravating when some scholars state that it's impermissible because of indirect ahadith that they try to use as assumptive evidence. Movies, TV shows are great tools of mass persuasion & dawah. Imagine the Ummah's state if we had movies, TV shows that depicted these great men as the men that they were, not as some mythical creatures that should never be depicted, but instead we have Turkish/Egyptian soap operas and a bunch of crap. May Allah guide us.
Answer: Al-Azhar University prepared The Response (available in pdf and at fixyourdeen.com), and its Question 102 addresses this problem, claiming it is forbidden:

Question: A question was asked regarding playing the role of the Prophet
  (upon him be peace) and/or the Companions [in a dramatic production].
Response:
  It is good to retell the Qur'anic religious stories through the ways and language
  of the time. Doing so brings the time of the Prophet to life in the minds of our
  children. The personalities of the Prophet (upon him be peace) and the
  messengers of God are so precious and noble that they must not be played by
  actors, and may not be imitated by Satan.

The Response contests intolerant legal opinions, so their opinions tend to be "gentle".  However, in this case, they consider acting as a Prophet as haram (mostly concurring with the "intolerant" opinion).
They derive this opinion from the hadith:

Who ever sees me (in a dream) then he indeed has seen the truth, as Satan cannot appear in my shape.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6997

From this they continue:

... the legal implications of this ensure that it is prohibited for a human to enact (yataqamas) the character of the Prophet (upon him be peace).
If this is the correct legal stance regarding the validity of acting the role of the Seal of Prophets, then the same [prohibition] should apply to playing the parts of God's previous messengers. ...
Comment: It's almost baffling that such argumentation is never refuted by other scholars. How in the world do these teachers go from Satan unable to deceive the dreamer as the Prophet - to - its haram for people to act as the Prophet PBUH. Subhana'Allah
Answer: I'm not a scholar and I dont know the religious point of view on this but one important thing is that we remember the historic characters as the people who acts which is two serious problem.

Those people generally don't represent the "historic figures". How can anybody be able to represent sahaba (Abu Bakr, Omar b Khattab, Uthman, Ali radiallahu anhum), the prophets let alone prophet Mohammad pbuh. If those people are "played" by others, the audience will associate actors/actresses with those big names. Consider, prophet Yusuf was acted by a someone who is okay in terms of beauty, so you decrease the beauty of prophet Yusuf.
The next roles or the real life of those people will cause a confusion or misjudgements in people's mind (This is not very obvious). For example, someone played a prophet and then he played in a "dirty/sinful movie"; this might lead people to have wrong associations of the sin to the prophet he played.

We have a saying: Things can be represented by its equivalent, if you want to represent a prophet, find a prophet to play him.
Comment: So someone acting as a murderer should be a real life murderer?
Answer: In Islam drawing sketches or taking photos of People is forbidden for a valid reason that people out of sheer devotion should not start worshipping such sketches, pictures or sculptures etc. Photos making for valid reasons such as passport, visas or similar inevitable necessities, however, is not haram. Islam does not impose unnecessary hardships on its adherents. It has been declared in Qura'an as well in Hadith. The glaring example, validating this apprehension is well reflected in the case of Jesus Christ (PBUH), Who is being called god, son of god and one-in-three etc. He is being even worshiped by some as a god.
Making movies and acting in them as a character could be done without making a replica of either of the prophets. As this experiment has been done successfully. Islam, in the panoply of Divine religions, by far, is the most logical and far-sighted religion. Some of its injunctions; which used to sound bit strange till yesterday, seem to be making more sense than ever before. The Best Example is that of the Human conception in the mother's womb. Its detailed explanation has baffled medical scientists of today. Thanks
shakir2.wordpress.com
Comment: What is your source fir taking picture? I'd like to hear hadith and verse. Your example of womb doesn't have any relationship with the question
Comment: It is a matter of common sense. You will not find direct mention of a polaroid camera in Qura'an or a Hadith on taking pictures by cell phone, as these things were not available then. such inferences, therefore are deduced from the overall permissibility or impermissibility of things in question. Thanks
Comment: Have you met someone who worshipped cartoons?
Comment: Sorry! I answer questions only on Quora.com


Logic jumps in Sitecore 9 Forms

Question: Is it possible with Sitecore 9 Forms to create logic jumps based on a user's answer to a question? For example, a user answers question 1 with a particular answer choice; as a result, I want that user to skip ahead to step 4 in the form (since Sitecore has multi-step forms). I see the actions by default have previous and next (and submit) but is there a way to address this type of flow?
Answer: No, using OOTB functionality it is not possible to skip sections of a form based on user input.
The multi-page wizard in Sitecore 9 Forms is "dumb", it only allows you to proceed next or previous and is not context aware and there is currently to logic integration to allow you select the rules for which section could be skipped (the WFFM module integrates with the Rules Engine to allow you to set logic to carry out some actions for example).
There is talk of this sort of functionality being made available in a future release, but no official roadmap has been released.
Comment: Yeah, we've got a client looking at upgrading to Sitecore 9 that uses TypeForm, which can do these jumps. I mentioned to them about the multi-step forms in 9, but I didn't know at the time they had this logic flow. Thanks for the info.
Answer: This "conditional logic" functionality was announced for Sitecore 9.1.

But for 9.0 (+updates) it is not available OOTB.
Comment: Hi, is this feature same like google docs or typeform that can jump based on user input. Thanks1

Logic jumps in Sitecore 9 Forms


What is mixed damage in league of legends?

Question: Some skills do mixed damage. How can I tell what % is physical or magic from a death recap?
Does Liandrys Torment proc off mixed damage skills?
Comment: If you are wondering what to buy against it, you should look at the items of the champion that did the damage. Fizz for example does mixed damage, but his main damage is (most likely) Ability power.
Answer: You can't tell the percentages, all Mixed damage means is that damage came in multiple types from one skill. Sometimes it's a combination of Physical and True (Irelia), Magical and True (Ahri), or Physical and Magical (Fizz).
Liandry's Torment procs off of all activated abilities (Not on-hit effects), whether physical, magical, or True. It will work for abilities like Cho'Gath's Vorpal Spikes, as they trigger a spell activation on attack, rather than an on-hit effect. The same will hold true for Rylai's Crystal Scepter, so this item combination will work very well together.
Comment: @ponsfonze The difference is *SPELL* damage (as in, damage from a spell) as opposed to *MAGIC* damage (as in, purple damage, as opposed to physical's red, and true's white).
Comment: It can also be a combination of all three (e.g. Corki's basic attack with a Wit's End)!
Comment: Liandry's Torment says "Dealing spell damage applies a..."  This would imply that dealing physical damage in an ability would not active the ability, such as Caitlyn's skill, Piltover Peacemaker.  However you are saying that the tool tip is wrong?  And if so, does it still proc off of ignite and none damage abilities?
Comment: @ponsfonze Physical damage DOES apply the effects, Piltover Peacemaker will proc spell vamp, Rylai's, Liandry's etc. I am unsure as to the behavior of ignite, but non-damage abilities won't proc because they deal no damage, spell or otherwise.
Comment: This kind of seems like a seperate question at this point, "Does Liandry Torment work on Physical damage spells"
Answer: If you hover your mouse over the icon of the attack on your death recap, it should tell what is magic damage and what the physical damage is.


How to overcome field truncation when converting OSM to shapefile with QGIS?

Question: I am trying to convert an OpenStreetMap file into a shapefile, but I am having problems with the "tags" field being cut-off after 80 characters. With QGIS 1.4, I use the OpenStreetMap plugin to 'Load OSM from file'. The file loads in QGIS. If I right-click on the 'lines' layer and select 'Save as shapefile', I end up with a shapefile but one that has an 80 char limit on "tags". How can I increase this 80 character limit?
Comment: The issue is with the field limitation with Shapefiles not QGIS. You can create a code (.txt) list and join that to the shapefile to get the full tag.
Comment: The issue is not an 80 character limit in shapefiles, as @John correctly points out.  The truncation is likely the fault of the conversion process.
Answer: You can also import the data into a PostgreSQL/Postgis database and you will not have that limit. Use the osm2pgsql utility
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Osm2pgsql
Answer: Unless you have a specific need to use the shapefile format, Spatialite is a good option: its built-in to QGIS, has no limits on the length of fields and is supported by most of the open source tools.


Why was Dr.Ian Sussman initially asked to shut down his research?

Question: In the film Contagion, Dr. Ian Sussman played by Elliott Gould is asked by Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) to stop his research, which he later defies and ends up developing the virus in a special kind of cell. Why is that?
Comment: It have been few years but wasn't it due to gving the research to different team?
Comment: Dr. Cheever: "From here on out, I want no one working on this except the BSL-Four. The last thing we need is for this thing to walk out of a lab on the bottom of someone's shoe".
Answer: As I recall it was because Sussman was not working in a secure enough lab.
Research such as this has levels of bio-containment

A biosafety level (BSL) is a set of biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed laboratory facility. The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) to the highest at level 4 (BSL-4). In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have specified these levels.
Wikipedia

Dr. Ellis Cheever: From here on out I want no one working on this except the BSL-Four.

The CDC had declared that research in levels less than BSL-4 should be curtailed and Sussman's facility did not have that level assigned...it was BSL-3 (I believe).
Comment: This actually was a moment that stretched credibility a bit. It makes sense to requre BSL-4 to reduce the risk that a virulent biological agent might get out. However, when there's ongoing community spread already, when random people in the cafeteria outside the lab might reasonably have it, then these extra precautions make little sense.
Answer: When the CDC realized how dangerous the pathogen was, Ellis Cheever—played by Laurence Fishburn—made the decision that only labs accredited at Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) could research the pathogen. Sussman's lab was only accredited at BSL-3.
Apparently, those levels are real https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level