Reverse engineering and Intellectual property

Question: What is the site policy on posting a reverse engineered circuit diagram like in this question: short circuit or disconnect to bypass a compressor
Comment: For the visitors that can read Dutch (and care about Dutch law): http://blog.iusmentis.com/2014/03/07/de-legaliteit-van-het-uit-elkaar-halen-van-een-stuk-hardware/
Answer: Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it general wisdom that the schematic is the intellectual property of the actual creator of the schematic?
If someone reverse-engineered a schematic from a PCB, than that person is the creator of the schematic and therefore creator of that particular intellectual property.
Any patents which cover the finished product are a different matter completely. Patent enforcement is between those who manufacture the device and the patent holders and it has nothing to do with reverse-engineered schematics. Do keep in mind that patent claims need to be made public in the patent itself, so they are not a secret to begin with.
One more thing that I feel should be mentioned here are schematics and PCB layouts taken directly from service manuals. Such actions can be considered intellectual property infringement, since someone is directly copying existing work made by another author.
Do note that some parts of a schematic could be a trade secret, but unless the creator of the reverse-engineered schematic is somehow affiliated with the company which originally created the circuit, he has no obligation to protect the company's secrets.
Therefore I see absolutely no reason why we should not accept properly reverse-engineered schematics in our questions and answers.
Comment: The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality) on this topic might be interesting as well.
Answer: You cannot copyright FACTS. The factual arrangement of a circuit is not I.P. Same as a recipe. The factual parts of the recipe is not copyrightable, the ingredients, the portions, the base instructions. What is copyrightable is the expression of those. The exact words chosen, pictures, etc. Idea vs Expression.
Technically, an official schematic from the manufacturer might be considered copyrightable if a court think's its creative enough (imho, that's bs) but a redrawn one with different symbols or routing would not be an infringement (Again, it's the Expression). A reversed Engineered one would offer even more protection than a redrawn one, because a reversed engineered one might not be 100% accurate.
See also Baker v. Selden:

Copyright does not protect facts or useful information. The Supreme Court established this principle in the 1879 case Baker v. Selden.
Comment: However, you can *patent* circuits, and keep people from making widgets with that schematic.
Comment: @W5VO Patenting a circuit is costly, and requires you document that circuit. So an official schematic becomes publicly viewable meaning that reverse engineering is not needed.
Answer: I've seen similar questions on Meta.SO about copyright, mainly relating to code but I believe the same rules would apply to a circuit schematic. Despite the title this is probably the best example because it links on to a few related questions:
Please add anchors to the sections on the /legal page
So the general consensus seems to be for legal reasons the only people who should deal with copyright issues are the individuals or company that owns the material and it should be done via a DMCA takedown notice.
With regard to patents and copyrights if someone else decides to begin manufacturing a product based on the schematic it's up to them to determine its legal status. For that matter if I posted my own original schematic there's nothing to say what I thought was an original idea really wasn't and is covered by an existing patent. Although once again that only becomes a problem if anyone (including myself) decide to start manufacturing it.
Comment: . regarding patents : In the USA, the laws changed a few years ago regarding "offer to sell". Now, it is not only patent infringement to manufacture and sell, but the "offer to sell" ( i.e. a quotation) is not permitted. A bit off the topic on this question, but an important addition.


How do we choose the standard probability current?

Question: In quantum mechanics, the probability current is defined as
$$\mathbf{J} \propto \text{Im}(\psi^* \nabla \psi)$$
and satisfies the continuity equation
$$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{J} = - \frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}$$
where $\rho$ is the probability density. However, the continuity equation remains true if we add to $\mathbf{J}$ any divergence-free function. For example, the following expressions all satisfy the continuity equation:
$$\mathbf{J}_1 = \mathbf{J} + \nabla \times (\rho \mathbf{J}), \quad \mathbf{J}_2 = \mathbf{J} + \langle \mathbf{p} \rangle, \quad \mathbf{J}_3 = \mathbf{J} - \langle \mathbf{J} \rangle.$$
However, since I've never heard anybody mention any alternate probability currents, the definition $\mathbf{J}$ must be special in some way. What is special about it? Does it satisfy some nice properties besides the continuity equation?
Comment: $\psi^*\mathbf p\psi$ looks like a density current from a physical point of view, as $\mathbf p = m\mathbf v$ for a single particle of mass $m$. All the other terms wouldn't have such an interpretation
Comment: @Phoenix87 With more complicated Hamiltonians we don't necessarily have $\mathbf{p} = m \mathbf{v}$, though. Generally $\mathbf{v}$ can be an arbitrarily complicated function of $(\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{p})$. Would the right definition of $\mathbf{J}$ change in this case?
Comment: this is just an _interpretation_ that leads you to introduce a new quantity that satisfies the continuity equation. As you point out there are many other quantities that satisfy the same property, and that can be considered "probability currents", but they lack a somewhat "clean" relation with the momentum vector in general.
Comment: Further nitpick: not directly related, but the probability current may have [more latitude](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/63706/the-gauge-invariance-of-the-probability-current) to it.
Comment: There's a similar indeterminacy issue with the Poynting vector; you can justify one choice over the others but the issue never really goes away.
Comment: [Related](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/218579/probability-current-whats-a-good-definition).
Answer: Well, here is a property it satisfies. I'm sure the Bohm-Aharonov advection mavens have neat geometric names about such things, but I'm drawing a blank for the moment. Irrotational flow?
Nevertheless, peremptorily normalizing, for simplicity,
$$
\mathbf{J}\equiv   \psi^* \nabla \psi -   \psi \nabla \psi^*= -  \nabla \rho +
2 \psi^* \nabla \psi =  \nabla \rho -
2 \psi \nabla \psi ^*,
 $$
you see that
$$
\rho ~\nabla \times \mathbf{J}=2\rho (\nabla \psi^* \times \nabla \psi) = \nabla \rho \times   \mathbf{J}~,
$$
so
$$
\nabla \times \mathbf{J} -\frac{\nabla \rho}{\rho} \times \mathbf{J}=0=\rho~~\nabla\times (\mathbf{J}/\rho)~.
$$
At a minimum, this might exclude your 2nd and 3rd options, $\mathbf{J}_2,~\mathbf{J}_3$.
Current over density might serve to define some sort of effective velocity of probability flow (Dirac, Landau-Lifschitz), so then with vanishing vorticity.
$\mathbf{J} /\rho$ being irrotational, it may be thought of as a potential flow (a gradient of the phase of the wavefunction), which goes under the name of the Madelung quantum Euler equations' formulation.
Your first option $\mathbf{J}_1$ is dimensionally inconsistent, anyway, so it needs a dimensionfull constant in front of the extra curl term. But there is no good reason the power of the density needs to be one, as you have chosen. If you considered $\nabla \times (\rho^n \mathbf{J})$
instead, then you see the irrotational condition automatically projects out the n = -1 case, but not all other ones.

(One may always reinstate the normalization $-i\hbar/2m$ in the current, but why?) For broader contexts, see WP.

A simplest exploration is afforded by a stationary system, such as an atom, where the current is divergenceless, $ \nabla \cdot \mathbf{J}=0$, as the only complex part of the wavefunction is the azimuthal exponential, so only the φ component of it survives in polar coordinates: uniform rotational flow for a stationary system!
Answer: Firstly, you can derive the continuity equation from Schroedinger's equation ($\hbar = 1$)
\begin{equation}
-\frac{1}{2m} \nabla^2 \psi + V(x) \psi = i \partial_t \psi
\end{equation}
by multiplying it by $\overline{\psi}$ and its complex conjugate by $\psi$ and summing them. With a little manipulation, you get:
\begin{equation}
\partial_t (\psi \overline{\psi}) -\frac{i}{2m} \nabla \cdot \left( \overline{\psi} \nabla \psi - \psi \nabla \overline{\psi} \right) = 0.
\end{equation}
Since you want local conservation of probability density, you define the current $\vec{j}$ as
\begin{equation}
\vec{j}_0 = \frac{-i}{2m} \left( \overline{\psi} \nabla \psi - \psi \nabla \overline{\psi} \right)
\end{equation}
So there's nothing "special" about it, it just imposes local conservation of probability density, and there is no physical reason to add another term to it, since the current arises naturally from Schroedinger's equation.
Now, the above current has to be redefined depending on the system you are working on. Supposing there is an external magnetic field ($\vec{B} = \nabla \times \vec{A}$), deriving the current in the same way as before you will get another term in $\vec{j}$, proportional to $ \overline{\psi} \vec{A}\psi$.
Now, as said, there is no physical reason to add another term, but there is a special case. In a system where you have an external magnetic field AND you consider its interaction with spin, you define your current with an extra term, proportional to $\nabla \times (\overline{\psi} \vec{S} \psi)$, even though it does not naturally arise try to derive $\vec{j}$ as before (note that $\nabla \cdot \nabla \times \vec{f} = 0$). This is physically justified. In non-relativistic quantum mechanics spin does not arise naturally, but this term exists in the conserved current of the Dirac equation, and survives in the non-relativistic limit. So this is imposed and you get
\begin{equation}
\vec{j}= \vec{j}_0 - \frac{q}{m} \vec{A} \overline{\psi} \psi\ + \frac{\mu_s}{s} \nabla \times (\overline{\psi} \vec{S} \psi)
\end{equation}
P.S.1: Also, remember that Quantum Mechanics is invariant under a global phase transformation $e^{i\alpha}$, and $\vec{j}_0$ is the current associated to this kind of symmetry.
P.S.2: Maybe there are some constants missing, if there are, I apologize.
Answer: I think the fundamental reason is that the standard expression is the (standard) Noether current associated with the continuous global gauge invariance $|\psi\rangle \to e^{i \theta} |\psi\rangle$. E.g. the same expression gives the Noether current for a relativistic scalar field with a global $U(1)$ symmetry.
Comment: But... isn't that the OP's very point? Noether currents are routinely "improved" by the addition of immaterial constant or curl terms, as in supersymmetric theories...
Comment: @CosmasZachos True, good point.


Why does fan increase slowly its speed at boot and system is so slow?

Question: I am given a MacBookAir5,2 [A1466 (EMC 2559)] that is very slow. To give you an idea, a sequence of:

Power on
Log in and loading the desktop
Power off from the menu

takes around 10 minutes.
The MacBookAir runs quite cool. With $ top I see around ~10% of CPU usage after logging in and ~25% of RAM and sysctl hw.cpufrequency returns 1,800,000,000 without the commas, which I suppose is good. Also, I noticed that fan speed is always at (almost?) full speed.
So, after searching around I did a PVRAM/NVRAM reset and an SMC reset.
PVRAM/NVRAM reset seems to be successful since I get the "double restart".
But I question the SMC reset. The steps of the procedure are:

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected. (I shut it down having MagSafe plugged in)
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time. (I did this, holding them down for <1, ~5 and ~10 second(s).)
Press the power button to turn on the computer. (Now, this does NOT work. I have to unplug MagSafe in order for power button to turn on the MacBookAir.)
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC. (It does not change states to me.)

The strange thing is that when I turn it on, the gray screen appears with the "loading" icon. Then, after let's say 10 seconds I can listen to the fan increasing its rotation slowly from its minimum speed to -I guess- the maximum. This increase is quite slow and takes around 10 seconds.
Should the next step be delivering it to a proper technician or there is something else I can do?
Answer: Go to iFixit and look up the guide for your Air. You will need to do two things. First is disconnect the battery, second is remove/clean the CPU heatsink before reapplying thermal paste and refitting it. When you've done that you can reconnect the battery and see what happens.
SMC resets using key combos don't always work - disconnecting the battery does. It might seem drastic but removing the power source is what's needed. If you've an SMC issue (which sounds very likely) this should clear it and cleaning up the CPU cooler will give you something useful to do while any residual voltage is discharging.


Confused on Calculating Resistance Distance Matrix

Question: I am trying to create a computer program to compute the equivalent resistance over any points on any rectangular set of resistors (all with a resistance of 1 ohm). It seems that the resistance distance matrix is exactly what I need. I understand how to compute the inverse and what a Laplacian matrix is, but what is the difference between $\Gamma_{ii}$, $\Gamma_{jj}$, and $\Gamma_{ij}$ in $\Omega_{ij} = \Gamma_{ii}$ + $\Gamma_{jj} - 2\Gamma_{ij}$?
Answer: $\Gamma_{ii}$ is the $i$-th entry on the diagonal of $\Gamma = L^+ = (D-A)^+$, $\Gamma_{jj}$ is the $j$-th entry, and $\Gamma_{ij}$ is the entry located at row $i$, column $j$. Thus $\Omega_{ij}$ is a scalar, but you could assemble all such values into a matrix $\Omega$ that gives the resistances between all pairs of vertices.


What is attached to this rip fence?

Question: What is the silver thing attached to the rip fence on this table saw?
Answer: You mean the piece of extruded aluinium?
It's just part of the rip fence. It can be used as-is to rip thin boards while giving good access from the right side to make feeding easier.
Or you can remove it, spin it 90 degrees clockwise and slot it back in to give you a bigger face with which to register thicker boards for ripping or wider boards for resawing. See that is has another T-track facing upwards in your photo.

What is attached to this rip fence?


Did Pat Buchanan want to be ambassador to South Africa to support apartheid?

Question: I read that Pat Buchanan wanted to be the ambassador to South Africa.  Was it for the sake of helping maintain apartheid?
Comment: In a [New York Times book review](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/books/review/nixons-white-house-wars-patrick-j-buchanan.html), Joe Klein writes: He writes that he wanted to be named ambassador to South Africa by President Ford so he could support the apartheid government. **This is not a quote from the book.** The answer, if there is one, likely, would be in the book _NIXON'S WHITE HOUSE WARS: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever_ by Patrick J. Buchanan.
Comment: @RickSmith:  FYI, I went to Amazon's "Look Inside" feature and got the direct quote.  See my comment on the answer below.
Answer: Buchanan was a supporter of Apartheid, which is no surprise given his white supremacist political views. The ADL for example describes him as "increasingly advanc[ing] an anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-immigrant ideology" with views "identical to those of self-declared "white nationalists."
According to Buchanan, the ambassador position was offered to him for various places, among them South Africa. He was interested because of "the whole apartheid thing". At least in that interview, he doesn't go into more detail. But given his views, there is no reason to believe he wanted to do anything else than support apartheid as ambassador.
As mentioned in the comments, according to Joe Klein, Buchanan is more explicit in his book:

He writes that he wanted to be named ambassador to South Africa by President Ford so he could support the apartheid government.
Comment: @MichaelSeifert I don't think that's the quote Klein references (the event in question was in 74, while at least my "look inside" only gives me access up to 69). But it does reflect Buchanan's positive views of the South African apartheid regime.
Comment: Thanks to Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, here is the direct quote from the book:  "But South Africa I had been interested in for years.  I felt that the Republic of South Africa and Rhodesia  were part of the West, and, while being ostracized for having the white minority run those countries, were the most successful nations on the continent and natural allies in the Cold War."
Comment: So while he doesn't directly condone apartheid in that quote, he was at least willing to excuse/ignore its injustices because of the "success" it brought those countries.
Comment: I accessed the quote by "searching inside" on Amazon for "South Africa".  The potential nomination is described as happening in '74, around the same time as Ford's pardon of Nixon.  It's on pp. 388–389 if you can access it.


How to attract vault members?

Question: I have 13 vault members but no other ones seem to be coming. What can I do to fix this? I've tried the crates but I've only gotten one person from there.
Answer: There are multiple ways to get more Shelter Dwellers:
- Lunchboxes
There is a chance to get a new dweller every time you open one of those boxes
- Make Babies
You can assign a male and a female dweller to the Living Quarters, now it's all about the honey and the bees, after a short while your Female dweller will be pregnant. note Pregnant dwellers are less efficient and therefore produce fewer resources.
- Radio Station
As soon as you hit a population of 20, you can build a Radio Station; this will attract more dwellers to the vault. You need to assign high charisma dwellers to the radio station to improve the success rate.
- Explore the Wasteland
Many guides point out that exploring the wasteland has an effect in attracting more dwellers to the vault (I'm just mentioning this for a complete list, as I can't confirm this works.)
Comment: To elaborate on Iceag's answer: when exploring rooms in the wasteland, you might encounter other people, some of them will follow your exploring dweller home as a new dweller for your vault.
Answer: The safety of your vault actually plays into people wandering to your place, if people frequently die, or are frequently unwell, they are less likely to show up.  Other ways of course are radio station, make babies (easiest) obtain powerful character via lunch boxes, and the rare chance to find a save a straggler in the wasteland

How to attract vault members?


Strange Cycles noise pattern not based on samples or denoiser - bug?

Question:
This happens in multiple of my files / completely different renders. V2.83.2, Cycles renderer.
There's a noise to any dark area that isn't sample dependent (looks exactly to-the-pixel same at 500 or 5000 samples) and appears regardless of using the denoiser. What's weird is that if you do use the denoiser it unlocks a pulldown in the render for "noisy image" (which, presumably, is the un-denoised render) and in this case is actually the cleanest render - so I assumed that it was the denoiser itself generating the noise accidentally, but it's also generated when the denoiser is off.
So something is breaking in between the processes of generating the base format image and the final result 'combined' image?
Is this a bug?
Answer: It seems like a compression artifact try disabling compression by setting to 0;


Clarification in a particular application of Le Chatelier principle

Question: There is something I don't understand about a particular application of the Le Chatelier principle. The following system is in equilibrium: $$\ce{CH3COOH + H2O <=> H3O+ + CH3COO-}$$ If I add some $\ce{H3O+}$ the reaction will shift left. Now if I keep adding $\ce{H3O+}$, it will keep shifting left until the $\ce{CH3COO-}$ would deplete? And would the $\ce{H3O+}$ will remain at its initial concentration? So I can't understand how a buffer work, because if you have a reaction like above and you are adding acid, the added $\ce{H3O+}$ and the $\ce{CH3COO-}$ will bind together to form $\ce{CH3COOH}$ and water thus keeping the $\ce{H3O+}$ exactly the same. Where am I wrong?
Comment: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/81192/why-doesnt-a-buffer-solution-change-phappreciably?rq=1
Comment: This question does not add any value for future visitors unless you clarify what was the need to bring in a buffer here, when the corresponding sodium ethanoate salt is not even present in the solution. Till then, I'm voting to close the question as unclear. You may always [edit] the question later to reflect changes.
Comment: @GaurangTandon There is no requirement of "sodium" for something to be a buffer.  Other spectator ions would do.  Why does OP need to include spectator ions to be understood?
Comment: @DavePhD Oh, I am sorry. I was about to write "metal ethanoate salt" or simply "ethanoate salt", but then substituted it with "sodium" for some reason. My fault. The reason why I said the question is unclear, instead, is that the OP says "The following system is in equilibrium:" but didn't ever say whether it was only acetic acid or acetic acid and its salt (only latter works). Moreover, the part after "So I can't understand how a buffer work..." simply wasn't clear. That said, I tried my best to answer the OP based on what I understood, and advised the OP to edit their question for clarity.
Comment: @GaurangTandon as long as there is some acetic acid and some acetate (some acid and some conjugate base) it is a buffer.  It don't think you should be distracted by the spectator ions, whether they be metal ions or quaternary amine ions or whatever.
Comment: @DavePhD Yes, I agree. There was no need to be distracted over the spectator ions.
Answer: For starters, I wouldn't classify your equilibrium as a buffer. A buffer requires excess weak acid, and it also requires either a strong base or the salt of the weak acid (which you don't have). The equilibrium you stated is the dissociation of CH3COOH into its conjugate base and a conjugate acid.

Say you had the following buffer:
$$CH_{3}COOH + NaOH ⇌ CH_{3}COONa + H_{2}O$$
The equilibrium of this would be:
$$CH_{3}COOH ⇌ CH_{3}COO^{-} + H^{+}$$
And the ionic equation would be:
$$H^{+} + OH^{-} → H_{2}O$$
As per definition, a buffer is a system that minimises pH change on small additions of acid or alkali. How? All down to equilibrium...
If you were to increase $[H^{+}]$:

In terms of the equilibrium, the added $H^{+}$ would react with the base, $CH_{3}COO^{-}$, to form
$CH_{3}COOH$. This is Le Chatelier's principle in the fact that increasing $[H^{+}]$ shifts the equilibrium to the left.

If you were to increase $[OH^{-}]$:

In terms of the ionic equation, the added $OH^{-}$ would react with the $H^{+}$ to form $H_{2}O$. This is Le Chatelier's principle in the fact that increasing $[OH^{-}]$ shifts the equilibrium to the right.

In both of these, it's clear that the addition of $H^{+}$ or $OH^{-}$ would just be an acid-base reaction. The products formed minimise the $pH$ of the system due to their relative strengths compared with the added acids/alkalis.
The $pH$ does change though, but just not as much as it would if it wasn't in the buffer system. A buffer just keeps the equilibrium central.
Answer: Your question is good-intentioned but there are quite a few things that would need clarifying.
First, the above setup is not a buffer. You need additional metal ethanoate for a buffer to form. The above dissociation is only of a simple weak acid dissociating in water.
Secondly, yes, adding more $\ce{H3O+}$ to the above solution will shift the reaction to the left ("suppress the dissociation of acetic acid") but it would still increase the overall concentration of $\ce{H3O+}$, contrary to "the $\ce{H3O+}$ will remain at its initial concentration" (note that the backward shift is almost always negligible compared to the moles of hydronium we add (corrected thanks to @TanYongBoon!)).
If this doesn't make sense, consider waiting a bit more for your course work to proceed towards completion. Because sometimes, certain problems automatically clear themselves as you proceed later in the coursework :)


How can I decipher the phrase "On en était où?"

Question: So, "en" is an adverbial pronoun which is used to replace "de + nom". But what noun does it replace in the mentioned phrase?
Answer: En, y and the reflexive pronouns are often used in a way which is not analyzable to modify the meaning of verbs (phrasal verbs in English are doing the same thing with prepositions).  If the meaning of a sentence using these pronoun isn't clear it can be such use.
It is the case with être.  There are several meanings associated with en être, in some of them en is still analyzable, it isn't the case here when en être means being at some step in an evolution or progression.
Comment: So, what you're saying is that in this case `en` doesn't replace `de + nom` construction? If so, it might be the similar use, like with the phrase `s'en aller`, for example, right?
Comment: Note that in Brittany (and maybe elsewhere, but with people around France from Paris or the South, it seems that's only there), we often use « se Rendre » instead of « être » in this sentence. Ex.: « On est rendu où ? » for « On en est  où ? », using the same change of word/meaning for « aller/être à un endroit » and « se rendre à ».
Comment: @jFrenetic, _en_ doesn't replace anything (or at least current speakers aren't conscious of what it refer to, it probably started to refer to something) in this case.
Comment: @Larme Thanks for your comment! Maybe you could clarify my last doubts about this phrase. So, in this construction `en être` doesn't replace `de + nom`, does it?
Answer: If it helps, you can think of en as standing for the thing that was in progress.

Où était-on dans notre conversation ?
Où en était-on ?

However, as Un francophone points out, this is pretty much a fixed phrase. I couldn't tell if the grammatical construction really originates in this.
The good news is, once you know it, French actually makes it clearer than the more versatile English where were we ? ;)
Answer: "On en était où" est familier et peu correct.
Il faudrait dire "Où en étions-nous".
Quant à "où en était-on" c'est tellement laid phonétiquement qu'il faut le bannir, sans parler du phonème grotesque de la fin de la locution.
Comment: Merci, mais ce n'est pas la réponse à mon question.


Are notes played on the beat [always] played louder?

Question:
I know that the 4/4 time signature is played as [ONE-two-Three-four]. But in the third beat of the first measure there are two 8th notes; the first one coinciding with the beat. So would they be played as Dum-Dum or Dum-dum ?
Comment: It's not about beat an louder, although this is good rule of thumb. It's about dynamic. It's about playing like you speak. Your sentences have a certain flow to it. You have to take breath in between. Start the next sentence more energetic again. Put emphasis on importat words. You don't say every word the same robotic way.
Comment: As you recognize, it is more tricky: There are even differences between *on the beat* notes, see [this question](https://music.stackexchange.com/q/12592/2600).
Comment: Music Term: Backbeat -
A term used in American popular music to describe a continuous heavy accent on beats 2 and 4 in jazz and rock and roll music.
Comment: And delayed back beat on the up on 2 and or 4
Comment: Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation
Answer: "I know that the 4/4 time signature is played as [ONE-two-Three-four]."
How do you know this?  Is this from standard music training?
In any time signature we need to somehow express the periodicity of the meter.  There is a concept called metric accents.  In reality you don't "need" to accent the strong beats of a time signature but without them the "feel" will start to fade and both the musician and listener will have a harder time following the music.  Music is divided into short phrases and accenting helps to define these phases as much as melody.  While it is true that in 4/4 beats 1 and 3 are generally given "metric accents" it isn't always necessary.  Accenting beat 1 alone may be sufficient to define the phrase and keep time.
Accenting the down beat of three on the second group of eighth notes is not wrong, it will create one particular feel.  But accenting on the up of 3, {Ba, ba-da, ba-Da, ba} will create another.  When accents are missing it is up to the musician and their experience to introduce accents that are typical for the style of music, German, Latin, Afro, Metal, etc.  So taking the single measure out of context and trying to put a hard and fast rule on it will fail.  I would use judgment based on the phrase in context with the rest of the music.  With no other context I'd accent only beat 1 and run through the eighth notes to beat 4 with no other accents.
However, I sometimes only accent the first or last not of an entire phrase even if it's 4 measures long (rather than accent 1 and 3 of every measure).  And sometimes I accent the highest not of a run regardless of what fraction of a beat it lands on.  Rising up in pitch and volume don't always have to correlate but when they do it creates a very uplifting feel.
For a beginner learning to tap a foot while playing there is nothing wrong with "accenting" the down of 1 and 3 all the way through.  But artistically, you are free to do whatever seems right.  Don't accent at all is an option.
If you insist on accenting beat 3 I'd accent the pair STRONG-weak.
Comment: @Taschi, I know.  But I'm challenging the OP to think deeper.  We are all taught the "metric accents" but at some point they fail to be very useful.
Comment: You gotta start somewhere.  There are standard accepted ways to do things and they are worth learning.  But I think sometimes we get the impression that "rules" are where it's at and the fact is, as an art form the rules are very flexible.
Comment: "How do you know this? Is this from standard music training?" -- Well, FWIW, that is basically what I learned at school.
Comment: I understand you, just wanted to clarify that there's a reason all this half-knowledge is floating around.
Comment: @ggcg Metric accents indicate the strong beats. They are something different than dynamic accents but it doesn't mean they are not useful. It's rather important to be able do distinguish the two.
Answer: Good question! Made me think. The first beat of a bar - any bar - is generally accented, but by how much varies considerably, and sometimes depending on the phrasing, and the actual notes involved, it's not accented at all.
Had there been a phrase mark over all six notes, then I wouldn't expect any accent on that F note. As it stands, it could have an accent - but very, very slight.
That's one of the myriad of decisions that are made by the player, and it may well be different next time. Often, it's not even a planned decision, it just happens. So, although the question needs asking, there won't be a concrete answer!
Interesting thought - if that F was a 'pushed' note - a semiquaver earier, so there was no actual note hit on beat 3, (it's tied to another F semi on beat 3) then more than likely that would be accented. Just a thought...
Comment: Music Term: Backbeat -
A term used in American popular music to describe a continuous heavy accent on beats 2 and 4 in jazz and rock and roll music.
Answer: Well, they are accented by nature, but what it does mean, that's a different story. Consider the motif of Bach's small fuga G major (BWV 557) (source):

The 1st and 3rd beat of the beginning of the Fuga are empty, yet there is an accent on them (Bach was very systematic, so yes, there is). Also, organ doesn't really have "loudness" for single notes. So yes, they are accented, but how it transforms into the performance of the piece may be very tricky.
Last but not least, note that in modern music, you often have off-beat accents, but from the performance, it will in most situations still be clear where 1st and 3rd beats are.
Answer: Ooh. You are opening a great big box of musical history. Just to make it simple, look into a style called "bebop". This migth be one link: one example . To make it very simple, bebop players changed that accents all the time using it to accent the melodic line.
If you want to make it very simple, accent the off-beat notes, and perhaps the 4:th beat in the bar most.
Answer: Coming from the perspective of tracker modules and composing in a DAW, there are advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
You could keep the volume of the main instrument the same (or decrease it slightly) when it comes in tandem with a drum beat. This keeps the overall track volume more regular, at the cost of the drum beat "competing with" the main instrument).
You could boost the main instrument but that would create awkward high-amplitude "pulses". If you use software tools to limit the maximum volume at any point, it will make the rest of the track relatively softer which may not be what you want. In some genres (especially electronica, EDM, and "club" or "rave" music), such high-amplitude pulses are considered a main feature rather than a drawback.


Unable to put laptop to sleep after installing AMD driver

Question: I have HP Probook4540s laptop with Core i5 processor, 8GiB RAM and an AMD ATI Radeon HD 7500M/7600M graphics card of 2 GB and I am running windows 8 pro x64.
Thing is my graphics card driver doesn't seems to work correctly along with my rest system.
I made sure that I have correct drivers:

Download the driver from HPs site, my entering my product serial
number and the driver they had for Win 8.
I Downloaded from AMDs site using (auto detect card functionality)
and installed the driver.

What happens that when I have AMD graphics driver installed I am unable to put my laptop to sleep my closing it lid down because If I so that and re open it instead of waking up it restart and after restart when windows comes it shows recover blue screen "your PC ran into a problem."
And after analyzing the memory dump file it has been found that the crash order was like this:
atikmdag.sys      atikmdag.sys+0                 ATI Radeon Family                                           ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver                8.01.01.1331       Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.     C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
dxgmms1.sys     dxgmms1.sys+2c648       Microsoft® Windows® Operating System              DirectX Graphics MMS                6.2.9200.16384 (win8_rtm.120725-1247)                Microsoft Corporation                C:\Windows\system32\drivers\dxgmms1.sys
ntoskrnl.exe      ntoskrnl.exe+6d27a        Microsoft® Windows® Operating System              NT Kernel & System                6.2.9200.16384 (win8_rtm.120725-1247)                Microsoft Corporation   C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
watchdog.sys    watchdog.sys+255d        Microsoft® Windows® Operating System              Watchdog Driver                6.2.9200.16384 (win8_rtm.120725-1247)                Microsoft Corporation                C:\Windows\system32\drivers\watchdog.sys

It is also sure that the problem is with the Graphics card because if I uninstall all the drivers than no such problems happened and I am able to normal close the lid and put my laptop to sleep and wake it up.
Can anyone tell why this happening is? And how can I resolve this issue?
Comment: Have you contacted HP about this problem?
Answer: I have this same issue. If you right click CMD and run as administrator, type: powercfg -a.
If you see it complaining about VGAPNP.SYS, then the driver you have for your video card does not support the sleep function and you will have to update your driver.  I have yet to resolve this issue as I am still looking for a proper driver.
Comment: Hello, and welcome to SuperUser. Since you don;t have a solution to this problem yet, your answer is more suitable as comment, until you find a proper solution to the problem.


Change Source parameter in URL without reloading page

Question: I need NewForm.aspx page redirects to custom page on item added to list. I've done this by changing Source parameter in URL after NewForm.aspx has been loaded. But it makes the page to load twice.
Is there a way to change Source without page reload?
Comment: Why not change the Source in the NewForm link itself? Is there a reason why you are changing the Source parameter after NewForm.aspx has been loaded?
Comment: I try keep all customization in one place. In this way user could open NewForm in many ways including direct link but still get redirected.
Answer: The answer to the question is No. After the page has been loaded and sent to the browser, there is no way to change the query string without reloading the page. Browsers only allow the part of the URL after "#" to be changed:
http://authority/path?que=ry&str=ing#anchor
You can either move the dynamic code earler (modify the link to the new form) or later (set the source parameter to target a custom page - let the custom page have dynamic code that redirects dynamically based on the system state). Can you tell us more about the requirement?
Comment: If you do it server side during the initial page load, you can do a HTTP redirect. That will make the browser redirect before showing anything.
Comment: Well, you could for example redirect to a page, e.g. "RedirectAfterEdit.aspx?ItemID=X&TimeStamp=Y" which checks whether the item was recently updated or not (last modified > timestamp), then redirects to different pages accordingly.
Comment: Thanks for your reply! Is there a chance to use any kind of window preload function so this reloads looks more transparent?
Comment: I've got the idea. Then there's no way to implement conditional rederecting, e.g. different URLs for Save and Cancel buttons? I don't use server side coding on this project, only javascript client side


Explanation of HAND (height above nearest drainage) model procedure

Question: i tried to follow this procedure Spatial Analysis - Calculate a cells elevation (height) above the nearest stream cell but i have some problem to understand everything. I mean the 2th answer in the link.
I don't understand the 3th and 4th points. I have flowdirection, stream network and dem. I would to understand what about flow elevation difference and what i need to do to get the hand model.
Answer: I will assume you have your DEM, have been able to calculate the flow direction raster (the ArcGis help has a good explanation). You also need to have defined a raster of the drainage which has values of 0 for each cell along a drainage (height above drainage is 0 by definition) and has nulls for all other cells.
You need to know which cell is downslope and the elevation drop for each cell in your DEM, except for the cells that are along the drainage. To do this you use focal statistics with a mask for each possible flow direction.
The directions when you calculate a flow direction raster are defined by powers of 2 so the designation for the directions from cell X are:
32..64..128
16...X....1
8....4....2
So we calculate the elevation of the cell in each direction by using a masks that defines a 3x3 square neighborhood and says only use one cell in that neighborhood for the focal statistics. You need 8 mask files for this. For the cell to the east with value 1 the mask file looks like:
3 3
0 0 0
0 0 1
0 0 0
For the cell to the sw with value 8 it is:
3 3
0 0 0
0 0 0
1 0 0
I call these files DirCode1.txt, DirCode2.txt, Dircode4.txt...DirCode128.txt. Put them all in the same directory.
The function

FocalStatistics(inElevRaster, NbrIrregular(focalMaskFile), "MINIMUM")

returns the minimum elevation in the cells around each location where the mask has the value 1. Since there is only one such cell in the mask it doesn't really matter if you use minimum, maximum or whatever and you just subtract that value from the DEM value for the original cell to get the difference. But you only do that for the cell in the direction of flow. Do this by iterating through each flow direction mask file and use the Con function to return a value if the mask file direction is the same as the flow direction for each cell:
lstDirection = [1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128]

# This block only needs to be calculated once for the area
for idx in lstDirection:
    focalMaskFile = "C:/Data/GIS_Data/DEM/FocalStatNeighbor/" + "DirCode" + str(idx) + ".txt"
    outElDifRaster = Con(inFDirRaster == idx, inElevRaster - FocalStatistics(inElevRaster, NbrIrregular(focalMaskFile), "MINIMUM"))
else:
    # Calculate values for indeterminate flow direction cells
    outElDifRaster = Con(inFDirRaster,inElevRaster - FocalStatistics(inElevRaster, NbrRectangle(3,3), "MINIMUM"))
outElDifRaster.save("floweldif")

For some reason I forget, you can get cells where the flow direction value is not in the 8 we are using. Define the elevation difference for those bu using the minimum value in the 3x3 region around the cell.
Calculating the HAND is similar. Start by copying your drainage raster to the output raster. For each focal mask file, check each null cell in the output raster to see if that mask matches the flow direction, then add the value from the cell in that direction. At first that will only give a value for cells next to the drainage. When that's done, you have HAND values for more cells. Repeat the process to calculate values for null cells upslope from those cells. Loop, working your way upslope, until you have no more null cells.
Comment: i didn't understand too much but it's my fault, I don't know nothing about python. i thought that only changing the input data would have solved my problem. But it doesn't work and i don't understand why. Thank you for your help.
Comment: if someone of you have a matlab code or knows simple way on arcgis to get  HAND model, i will be grateful
Comment: How far did you get? Do you have your stream raster with 0 along the stream and null everywhere else? Did you manage to calculate the raster with height above the downstream cell? I would recommend sticking to ArcGis because there are some differences between their hydrology models and strictly topographic steepest gradient.
Comment: i have everything to get hand model, but i don't know how to get it. I have the stream raster with 0 value along the stream. I have the raster with elevation values along the stream. I have dem and flowdirection of my watershed. I found the nearest distance from the stream for each cells ( i used path distance tool with "slope" as cost raster ).


Outlook IMAP Sent messages in wrong folder

Question: I have outlook 2003 installed on a system that has an IMAP account an a legacy PST / POP 3 account. For some reason when I send an email using the IMAP account the mail appears in the sent items folder in the "Personal Folders" section rather than the sent items in the IMAP account - how can this be rectified?
Answer: Dunno about 2003 but Kara's actions are confirmed for 2007.  I would be surprised if there are that many changes to the layout of the dialog and options in 2007, so I'll give you sample instructions for that.
You will need to use the Tools->Accounts menu.  Select the account in the Email tab and click "Change".  Click "More Settings" in the "Change Email Account" dialog, which gives you "Internet Email Settings".  Click the 2nd tab "Folders", then click the lower radio button, then select the "Sent" box for your IMAP account.  Answer [OK] to all of your remaining dialogs.  If you don't see an immediate change (you should), close and re-open Outlook.
Gave Kara +1 for hitting the correct answer first. :)
Comment: +1 for giving a better description of the process.  Take that!
Answer: I suspect the personal folder is set as your default.  In the account settings, you should be able to change this to the location you prefer.
Answer: I wrote an article about this issue for the outlook 2010 client and added some interesting comments and suggestions on the side. Just look at: http://www.oostdam.info/index.php/sectie-blog/28-office-vragen/278-outlook-2010-sent-items-in-owners-mailbox
Regards,..  Ben
Comment: If your blog ever goes away your answer becomes useless. Please consider posting a précis of your blog article as an edit to your post.


Mailing Template Tables

Question: How can I keep the Mailing template (tables) from expanding once sent.  Example:  Everything looks good and formatting is fine when I send from my end but some providers (I think mostly Outlook) is delivered looking extremely wide where you need to scroll over to read.  It doesn't look professional at all!
Answer: This comes down to the difference between how email clients and web browsers render HTML.  This article from Litmus gives a good overview.
There are two solutions:

Develop emails with email-centric design.  Since Outlook is the worst offender, design for Outlook.
Install the Mosaico extension.  Its drag-and-drop email template builder takes the guesswork out since the blocks are already Outlook-friendly.

Mailing Template Tables


The two pronunciations of 粘

Question: 粘 can be read as either "nian" or "zhan", but in both way it can be translated as "sticky", so what is the difference?
In other words what should I take in mind, when reading a text , in order to understand which pronunciation I should use?
Answer: Originally, you had two separate characters (zdic links):

粘 = zhan1 = (v.) to stick
黏 = nian2 = (adj.) sticky

The usage distinction still remains, but it is now acceptable to use 粘 for either word. Unihan lists the characters as semantic variants.
Comment: There is an article on this subject [『黏』『粘』『沾』有什麼不同?][1]
The gist is that as noted above 黏 is a stative verb, and 粘 is a verb (intransitive and transitive). It also adds the word 沾 to the mix, but this seems to be a red herring.

There's probably more to be said on this. I'll add if I find more examples/material.

  [1]: http://big5.hwjyw.com/teacher_hua/200910/t20091026_32980.shtml
Answer: I was taught at class, that zhan is the reading when 粘 is used as a verb, 'to stick, to glue'; the more common reading nian covers almost all the other cases, when its used as an adjective, 'sticky'. But I think this is not entirely correct.
Here's a long list with compound words. In most cases the reading is nian, in some cases zhan. Try to see if you can find a rule.
Interestingly, the Taiwanese Education Ministry's dictionary only lists nian as reading.
Answer: From a native Chinese perspective:
粘(zhan) = 粘 (nian1) = to glue, to stick = verb.
粘(nian2) = 黏 (nian2) = sticky = adj.
Although 黏 is more used in written, while 粘(nian2) is more oral.

The two pronunciations of 粘


Where to ask a question about how to accomplish a specific task?

Question: As the question states, I'd like to know where to ask for ideas on how to accomplish specific tasks. I know Code Review is for code that works, but you're looking for improvement. and StackOverflow is for code that doesn't work. But where can I ask about code I haven't written, but need ideas on how to accomplish?
Comment: This right here is evidence that Stack Overflow has essentially devolved into nothing more than a debug-my-code site as far as the average user is concerned.
Comment: What does Programmers SE say to you?
Comment: @random: Programmers is a site about whiteboards. Nothing to do with code. Unless one codes on a whiteboard. Or codes whiteboards. Which isn't all that far-fetched now that I think about it.
Comment: @BoltClock [not so far fetched indeed](https://www.google.com/search?q=smartborad&oq=smartborad&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1601j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=smartboard&spell=1)
Answer: You don't have to have breaking code yet in order to post on stack overflow.  In fact, the best questions her don't have that.
You just need to know very specifically what you want.
here's a simple example:

I have a string in language X that I need to convert to an int.  Are there any built in functions that do that for me?

That question does not contain any code, or any evidence of code, but It doesn't need to.  You're asking about how to accomplish a specific need.
If the answer is not otherwise readily available, that's Exactly the class of question that we're looking for(although normally the questions aren't as simple).
The one issue that you might run into is if the answer to that question is easy to answer by basic research, so try to do some of your own research first before you ask.
Comment: "That question does not contain any code, or any evidence of code, but It doesn't need to." The WHYT brigade would like to have a word with you.
Comment: @BoltClock I've always hated the WHYT brigade anyways
Comment: WHYT really depends on the size of the question.  If you have a 1-3 line answer, WHYT isn't applicable.  If you have something that requires a dozen lines of code, then I expect you to have tried something. Especially since 90% of the time a very quick google would get them 90-100% of the way there.
Comment: @GabeSechan  The important thing is that you make sure that answers get proper context of your question.  Showing what you've tried is just one of the ways that you can accomplish that.


How should I install a digital timer?

Question: I am attempting to replace a single pole light switch for the outside garage light with a digital timer as there no street lights. It is located in a two gang box which has another switch that operates a  two way.  there are five cables in the box. One is a four wire cable that connects the two way switch. I've isolated the wires that operate the single pole switch for the outside light.  The digital timer has four wires, black, red, white and ground. The directions state it will not work properly if not connected to a four wire cable.  Any idea how to wire the digital timer?  The timer is a Utilitech #0141224, model #UTDT9IW7.
Comment: To Ecnerwal: Yes, five multi-wire cables and one is red-black-white-bare/green. All of the white wires are tied together, none are connected to the two switches. How can I send a picture?
Answer: Presumably the black and red wires are the hot and switched, corresponding to your current switch. If the box is gounded, that one's good. The issue (depending how the box is wired) may be that the timer needs a neutral connection, and if the box only has "switch loops" run to it it may not currently HAVE a neutral wire - in which case you need to get one there.
Now, when you say that there are 5 cables in the box, do you mean 5 multi-wire cables (black-white-bare/green) except one of them is red-black-white-bare/green and there are a lot of white wires connected to each other? If so, it's your lucky day, as one of those white wires will provide your neutral connection. Avoid white wires that are connected to switches, as those probably are NOT neutrals.
A picture would help a lot, but that's my educated guess, if you are using "cable" in the usual sense, as opposed to confusing it with "wire."
Comment: +1 "Avoid white wires that are connected to switches, as those probably are NOT neutrals".  Might save this individual from all sorts of mayhem :)

How should I install a digital timer?


Why arent my site posts appearing on search results anymore?

Question: So i have this website-www.listen2science.com, a few days back i installed a plugin called seo for wordpress and posts of my site appeared on the top pages of google, but now even if i copy the whole of the title and search it doesnt appear in any result. Why is it happening? Also my site index on webmasters is zero still when i search for site:listen2science.com all my posts appear. And also if i search for my domain mine is the first result that comes so it turns out my site isnt blacklisted. I cant implement seo due to this, please help guys!
Answer: It looks like your site is fairly new.  Your earliest posts appear to be from October 2012.  When a site is less than a year old, it takes a while for Google to start trusting it.  There isn't anything technical wrong that I could find from the quick checks that I did.  Your canonical tags look correct, there is no problem with your robots.txt file.
While you are waiting for Google to trust your site you can do the following:

Check who links to you.  Make sure there aren't spammy links there.  Certainly don't start spamming web forums with links to your site.
Run a spider against your own site to make sure that it can be crawled in a manner similar to Googlebot.  I tend to use wget (a command line program), but there are Windows GUI crawlers available like Xenu Link Sleuth.
Look through your server logs for problem such as unexpected error statuses.
Check your analytics for anything out of the ordinary
Make sure your wordpress is up to date.

Other than than, it may take a few months for your site to gain the trust that it needs to rank consistently.


Can I subscribe to other users' favorites?

Question: Is it possible to subscribe other users' favorites feeds?
Answer: Yes, you can.
The users/{id}/favorites API call returns a JSON response with a user's favorites.
You can use this JSON response to be notified (you might have to transform it in some way, but it is a feed like RSS, ATOM, it's just a different format) when a new favorite is added (you'd have to use polling just like an RSS/ATOM feed reader does).
That said, you can see the response for my current favorites on Stack Overflow through this link:
http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.1/users/50776/favorites
Which returns the following response (I've truncated it a bit to make the format of the response clear):
{
 "total": 49,
 "page": 1,
 "pagesize": 30,
 "questions": [
  {
   "tags": [
    "mathematica"
   ],
   "answer_count": 3,
   "favorite_count": 4,
   "closed_date": 1325272367,
   "closed_reason": "not constructive",
   "question_timeline_url": "/questions/8672115/timeline",
   "question_comments_url": "/questions/8672115/comments",
   "question_answers_url": "/questions/8672115/answers",
   "question_id": 8672115,
   "owner": {
    "user_id": 1121705,
    "user_type": "registered",
    "display_name": "Brandon Ogle",
    "reputation": 24,
    "email_hash": "7d4eecba99c6f1c762d5380088a5e412"
   },
   "creation_date": 1325184874,
   "last_edit_date": 1325187462,
   "last_activity_date": 1326811827,
   "up_vote_count": 5,
   "down_vote_count": 1,
   "view_count": 307,
   "score": 4,
   "community_owned": false,
   "title": "Are there good online video tutorials for learning Mathematica?"
  },
  ...
 ]
}

If JSON is good enough for you, then you can stop there.
If you want an RSS feed, then you can use the Stack2RSS app with the same API route/parameters to get an RSS feed.  So to get the RSS for the API call above, you would use:
http://stack2rss.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow.com/users/50776/favorites
Which is directly pluggable into any application that can consume RSS.
Comment: So for example the url `http://stack2rss.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow.com/users/50776/favorites`[link](http://stack2rss.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow.com/users/50776/favorites) would then return what I was asking for.
Comment: @PetriSirkkala Yes, and I've updated my answer appropriately.
Answer: No. Stack Overflow is a Q&A site, not a social networking site, so there is no functionality for "subscribing" to a particular user in any way. There have been requests for similar things in the past, and they have all been shot down.
Marking a question as a favorite doesn't mean that it's any good. In fact, I often use favorites to mark questions that need editing or which are otherwise problematic. Favorites don't necessarily make sense for anyone but the user they belong to.
In the end, it's the content itself that matters. Not who wrote it, who voted for it or who marked it as a favorite.
Comment: It might not be a social networking site, but there is a social *aspect* to it, as evidenced by a) the existence of chat (and Jeff's blog indicating the need for a social aspect to round out all the Stack Exchange sites) b) the gaming aspects of the site, as they wouldn't exist without interaction between yourself and other users c) the use of comments for socialization (which is an incorrect usage, btw, but it proves the point).  I don't think that being able to subscribe to another user's favorites is a bad idea, they are visible anyways, automating that doesn't hurt.
Comment: Even if Stack Overflow is not social I would still like to share a collection of SO-answers with my collegues. Those articles would be important to us. Without any feed or other user managed collection we have to resort to emailing bunch of links between us. It seems such a waste of resources to do so.


Is there any AI system for finding the best way to schedule university classes?

Question: I was wondering whether there is an AI system which could be used to resolve the class clashes problem which mostly happens in universities. In almost every university students face this problem, where two or more courses that many students want to take together get scheduled at the same time. Does anyone know about a system which resolves this issue or someone who works on this problem?
Comment: In terms of constraint satisfaction, you may want to look into how Latin squares have been used in scheduling problems. The most basic scheduling applications are trivial, but here's a paper on a more complex form: [MALS: multiple access scheduling based on Latin squares](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1493287)
Answer: Welcome to AI.SE @Israr Ali.
The problem of scheduling a timetable is an example of a constraint satisfaction problem, a topic long studied in AI.
There are many possible techniques to apply to this kind of problem. They can be organized into three broad categories:

Global search algorithms, like backtracking search can be used to try and find an assignment of times to classes that results in no conflicts at all. With proper heuristics, these can be quite fast in practice, even though their worst-case runtimes are poor. Russell & Norvig's AI: A Modern Approach has a very good overview of these approaches in Chapter 6.
Local search algorithms, like hill climbing search start by assigning every class a randomly selected time, and then making small adjustments that monotonically decrease the number of conflicts (e.g. swapping the times of two classes). These are often faster than backtracking approaches and are especially so if you are willing to accept a "pretty good" schedule that might still have fewer conflicts than an optimal one. Chapter 4 of AI: A Modern Approach provides a good introduction.
Planning approaches, particularly non-classical algorithms like GraphPlan can also be used for these domains. They make use of the structure of planning or scheduling problems in particular to re-frame the search problems addressed by Backtracking techniques. By using this domain-specific representation, they are able to achieve very high-quality solutions very quickly. Chapter 11 of AI: A Modern Approach covers Graph Plan in some detail, and could be a good introduction to these more specialized techniques.


Is there a difference between change management for scope, cost and schedule?

Question: Is there a difference between change management for scope, cost and schedule? Is the flow of the change management for all three areas the same?
Answer: Yes, the flow is the same, because you're not talking about a change to the scope, or the cost, or the schedule, you're talking about change to the project.
Change management (or control) deals with those three in that for every change, all three must be assessed for impact. "How does this change in scope affect my schedule? How does this this delay affect my cost?, etc."
So there's no separate flows or processes for each. Any and all changes need to weighed against the project as a whole for impact, and this includes three mentioned, but also for possible new risk, stakeholders interests, etc.
Comment: You nailed it.  To the OP: it is very important that this is understood.  None of those elements changes on its own; it's driven by and is a consequence of project change.  If that is not understood, then it opens the door to arbitrary changes to cost and schedule to hide variances, e.g., your overrunning so you submit a change request and get more budget or time.  That's taboo!
Comment: Agreed. However, approval levels (and hence the approval flow) may vary depending upon the impact. While all proposed changes must pass through a change board of some sorts (the SteerCo most likely), changes which need additional funds might need to pass through an 'investment board'
Comment: @David: how do you handle possible overruns, administratively? Some may be justified. How do you handle the budgetary implications? (Maybe I should start a new question for this)
Comment: @Stephan: I keep performance management and financial management separate.  So while I would not pursue a change to my PMB (performance management baseline) so as not to hide a variance, I would pursue a change to my financial CCV (contract cost value) to cover the overrun, assuming my contract was the type to allow this.  After that occurred, I would have a PMB BAC that would differ from my financials CCV, and there is nothing wrong with that.  Does that answer?  If not, let's pursue a new question and seek others' input, too!  David
Answer: Your process for change management should be the same regardless of the type of impact. What will vary will be who is allowed to approve a change.
For each of scope, cost and schedule (and also risk, quality, benefits and resources) you should set tolerances up front for the production team leader, PM, project sponsor, steering committee, etc so that decision making devolves to the lowest appropriate level given the priorities, criticality and complexity of the project and corporate culture.
For example, a critical project in a cost-averse company may require steering committee approval for any increase in costs, but the same project may only need PM approval on schedule increases of less than 2 months and project sponsor approval for increases of 2 months or more.
You should still have a single gate-keeper (an individual or committee) through which all change goes through so that the changes can be communicated to stakeholders and the plan can be updated.
Comment: Whilst I agree in general, one should not forget that not all change is scheduled or dev initiated. There is often need (for all the will in the world against it) for emergency change and problem resolution - especially in business critical systems - this often circumvents stakeholders and gatekeepers (even the PM if support team mainatined).
Comment: @Wolf5370 A PROJECT change request is not the same as an application emergency change. Still, an emergency change should still follow a formal process, with an approval before being deployed to production and an after-the-fact review and approval by appropriate management layers.
Comment: Don't disagree Stephan - often (in callout situations) approval is made by the support analyst called, but (as you state) would have after-the-fact review - sometimes the fix is pulled and replaced and so on. I was merely pointing out that not all Change Management is Project Change Management (the Op and most answers do not clarify) - and although should still follow "a" process, that process may be wholey different from "the" normal Project Change Process. One often triggers the other (in both directions - formalising a fix or reacting to failed change).


How do you get garlic to stick to green beans?

Question: When sautéing green beans (or snap peas, asparagus, etc) in butter with garlic, how do you get the garlic to stick to the beans?? I've tried varying the amount of butter up and down, and I've even tried adding corn starch, but nothing seems to get it to stick like I've seen in restaurants.
Comment: Minced, pureed, diced or sliced garlic?
Comment: Is this more an issue of flavor or appearance? I would think that cooking the garlic in the butter would be sufficient for getting the flavor into the beans. If it's just not garlicky enough, maybe you should add more garlic.
Comment: How are the beans prepped before they're sauteed? stir-fry has the beans steamed and evaporated-dry before hitting the oil and garlic.
Answer: I'm going to guess that you're using fresh garlic, because I had that problem with another dish. I solved it by toasting my chopped fresh garlic for five minutes at 250°F on a pre-heated cookie sheet first lightly sprayed with Pam with Olive Oil. That way, it's dry on the outside (and thus more prone to sticking), but still moist and tender on the inside.
Answer: I use a microplane zester/grater to essentially reduce my garlic to very fine shreds, almost a paste:

This produces fine enough pieces of garlic that they essentially become part of the sauce. It also really maximizes the flavor because of the increased surface area.
The only issue with this method is that the very fine pieces of garlic can burn easily, so be careful about when you add them to the hot pan. It takes half the time or less to sautee garlic in this format than it does the chopped equivalent.
Answer: I've watched how hey do it at some restaurants by cooking the beans first and then putting them in a bowl and tossing them with garlic that is added at that point. This eliminates the potential of the garlic getting overcooked and ruining the dish while also making it easier for the garlic to stick.


Regularity of harmonic functions with robin data up to the boundary

Question: I want to prove that if $u$ is a solution of
$\Delta u = 0$ in $\Omega$ with Robin boundary conditions $\frac{\partial u}{\partial n} = \lambda u$, where $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ has analytic boundary, then $u$ is analytic  up to the boundary (i.e. there exists analytic extension of $u$ to $U \supset \overline{\Omega}$). I know that showing that $u \in \mathcal{C}^\infty(U)$ would be enough.
Answer: I found the solution in the book by Lions and Magenes: Non-homogeneous boundary value problems and applications, vol 3, in the chapter about elliptic iterates.
Comment: To be precise: Corollary 1.1 in section 1.2 in Chapter 8 of Lions and Magenes.


What are the proper steps for "quarantining" Malware?

Question: I am writing a powershell script that effectively quarantines a computer after malware is detected on the system. So far I have the script disconnecting the ethernet adapters to ensure the device can't communicate with the internet. Next the script launches a full anti virus scan. Is this enough to successfully quarantine malware or should I be doing more? Maybe disjoining the active directory domain?
Answer: If you have the malware executable / exploit / doc with macro / ... , then what you want to ensure is that nobody opens it. For this it is enough if you remove the extension. Anyway a good way to store samples is e.g.: a password protected .zip file with the password 'infected'.
If you don't have the sample yet, then yes, disable its connection for sure (not just the internet, the whole networking - imagine a ransomware getting access to a network share). That should be enough for a computer quarantine. Anti-virus scan can help, but if it is a yet unknown or modified sample it can't ensure the cleaning. Find out what kind of malware it is and after you are sure that it is disabled, you can enable the internet connection.
Comment: I'm not sure removing the extension is sufficient to stop execution.  It would certainly be OS dependent, but I believe most OS's will simply look for the execution permission and attempt to run it. This also doesn't quarantine the computer itself, just the piece of malware.
Comment: Regarding to the extension you are right, I assumed it was about Windows machines because of the powershell mentioned. Storing in a password protected .zip is still a good way though. The second part of my answer is about the computer quarantine. Though I would disable the whole networking for that computer not just the internet. Imagine a ransomware accessing a network share. (I also add this to the answer)
Comment: Ah, you are correct, my eyes skipped over the "power" in that sentence.


How do I replace the default messaging icon in the dock with handcent?

Question: I've a Samsung Galaxy S with 2.2 firmware. I'm using handcent instead of the default messaging application. In the default messaging app settings I have disabled notifications and disabled auto-retrieve. But when I get an SMS now, even after I had read it in handcent, I still get the new message notification overlay on the messaging icon on the homescreen until I click into it. Can i disable this, or better yet replace that icon with handcent?
Answer: Assuming you are using the default Samsung TouchWiz launcher:

Open the App Drawer (Applications)
Press Menu, select View Type -> Customizable Grid
Press Menu, choose Edit
Drag off the Messaging icon, and drag on Handcent.

I've replaced it with Gmail, myself.
Comment: exactly what I needed, I didn't know those dock icons were customizable in this way.
Answer: What home screen application are you using? In Launcher Pro, I can long-press on the dock icon, and change the icon and/or shortcut. I can also disable the overlay from Menu > Preferences > Dock Settings > Missed call count/Unread SMS count/Unread Gmail count


350Z Grinding in lower gears following clutch/flywheel/slave cylinder replacement

Question: I recently replaced the clutch and flywheel on my 2008 350Z with a JWT aftermarket combo.  The dealership also replaced the slave cylinder.  Now, from time to time it is very hard to shift into first or reverse, and I have to depress the clutch almost all the way to shift to any gear.  In addition, 1st-3rd gear grind loudly after shifting.  The service center claims all of this is normal with an aftermarket clutch, but I'm concerned that they are only trying to justify a half-@$$ job.  I wanted to get some more opinions on the matter.
Comment: Sounds to me like there is air in the system, or clutch is slipping. Is the pedal soft at all?
Answer: To test the throw on your clutch: Press the clutch pedal down to the floor, slowly, and take a careful note of the resistance you feel on the pedal. At about 7/8 of the way down you should feel the pedal go slightly less resistive. This is the 'throw over' of the diaphragm spring of the clutch pressure plate. If you can not feel this lessening of the pedal resistance you can adjust the pushrod on the clutch master cylinder. The push rod comes out of the master cylinder and has a locknut and thread on it, it is attached to the clutch pedal. Loosen the locknut and lengthen the pushrod by turning it to the right as you look at it. Give it a couple of turns and try the clutch for throw-over again. Adjust as necessary. You might know someone with a manual clutch car to get a comparison feel for a good throw-over. You dont need to have the engine running when doing the adjustment.


Best Practice: adding metadata to a modern SharePoint Online site

Question: I'm curious to know if there is a best practice way of adding metadata to a SharePoint Online modern Team Site or Communication Site?
From my readings on the internet there seems to be a few ways of achieving this, to ensure that you receive desirable search results in modern search, and they include:

Add metadata to the Site homepage by adding columns to the "Site Pages" library
Create a custom content type on the site and add metadata to that content type (e.g. a hidden list for example)
Property Bag - add the metadata to the property bag of the site (seems to be only possible via CSOM or SP Designer).

From my initial tests, option 1, seems to work fine, but before I embark on a journey of bulk adding metadata to lots and lots of sites, I wanted to check is there a best practice way going forward with modern experiences and SharePoint Online?
Thanks!
Answer: Create that custom Page ContentType in the global ContentType Hub and Publish it to all sitecollections. Not per single site library as you have to repeat yourself every new site.
Create only the Homepage that way, so each site has one set of metadata.
Stay away from property bags


What is an adjective for somone who displays 'fake' gravitas?

Question: Words like insincere, over-earnest, do not do justice to the type of word I need. Example sentence: The president of the company read his well crafted speech but it fell flat because of his obvious "———".
Comment: What's wrong with `insincerity`? (I ask because you use "insincere" in your question)
Comment: Just a note: what fits into your "———" is a noun, not an adjective. You can rewrite as *because he was obviously _____.*
Comment: Did a thesaurus suggest anything? Disingenuous? What about gravitas? Pompous? Cn you give any more words that are nearby what you want?
Comment: "Pompous" is a perfect fit for "fake gravitas".
Answer: Pretentious is the first word that grabs me.
(Please use the noun form, pretentiousness,  to fill in the blank. )

attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent,
  culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

Synonyms include:

affected, ostentatious, showy; overambitious, pompous, artificial,
  inflated, overblown, high-sounding, flowery, grandiose, elaborate,
  extravagant, flamboyant, ornate, grandiloquent, magniloquent,
  sophomoric;
Comment: This is, I think, the best answer, but the noun-form is *pretension*: see [ngrams of *pretensiousness* and *pretension*](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pretensiousness%2Cpretension&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpretensiousness%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cpretension%3B%2Cc0). *Pretension* has lost a lot of popularity and may come off as archaic, but *pretentiousness* really never had the popularity in the first place. (Either is perfectly understandable, but at least to my ear *pretension* also sounds better.)
Comment: Pretentiousness? Pretentious, since it's an adjective, won't fit properly.
Comment: Just the sense of the word.  I saw that. Do you think it needs to be changed?  The question wasn't really about parts of speech.
Comment: The OP left a gap, and none of your words can fit properly!
Comment: @KRyan https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30400/pretension-vs-pretentiousness
Answer: Will pomposity fit?

pompous adj.
    1. Characterized by excessive self-esteem or exaggerated dignity; pretentious: pompous officials who enjoy giving orders. American
    Heritage Dictionary
pomposity n, pl -ties
    1. vain or ostentatious display of dignity or importance Collins English Dictionary

pompous 1.Affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important. Oxford
  Living Dictionary
pompous 1 : excessively elevated or ornate pompous rhetoric 2
  : having or exhibiting self-importance : arrogant "a pompous politician"
   Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Not sure whether this word fits your intention of "gravitas", but it does mean possible affectation with the definitions containing descriptive words such as "pretentious" and "ostentatious".

The president of the company read his well crafted speech but it fell
  flat because of his obvious "pomposity".
Comment: I am thinking about the Canadian prime minister who tries so hard to sound like a statesman but is so absolutely, transparently putting on an act...
Comment: @Derek So something like pomposity or ostentation that can easily be seen through?
Answer: Some possibilities:
affected
affected behavior is not natural but is done to impress other people
                                               His affected manner annoyed her.
bombastic
marked by or given to speech or writing that is given exaggerated importance by artificial or empty means : marked by or given to bombast (pretentious inflated speech or writing )
                                               the bombastic pronouncements of so many politicians
portentous
trying to seem very serious and important, in order to impress people
flatulent
pompously or portentously overblown
Comment: Portentious and affected are both coming very close to the mark. Thanks. Fakery of all kinds bothers me and I have been seeking descriptors for the offending parties...
Comment: You noted the missing word needs to be a noun, but have answered with adjectives. 'Fell flat because of his obvious flatulence' sounds great though...
Comment: @Tim Well, in the original post there is a mismatch between (1) what's in the title ('adjective') as well as the word examples provided ('insincere' and 'over-earnest', both adjectives), and (2) the lexical category of the missing word in the sample sentence. There are two ways to restore consistency. I went with the one where the word should be an adjective, and suggested, in my comment, how the sample sentence can be rewritten so that the missing word is an adjective. Agree about the *flatulence*, of course...
Answer: This would best fit as a description of the speech itself, but my (former) favorite word might meet your needs:
Grandiloquence

Noun: a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language
Answer: The president of the company read his well crafted speech but it fell flat because of his obvious delusions of grandeur.
to give sufficient levity to the negative ending is made more difficult by the inclusion of "well-crafted". So we must attacked the nature of the delivery.
A "well-crafted" speech would never appear insincere, but a delivery with an air of fakeness would qualify for fake gravitas. "Without the standing to deliver such sentiment".
Many ways to drive home what you mean, but to use a single word makes it difficult.
Comment: Thanks - agree finding single-word is the challenge but comments here have given me some fine choices that will fit together nicely
Answer: Perhaps not quite as near to the mark as some of the other suggestions, but nonetheless worth thinking about in this context is:
Priggish
For me (I'm 54 and Australian, with the age and region understanding of English thus implied that should be taken into account), this word's meaning also bears more than a whiff of the idea of insincerity, although, strictly speaking, priggishness can be unconscious, especially as a result of one's upbringing. However, the same can likely also be said of "pompous". Only "pretentious" unambiguously conveys to me the idea of conscious deceit by the speaker about their own supposedly superior level of knowledge or worthiness.
Nonetheless, most of the suggestions are often used in a somewhat satirical or ironic context, so then things like "pompous" become more unambiguous. In that case, a word / phrase that I sometimes hear, particularly from the pens (or computers) of the better sardonic political commentators is:
Lofty
Loftily Spoken
with similar meaning to exalted, but the metaphor in this word's origin of having one's head in the air ("loft") or above the clouds is probably what gives it its usually ironic flavor. However, again, satire has to be clear in the other words you use around it. An older person may use the word for "exalted" in a genuinely admiring way, to express belief in the "height" (significance) of someone or their ideas.
Here's another one I don't hear much but would definitely convey the idea to me:
Supercilious
since the Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" is described as having a "Supercilous Smile" (actually a description given to himself, speaking of himself in the third person in the Defendant's solo "Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray"). The word's origin "supercilium" meaning "eyebrow", referring to the arrogant facial expression of a raised eyebrow at whatever the Defendant thought beneath him, also gives the word a particularly visual irony for me.

A warning on Portentous. I actually had to look this one up, because I have quite a different understanding of this word. Perhaps this is a reason not to use it (because if I misunderstand it, then maybe another native English speaker may not either). I read this word literally, meaning "filled with portent". But I don't believe I have EVER seen this word written outside Shakespeare (who rather liked it, using in the sense I understand it) other than by someone like Emily Bronte and the only time I believe I have ever heard it spoken (or sung) was by Kate Bush in her song "Moving" from "The Kick Inside". As explained in the Wikipedia article, the song is a tribute to Bush's dance teacher Lindsay Kemp, and unambiguously expresses Bush's supreme admiration for Kemp and her belief that Kemp was indeed filled with portent. The words are "... if your beauty is portentous" and, naturally for Kate Bush, spelt and pronounced "-tus" in the Shakespearean way rather than "-shus" as in "portentious" in the other answers. I suspect that many other people of my generation were taught the word by Kate Bush, and would therefore read it very differently from how you would like it read.
Answer: May not be an adjective or fit your example sentence but, in case it helps, one may call someone who displays fake gravitas a "tryhard".
Answer: A sophist is someone who attempts to appear educated and nuanced by presenting arguments that are overly verbose to mask the fact that they contain logical fallacies.
In the context of the fill-in-the-blank, the proper form of the word would be sophistry.
Comment: Please add a link to a dictionary definition of sophistry that supports your answer.

What is an adjective for somone who displays ‘fake’ gravitas?


Imidian for apple trees

Question: I would like to spray my new apple trees with Imidian to prevent fungus and pests. Does anyone know what an alternate name for this pesticide is, since Google returns no results for it?
Comment: I voted to reopen this question because searching on google returns no results. The OP should search for Phosmet instead.
Comment: Goodness, I'm so glad I won't eating the fruit from your trees, I prefer not to be exposed to organophosphates in my food - and I wouldn't want to risk breathing it in either
Comment: @Bamboo And now we know why he/she can't find it.
Comment: @Alina still available for use in some countries, usually by agricultural operations, not individual home growers. Banned in the UK though...but not in USA, even though a court case has just been settled for health related issues with this product
Comment: Thanks @Alina, your edit makes it a much better question.
Comment: I am just so happy this person ASKED this question!!  Wish I could believe that among the other billions of people they would ask as well but...makes me so very mad that homeowners are even allowed to purchase these chemicals.  Homeowners are far worse than corporations for pollution of our environment.  There is no one to monitor or educate.  I learned this in Pesticide Applicator Seminars.  At 'least' corporations are so monitored they run to other countries to pollute...sick humans!!!  Grrrrr.
Answer: It's name is spelled as Imidan, it is available only in some countries and it doesn't protect against fungus because it is an insecticide. Although it can be used against pests, it is highly toxic to bees, so unless you can artificially pollinate your apples, you run the risk of killing those beneficial insects.
Alternate names include Appa, Decemthion, Imidan, Kemolate, Fesdan, Prolate, PMC and Safidon.
Answer: From what I've read, primary use of this product is to control codling moth - you can do that with a couple of pheremone traps, followed by (if necessary) a treatment spray far less toxic than a product based on organophosphates, or a nematode based spray treatment. As it's a contact and not a systemic insecticide, using it before there's a problem is pointless, in other words, its not a preventative treatment. Further information on nematodes and pheremone traps here  https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=489
Answer: Dormant oils are your best bet and safest.  Killing bees is almost worse than killing humans.  We lose our bees and humans will go bye bye.
Prevention is best done by pruning, cleaning up the debris as soon as possible and to not worry about a few insects.  They will always be there.  Otherwise, spraying insecticide means it is also poisonous to bees, birds, dogs, cats and kids and adults.
Dormant oils are what fruit tree growers swear by.  Suffocates or prevents insects from laying eggs or hibernating over winter.  I'd get a professional apple tree pruner (a laborer from an apple farm or a Cooperative Extension Service recommended tree pruner that knows fruit trees).  Then clean up all the debris.  Have an arborist (who also might know how to prune fruit trees correctly) check the health of your trees.
Insecticides are never for prevention.  They are bandaids for problems that could have been prevented by proper management.  Fungicides on the other hand are preventative as they are akin to a rain coat on plants.  Once you've got fungus, you will not be able to 'cure' it, only mitigate any damage.
Look into dormant oils.  There is not one other product you should even consider for prevention.  There are also summer oils but they require far more expertise so that one doesn't have their plants frying in the heat and sun.
First get an arborist or fruit tree expert recommended by your Cooperative Extension service of your closest University.  Let them find out whether or not you even need to spray 'horticultural oils' at all.  These oils will also kill beneficial insects.  Between beneficial insects and healthy tree and cleaning up debris...you shouldn't have to spray a thing.
Since your trees are young, forget about spraying them with anything.  Keep weeds and grass and soil and mulch away from the base of your trees.  Again a good pruner would be able to 'start' your trees now to limit their height and prevent too many branches, too much fruit that will cause disease, attract insects and reduce decent sized fruit.  They will also be able to coach you for maintenance pruning.  Tell you about the proper tools (by pass and tree saws only, no anvil) and how to use alcohol to clean your tools so that you do not infect your trees inadvertently. Make sure your trees are not planted too low allowing soil or mulch to touch the bark.
Please don't use insect sprays.  A tree full of insects one year is not worth the killing of bees.  ONE bee gets insecticide/pesticide on their little feet or packets of pollen takes it back to the hive and can kill the entire hive.  That winter will be a great time to use dormant oil.  If all our bees decline to a certain point, well, in two to three months us humans will know starvation.  We can forget ever seeing a flower again.  Truly bees are so vital that heck with a few problems on your trees!  Apple trees provide for hosts of insects, birds, animals as well as humans...all of which will be sickened or killed and what fruit you might get will be inedible.  Without bees, no fruit.     horticultural oils

Imidian for apple trees


How does the new "last seen" option of Google Hangouts work?

Question: I've been using Google Hangouts via Gmail and I'm wondering how the new "last seen" option really works. I know that it is used to show your contacts when you were last using Hangouts but does that mean when I was last talking to someone on Hangouts or when I was last logged in (seen with my status circle green)?
Answer: Based on this answer in Google Support, the "last seen" time indicates the last time someone was "seen" by Google Hangouts. They don't necessarily need to have been talking to someone at the time. (For instance, I'm not in a Hangout or otherwise chatting with anyone, but I've got a green circle next to my name for my contacts because I am logged in to Hangouts.)
If they're not currently available in Hangouts, they are either off-line, idle, or have turned off the "last-seen" setting in their profile.
Answer: Just now I checked, I will try to explain.
It doesn't show the time  you logged in Gmail, or hangouts or  when you chatted with others
It shows your friend ,when you  have seen old messages/chatted with him.
It shows you when that particular friend seen you...he might be there in hangouts forever, but last seen you (opened your window) a minute ago, yesterday or 2day ago etc.


Is there any NP-hard problem which was proven to be solved in polynomial time or at least close to polynomial time?

Question: I know this could be a strange question. But was there any algorithm ever found to compute an NP-problem, whether it be hard or complete, in polynomial time. I know this dabbles into the "does P=NP" problem, but I was wondering whether there were any particular instances when people were close to it. I've also heard about the factoring number problem being solved by a quantum computer by Shor's algorithm. Would this count as an algorithm which solved an NP-problem in polynomial time please ? Please do ask if you want me to clarify any parts in my questions. Thanks in advance.
Comment: "I know this dabbles into the "does P=NP" problem" -- it seems like it *is* the P = NP problem. Also -- factoring is not known to be NP-hard. In fact, it is conjectured to not be. There are of course plenty of NP problems (one of the things you ask about) which have been solved in polynomial time, namely those in P itself (which is a subset of NP).
Comment: In particular, the third point in the above link: Restrict the problem, i.e.,
If you can make more assumptions on your inputs, the problem may become easy.
Comment: To clarify, many NP-hard problems can be solved in polynomial time *on a nondeterministic Turing Machine*. That's exactly what the NP-Complete problems are. The question is whether they can also be solved in P-time on a *deterministic* Turing Machine. Quantum computers aren't exactly nondeterministic Turing Machines, but they aren't equivalent to Turing Machines, either, and so P-time quantum algorithms don't show that a problem is in P.
Comment: Yeah, several times, but they have all been recruited by the Laundry.
Comment: There's an open [million dollar prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems) for anyone who can demonstrate this, so rest assured you'll hear about it the moment someone does.
Comment: This answer might help: https://cs.stackexchange.com/a/1481/107966
Comment: In addition, there are other useful answers there.
Answer: By definition, if you were to find a polynomial time algorithm for an NP-hard (or NP-complete) problem, then $P=NP$. So, short answer is - no.
However, its possible to think instead of solving the problems fully, to approximate a solution, or to solve them randomly. There are attempts at attacking from those points of view, but they are not perfect at all. Randomization isn't known to help "as-is", and many NP-hard problems are known that are also hard to approximate (finding an approximation will yield $P=NP$)
There are also attemps taking a look at notions much stronger than the usual turing machine. For instance, the quantum computer can be considered one. Another obvious example is the non-deterministic turing machines, in which - by definition - $NP$ would be in polynomial time.
Comment: yes, it is defined as a different computational model and a different complexity class. I don't know a lot about it, but BQP is the polynomial version in the quantum computer model. Just like BPP is the polynomial version in a randomized TM
Comment: I heard that quantum computers cover a different area though and they don't count. Something like BQP?
Answer: If the answer to the first question were to be yes, then $P=NP$, as stated in nir shahar's answer. This has not been done.
"The easiest NP hard problem"
However you next asked if any NP-hard problems have been solved in close to polynomial time, for which you might love to learn about what has been called "The easiest NP hard problem" because there's a pseudo-polynomial time solution using  dynamic programming, and there are heuristics that solve the problem in many cases, sometimes optimally. The problem is the partitioning problem: Decide whether a set of positive integers can be partitioned into two sets such that the sum of the numbers in one set equal the sum of the numbers in the first set. Despite it being an NP-complete problem, it can be solved quite efficiently, as for example described in this PDF.
Answer: Strictly speaking, as the other answers explain, no. A polynomial-time algorithm for an NP-hard problem is not known nor expected to exist. But I think your underlying question is whether or not there are examples of natural NP-hard problems that are, in some sense, easier to solve than some other NP-hard problems.
There are several flavors in which you can quantify the hardness of NP-hard problems more closely. For example, there are problems that are extremely difficult to approximate (e.g., maximum clique) while some problems we can approximate arbitrarily close (e.g., knapsack). You could also have a look at exact algorithms: there are natural problems for which the best algorithms run in time $O^*(2^n)$ and there is some evidence no algorithms faster than that exists, while others admit runtimes of roughly $O^*(2^\sqrt{n})$ (e.g., planar problems) or even better. Or, you could look at parameterized complexity, where the idea is to do a two-dimensional analysis, i.e., take not only the size of the input $n$ but also pick some additional parameter, such as solution size or some structural parameter $k$. Then, some problems admit algorithms whose runtime is of the form $f(k) n^{O(1)}$, where $f$ is some computable function depending only on $k$, while some problems don't (e.g., $k$-clique).
Answer: The other answers are correct, but f I may add an observation: it seems like you are conflating classes of problems and particular instances. There are a number of instances that can be solved in polynomial time in classes that are NP-hard in general. For instance, Boolean satisfiability is NP-hard in general, since it reduces to 3SAT. However, there are a bunch of instances called Horn clauses which can actually be solved in linear time. Notice that these instances are a subset of all instances of SAT. If you do not know whether the instance you have to solve is a Horn clause, the problem is NP-hard. If you do know that your instances are restricted that way, you have HORNSAT, which is in P. It all depends what your input potentially could be, and complexity goes by the worst-case instance.