Is storing software in the cloud with reputable vendors secure?

Question: I have a team member who refuses to use any form of private source code repository on Github or Bitbucket due to "security concerns".  As a result, we have a hard time sharing code with him.  He appears to be concerned about source code theft by some party.  To me, using cloud based source code repos is fairly standard industry practice.  But does this individual have a point?  Vendors do steal from customers in other industries.  Should a multimillion dollar idea not be stored on a third party cloud service like AWS, Github, Bitbucket, App Engine, etc?
Comment: If someone has the resources to steal the code from a reputable third party cloud service, they probably have the resources to reinvent the code from scratch.
Comment: @DanPichelman: There was a time when private companies wouldn't give their precious business data (never mind intellectual property) to anyone outside of their company, let alone a "cloud."  Given Target's problems, I'm not sure that the situation is any better today.
Comment: I seriously doubt the actual vendor would steal content.  Whether someone could get unauthorized access to it is a whole 'nother issue.
Comment: If he is that concerned about hosted services, you guys can always just set up a local repo behind in VPN server in one of your homes and keep your source control private.  How bad can that be?
Comment: Does he have a modern smart phone? Does he use Google? A SaaS hosted email client? How valuable is your data really?
Comment: Making use of stolen source code is, in most cases, going to be not worth the trouble. Unless you've got an actual trade secret embedded in that code, there's nothing there that the attacker couldn't write on their own, and probably do it faster than they can learn your codebase.
Comment: @RobertHarvey: Very true.  There are also a lot of companies putting their assets into SalesForce, Windows Azure, Amazon Cloud, etc.  The times, they are a changing.
Answer: First, you seem to have a management problem. One team member should not make such a decision and dictate terms that impose that decision on others.
Second, you seem to misunderstand the nature of cloud-based services. Most such services provide a high degree of isolation between users and against external agents (other than the NSA), but no protection from employees of your providers. Since you upload unencrypted text, any person with access to any part of the route from you to the provider, or with access to the internals of the provider, has access to your source code.
You can address this 3 ways.

Legal/trust. You either trust all those providers implicitly, or you obtain legal documents which bind them to certain standards of behaviour, on penalty of getting sued.
Local encryption. You employ a mechanism to transmit and store your source code in an encrypted form, for which only you have the keys. The technical details are complex, but achievable. Bear in mind you still need to exchange keys with your co-workers.
Own server. You run your own source code repository, and you use something like https with your own self-signed certificate for secure transmission, or a client that does it for you. You still have the problem of key exchange.

Doubtless there are strategies and variants I haven't thought of, but these are the main ones. Most people tend to pretend there isn't a problem and for most people there isn't. If your code is valuable enough (say you're developing high-profile financial systems or gambling systems or security systems) then I wouldn't be the one to make that call.
Answer: I agree with @david.pfx that a team member has no business in unilaterally deciding for or against a company's business decision, especially as the code is not his... He might raise his concerns, present his case, and let the decision makers (source control may be a decision taken as high as VP or as low as team leader, depending on company policy) accept or reject it. After which - he should accept the verdict.
When companies add private repositories on GitHub, they subscribe to GitHub under its privacy policy, which is legally binding to GitHub.
As for security, you could point him to GitHub's article on the subject:

We know your code is extremely important to you and your business, and
  we're very protective of it. After all, GitHub's code is hosted on
  GitHub, too!

They go on, and detail the security measures they take physically, operationally, etc. and also address employee access.
At the end of the day, you must trust someone... servers may be compromised, third party libraries may contain malicious code, and employees may leak information or sabotage the product - but without trusting (vetted) servers, libraries or employees - you would achieve nothing...
Comment: +1 given the sensitivity for their business model, it's quite likely that GitHub or BitBucket's network is more "hardened" than your network is!
Answer: Well, do you think when Dropbox employees are board they dive into our photos? or Gmail staff read our emails when there is nothing else to do?
I'm pretty sure in smaller companies like local telecom companies you might have issues with them as some individuals has quite a dangerous amount of power in their hand and usually that's not illegal, but the bigger companies are more of an Organization that has the power. For example X amount of shares belongs to an investment company, not an individual, so it is less likely that somebody can do whatever s/he wants within the company and no one notice or argue with them -- because they might risk the whole reputation of such a big company or drive it to a total disaster.
Also for a mature company which is big enough to make a big business like that, stealing from their customers is more like a suicide plan instead of a smart idea to make some dollars. I still see many people that they are afraid to go and search a domain name online in the registrar's website because they believe if the domain is really good, then the registrar company will register it before them and will ask them to pay thousands of bucks if they want that domain. If that's a small company then that might be true, but that's not the way Godady or Name.com work for example, but some people are still paranoid about that.
The other thing is that how someone can find your assets there? If you are a famous person or if you do work on a well-known company, then it might be possible, but I'm still pretty sure that those companies do a lot to hire the right people, so nobody on Github will go and take a look at the Jon Skeet's repositories, otherwise no one would trust Github anymore. However if you're someone who's not famous and/or your company is not in the news, then it's very unlikely that someone by accident finds your assets and realizes that they are valuable and worth stealing and risking the rest of their life.
Imagine if somehow it leaks out that someone in Dropbox were blackmailing his ex-girlfriend because he had access to her account in the company. That's a serious thing and the consequences are extremely disastrous. So I assume there are lot's of things inside a company like Dropbox to make sure such a thing will never happen -- from hiring process to monitoring what they do. Same goes for other companies like Github, Amazon, PayPal, Google, Yahoo, etc.
Answer: I think there is some legitimacy to the concern, but at the same time, there are ways to safeguard against it.
On the legal side, clear legal terminology in the terms of service can make the host liable for any such theft.
On the technical side, client records could be encrypted to prevent offline access by the cloud provider.  They could still alter their code to steal keys if they wanted to, but it would prevent random Joe Shmoe in IT from walking off with your data since it would require a user password to be able to decrypt the data if encryption is properly used.
Cloud services provide a lot of value when it is cheaper to have them handle it than to run it yourself, but you do give up control and need to make sure sufficient safeguards are in place to protect your business.


Are my emails being sent to spam?

Question: I'm working of a quite a large support organisation and we have a strong reason to believe that our outgoing emails are being delivered to spam folders.
Are there any services I can use to check if this is actually the case?
Answer: First thing, you want to check for your outgoing server(s) on email blacklists, using tools like MX Toolbox or WhatIsMyIPAddress.
Next, check the Reverse DNS on the IPs which send email for your organisation. If they don't resolve to the domain sending mail then you'll want to check your domain's SPF records to ensure any authorised servers are listed.
Outside of having some dummy accounts set up at Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail/etc for testing, you can use a 3rd party service like Return Path. I've not used them myself, but they offer a "Certification" service to help get you whitelisted.
Answer: I am using email on Acid: http://www.emailonacid.com/email-preview/deliverability.
I wouldn't trust its results in 100% (as spam filters constantly evolve) but it can give you a quite good idea what may be wrong with your emails.
MailChimp has a good tutorial here: http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/avoiding-the-spam-filters.

Are my emails being sent to spam?


Copyright date or publication date, which one should I cite?

Question: Can't believe I've got to the end of my PhD before asking this one! I want to cite a work whose copyright date is 1996 but whose first paperback edition (the one I'm referencing) is 1999. Which date is correct?
Comment: I think this is a case similar to the question [What year to use when citing second editions of books](http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3017/what-year-to-use-when-citing-second-editions-of-books). Therefore, I would cite the date of the writing you are actually reading (1999)
Answer: I have actually asked a librarian about this issue as it came up for me in the past.
She told me to cite the exact copy that I am reading. If what you are reading is the first paperback edition (usually the inside left initial pages will have information about this), then do cite that.
Comment: In this case, however, the librarian is correct. Cite the exact edition of the work you are actually reading with your own eyes.
Comment: If I had a dollar for every time I had to correct what a university librarian told me about anything book or library related, I would ... have many dollars. Being a librarian doesn't necessarily mean they have great insight, unfortunately.
Comment: @JeffE Depending on how "cite" is interpreted. Given the OP's question, I interpreted it as meaning ``1999``. But I think this is wrong, as indicated in my answer. If ``1999`` is not the intended interpretation, then this answer doesn't really answer the OP's question.
Answer: The purpose of giving details in the citation (rather than just saying "according to Joe Bloggs") is to allow other people to find the cited work. Year of publication is something that could plausibly help somebody find the work; copyright date is not, so cite the year of publication.
Answer: You should give the bibliographic information that the book gives you. Nothing more, nothing less. You should definitely cite the year that the publication itself puts as the year of publication (usually after a copyright symbol). Here I clearly disagree with the other answers given here. Here are a few reasons for this advice.
One, this will be the year that most, if not all, library databases will put down as the year of publication. You will confuse a lot of people if you put 1999 in your reference list when there is no 1999 entry for that book in the library catalogs.
Two, it is commonplace that the "year of publication" is different from the year it actually appeared. Sometimes journal articles from 2004 will often not appear until 2005, other times journals and publishers will deliberately back-date the publication by one year. I have books where the publication year is n, but everybody knows it actually appeared in n+1. It's not your job to be a bibliography detective and tell people when it really appeared. Your references should just say what the publication says.
Three, the reasons most paperback issues don't change the original year of publication is that the paperback copy is identical to the original hardbound copy. They are usually just photographic reprints. In many cases they won't even inform you when the reprint occurred - it'll just say something like "3rd reprint" or "3rd print". Again, you shouldn't be a detective and try to figure out when that reprint appeared, since it is of no relevance to the readers if the reprint is identical to the original.
So this is what you should do:
If the reprint/paperback issue gives the original year of publication, but also tells you something about it being a reprint, then add the information about the reprint as a note, e.g. Johnson, John. 1996. A book about nothing. Oxford University Press. 3rd reprint, 1999.
If you really care (like I do), get the original. I know most people don't bother, but I always do :)
Comment: @aeismail Except that all the others say you should cite the year of the paperback (1999), whereas I say you should cite the year of the original publication (1996) if that is given as the main publication year. And that was, after all, the OP's question.
Comment: @aeismail That's exactly what I said in my answer, too. But in some cases, the paperback will retain the original year of publication for copyright reasons, yet still mention the year of the reprint. The OP wondered what to do in those cases. And that's what my answer is mainly about.
Comment: Your advice is essentially the same as the others. Cite the information _provided in the book_.
Comment: Usually paperbacks do not cite a different date unless the content has changed and a new copyright has been secured.
Answer: APA 7th ed. says use both dates. 1996/1999.  Do this for works (same edition) that have been reprinted, republished, reissued, or translated. Check your style manual.
As you know, the purpose of the reference is to (1) credit the originator of the idea, and (2) provide enough information that readers can locate the source information. One of the reasons for including the date of the reprint you have is that if you reference page numbers in your work, they could be different in the paperback edition you have than in the original hardback printing.


Rotational Velocity and Rotational Frequency

Question: What is the difference between rotational velocity & rotational frequency? Their units seem to be the same, and I've read that one is a 'scalar' and the other is a 'vector,' but how do they differ?
Answer: There exists indeed a subtle difference, and are often referred to as angular frequency and angular velocity. Both are $\omega$ and have units $\text{s}^{-1}$.
The difference lies in the fact that angular frequency is the magnitude of angular velocity, and is hence a scalar-, instead of vector quantity. The direction of the vector is perpendicular to the plane of rotation.
The angular velocity is actually a pseudovector, and has units $\text{rad s}^{-1}$, but usually the terms are used interchangeably.
Answer: A vector quantity has a direction and a magnitude. The direction of the rotational velocity vector is along the axis around which a body is rotating. Its magnitude is the rotational frequency which tells you how fast the body is rotating.


difference between animal and plant durring organogenesis

Question: i would like to ask about organogenesis of animals and the relationship with plant as we depends on it. me i do not understand why we are totally different with the plant but all of our body made comes from plant.
please help me to understand
Answer: Our development is determined by our genes, encoded in our DNA. This is what makes a human who eats a salad develop differently from a pig, butterfly, or even bacterium eating that same salad.
To understand how all of this works, you can start by studying introductory biology. A nice way to start might be by searching youtube for "introductory high school biology", and selecting a video sponsored by a university. You can also find many free introductory textbooks online.
Then, you will begin to understand the secrets of how life works!


The process that has brought about the proposal and its submission?

Question: While writing a proposal, I came across a section on the template, under "PROJECT PLAN.", and I am at a loss as to the exact nature of information to provide in response to a request for" The process that has brought about the proposal and its submission.".   Is this a request to further explain what steps the organization took in preparing the proposal for submission(proposal creation strategy) or is this a request for further explanation of the rationale behind the choice of the problem this proposal is to solve(decision-making process)?
Answer: Depends on the context, but this sounds to me like you are being asked to explain how you came to the conclusion that your project was necessary. What discovery work have you done upfront to make sure this project will benefit the business.


How can I crop and export parts of STL Objects?

Question: I'm a blender beginner. I have an .STL of an anatomical figure and I need to crop a small chunk of it and export it in a separat .STL file, but so far I haven't found anything quite relevant on the web. Since I'm a blender-nobb, I figured out I don't even know what to search for exactly.
Comment: What do you mean by "crop"? I'm only familiar with that term in a 2D setting and I see a couple different ways it could apply here.
Comment: I have a maxilary 3D scan and I need to select a tooth and export it in a different STL in order to create a few different final STLs with that tooth in different positions from the original one (either rotated or moved a few mm right or left).
Answer: Have you tried looking into the Boolean modifier?
If you object is a closed, watertight, manifold mesh you could use Boolean operations to break it into chunks of the desirable parts.
Just create a new closed watertight mesh object that as a shape or volume that engulfs or includes the part of the STL you want to keep and use it in a Boolean operation to intersect with the existing mesh and extract the part you want.
You can also try the Knife Project operator if a simpler cutting or slicing of the original geometry in one direction will suffice to obtain what you want.
You can use something as simple as a plane or a bezier curve to cut your geometry in the desired way.

Edit If your object is already composed of separate parts but all joined in a single object you can simply enter edit mode, select them all press P to separate them and select the option All loose parts to divide them into different objects.


What do the green, white and yellow bands mean on an airspeed indicator?

Question:
what are these  green and white and yellow bands in the Airspeed Indicator use for ?
Answer: The FAA has a nice introduction document on flight instruments, which explains all the standard markings on a typical airspeed indicator (ASI):

As shown in [the figure above], ASIs on single-engine small aircraft
  include the following standard color-coded markings:

White arc—commonly referred to as the flap operating
  range since its lower limit represents the full flap stall
  speed and its upper limit provides the maximum flap
  speed. Approaches and landings are usually flown at
  speeds within the white arc.
Lower limit of white arc (VS0)—the stalling speed
  or the minimum steady flight speed in the landing
  configuration. In small aircraft, this is the power-off
  stall speed at the maximum landing weight in the
  landing configuration (gear and flaps down).
Upper limit of the white arc (VFE)—the maximum
  speed with the flaps extended.
Green arc—the normal operating range of the aircraft.
  Most flying occurs within this range.
Lower limit of green arc (VS1)—the stalling speed
  or the minimum steady flight speed obtained in a
  specified configuration. For most aircraft, this is the
  power-off stall speed at the maximum takeoff weight
  in the clean configuration (gear up, if retractable, and
  flaps up).
Upper limit of green arc (VN0)—the maximum
  structural cruising speed. Do not exceed this speed
  except in smooth air.
Yellow arc—caution range. Fly within this range only
  in smooth air and then only with caution.
Red line (VNE)—never exceed speed. Operating above
  this speed is prohibited since it may result in damage
  or structural failure.

(FAA Handbook - Chapter 8 - Flight Instruments, emphasis mine)
Answer: Wikipedia has a very fine article of this subject, and by chance(?) it has the picture you posted in your question. To save the trouble of going there to check this stuff out, I've composed a simplified explanation of the markings:
(as I was writing this, Bianfable posted a much better answer, but I just could not let my effort go to waste, so I posted this anyway :)
From 0 to 250 the coloured arcs on the dial mean:
60 - beginning of the white arc:

flaps extended stall speed, this is the minimum speed you can fly with this plane with flaps extended (= out = down).
the white arc marks the speed range you can use the flaps within

65 - beginning of the green arc:

stall speed with flaps retracted, this is the minimum speed you can fly this plane when flaps are retracted (= up).
the green arc marks the speed range you can normally fly the plane in

100 - end of white arc:

maximum flaps extended speed, this is the fastest you can go with flaps down. If you go faster, you risk damaging the flaps or the system that moves them.

165 - end of green arc, beginning of yellow arc:

maximum cruising speed, this is the fastest you can safely fly this plane (with flaps retracted of course).
the yellow arc marks the speed range within which you can operate the plane with caution, in smooth non turbulent air and without making sudden movements of the controls. Not recommended unless you really know what you are doing.

208 - red line,end of yellow arc:

Never exeed speed, do not go faster or you will break the plane and kill yourself!
Comment: Strictly speaking you are correct @Mast , the question however is obviously of the *absolute beginner* level, so I took the liberty of exaggerating on the safer side of things. A beginner pilot, when flying past the redline **is** in imminent risk of death. Sudden and large control deflections can easily break up or seriously damage an airframe, and very few beginner pilots have silky smooth touch...
Comment: "do not go faster or you will break the plane and kill yourself!" Isn't it more of a "warranty void above this speed" thing? Just because the aircraft is unrated in that region and it being a bad idea to go there, doesn't mean you'll get killed. Risk of death doesn't equal death.
Comment: @Jpe61 I've just found this question as an instructor under training for FI(S)! Also, beginner or otherwise, anyone who's going to be flying beyond VA ought to know what to do when facing a situation where they can't avoid busting VNE without busting G-limits. Instilling the idea that both "will" break the aircraft apart isn't exactly helpful.
Comment: Congrats on your future FI(S)! As I stated above, the question is very, very, very basic. Such questions certainly deserve an answer, I've decided my answer will also be very, very, very basic (some here  downvote or vote to close basic questions rather than bothering to answer, not me (usually)). By the time an aspiring pilot gets to control a plane, the V's surely have been *properly* introduced.


Can a US citizen use a passport copy to enter the US from Canada?

Question: I'm a US citizen with Canadian permanent resident card. My US passport is being renewed. Can I cross into the US with copies of both my passport and the passport renewal in my possession?
Comment: By air or by land?
Comment: Whether or not you have a Canadian permanent resident card is irrelevant to US border officials. All they want to know and care to know is that you are a US citizen.
Answer: Yes you can. In actual fact it is possible to enter the USA with no ID whatsoever particularly if you are coming by land (airlines and ships will turn you away without ID).
However be ready to be detained while they thoroughly confirm you are a US citizen.
See Does a verified US citizen need a police & medical report to return from Ghana?

Once confirmed though, USA immigration law gives all citizens the
  right to enter.
The Fifth Circuit in William Worthy, Jr. v. US, 328 F.2d 386 (5th Cir.
  1964):
We think it is inherent in the concept of citizenship that the
  citizen, when absent from the country to which he owes allegiance, has
  a right to return, again to set foot on its soil.

See the real life response  from this woman who lost her passport in Mexico. Vehicle customs, lost passport
Comment: You know, I've heard the statement "if you're a US citizen they have to let you in, even without a passport" many times now, but I've never actually read the story of anyone who has successfully done so, and the skeptical side of my brain keeps wondering whether this is an urban legend.  Are there any first-hand accounts of entering the US without a passport out there on the web?
Comment: @MichaelSeifert Yes there are including on this very website. See the answer from this woman who lost her passport in Mexico. https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/94391/vehicle-customs-lost-passport
Comment: @MichaelSeifert Doesn't matter how common it is, the simple fact is that if you make it to the border and claim to be a US citizen, they have to investigate it, and if you are a citizen, they have to let you in, full stop
Comment: @MichaelSeifert I can't comment on Canada, but living in Tijuana, Mexico, I know (first hand) many US citizens who travel down here for a weekend and then back without a passport (ie they don't even have one).  Having a US driver license or birth certificate or other form of ID is enough to be allowed back over the border into the US.  Happens all the time down here.  It doesn't mean they don't get additional questions or a slower crossing, but I haven't heard of any being denied reentry into the US.


default application to open text file in Thunar under Awesome WM

Question: I'm on Xubuntu 12.04 and using Awesome WM. In Awesome session, If I double click a plain text file(txt, asc, rb, py etc.) in Thunar, it opens with Abi Word. But I want it to open with a text editor not a word processor. In Xubuntu/Xfce session, it does open with text editor(Leafpad). How could I fix it without setting it for various text files?
Answer: If you're using Xfce 4.10, then you can Settings > MIME Type Editor, then set text/plain to whatever text editor you want. I'm not sure if this will take care of all possible file extensions associated with plain text files, but my hunch is that it should help.
Comment: Thanks for your answer. In MIME Type Editor, I see text/x-python is set to open with text editor, but anyhow when I'm in awesome session it still opens with abiword. I don't remember how and when I mess this up. I don't have the same problem with my laptop running the same software. Anyway, I'll just bear with it. I'm a terminal guy so the problem doesn't bother me very often and I plan to reinstall Xubuntu when next LTS is released.
Answer: On Ubuntu the default applications are set in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list (root access) and override by ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list (user access).
I would suggest editing the second file unless you intend to make your change permanent on several sessions.
Answer: Right click on a text file > Properties > Open With: > (whatever application you want)
or
Right click on a text file > Open With: > Open With Other Application... > (select and check "Use as default for this kind of file"
You use Awesome WM but I hope it is only a Thunar's affair, so the solution may be the above.
Comment: Thanks for your quick response, @MakisH. This works but I have to setting up for all types of text file which is unreasonable. Since it works as I expected in Xfce session, I guess there is something wrong that I'm not aware of.
Answer: I couldn't find the default application in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list noted in other answers, instead mine was in ~/.config/mimeapps.list as indicated in this answer. Per the comments, there are also other possible locations.
Answer: I haven't used Awesome WM and don't understand why you're seeing what you're seeing. To my mind, a window manager shouldn't cause changes to which application opens which file type (or file extension).
You also wrote (emphasis mine): "... If I double click a plain text file (txt, asc, rb, py, html etc.) in Thunar, it opens with AbiWord. But I want it to open with a text editor not a word processor. In Xubuntu/Xfce session, it does open with text editor (Leafpad). How could I fix it without setting it for various text files?"
To my mind, when most of us, irrespective of operating systems, double-click on an .html file, the file opens in our chosen browser and not in a text editor.

Anyway, one possibility is that your ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list is corrupted. Make a backup of this file and then delete the existing one. Log out and log back in. The file you've deleted will be recreated and populated as you open files. If you wish, you can always revert to the previous mimeapps.list by deleting the current one and restoring the backup.
Comment: It's fine with html file, it opens in Firefox. But most other text files ain't. txt files should open with editor, py/rb file(w/o +x permission) should also open with editor. But they all open with Abi Word. The problem doesn't exist if I log into Xfce. I've had no luck with the `mimeapps.list` file, I move it to `mimeapps.list.bak` and then re-log, the problem remains and no new `mimeapps.list` appears.


How to determine if binary has symbol table

Question: Is there a practical way to find if the raw binary (firmware image for example) has symbol table ? Finding start or end of it ? And if it exists is it a single block or can it be seperate multiple blocks with another data inbetween ?
Comment: This is so incredibly vague, I don't see how it can possibly answered. At a minimum a symbol is just a (name, address) pair, which could be stored in any number of formats in a binary.
Comment: The only practical way to find symbol table is to look to strings in the binary and their addresses. You can use linux strings utility for this if you don't have IDA.
Comment: So a symbol table is always a name-address pair ? What seperates them usually ? What strings have to be there if it is not stripped ? Any helpful tips to recognize it if header is missing ?
Comment: Which file do you working with? Do you see function names in its strings ?
Answer: I worked with some types of symbol tables. All these types are very different and can not be defined as something that allows automatic detection. It can be some kind of list of tuples like (pointer to name, type, pointer to object, [something else]). There are a lot of other variants also.
Any time I succeeded to recognize symbol table it was done by manual inspection of analyzed dump.
My methodology to find such symbol table is as follows (assuming that IDA didn't find it automatically):
1 - Find all strings in the binary, sort them and inspect results.
    If you see a lot of potential object names (function names, global variable names etc) you can suspect that you can use it and it is possible that there is symbol table in the binary.
2 - Choose some strings from the set. Check references to them. If you find
these references in something that looks like array of structures or any other regular data structure it might be your symbol table.
3 - When you understand what is the structure of your symbol table you can rename your objects with simple IDAPython script.
Comment: Number 2 should mention that the references may also be in the vicinity of the string. E.g. a few bytes before. Or that the same may hold for a pointer to the string. Still +1
Comment: OK as I try to make same thing mostly but can it be there are more than one symbol tables ? I mean in binaries you can find references to function names and function start addresses but those blocks end and somewhere else it starts again. Can such a symbol table be legit ? I dont mean any particular system but custom format binaries which are not in ELF format generally.
Comment: Yes.Such symbol table can be legit.
Answer: As pointed out in the first comment: firmware may have a custom format, therefore there is no general way to extract the symbols table from it. However,
you can extract the debugging symbols from an ELF binary using objcopy. The command should look something like:

objcopy --only-keep-debug binary_file output_file_with_debug_symbols

If you inspect the output_file_with_debug_symbols you will see which were the symbols from your binary. This is how to find out if an ELF binary has a symbol table.
By using dhex to compare the binary_file and the output_file_with_debug_symbols you can see that the isn't a fixed place in the binary where the debugging symbols start. However, in my case most of the debugging symbols were at the end of the binary.
It also seems that the debugging symbols are not a continuous block. There exist some short byte sequences at seemingly random positions, which are different in the binary file and the debug symbols file. Therefore, I don't think you can extract the symbols by simply start from an index and copy each byte until some ending index in the binary.
Comment: IDA would recognize such symbols automatically(objcopy is for ELF which is handled well in IDA). If it is firmware it can be in custom format with its own custom symbol table.
Comment: @ws that's true, but the title of the question refers to binaries in general. Firmware is mentioned "for example". However, I will edit my answer to clarify things. I just gave the answer for ELF binaries as you pointed out.
Comment: @ws: what objcopy is for is defined at compile time. On a Ubuntu 10.04: `objcopy: supported targets: elf64-x86-64 elf32-i386 a.out-i386-linux pei-i386 pei-x86-64 elf64-l1om elf64-little elf64-big elf32-little elf32-big plugin srec symbolsrec verilog tekhex binary ihex`


How can an unlimited adversary distinguish PRF's from Truly Random Functions (TRF)?

Question: I'd like to know which strategy is adopted by an unlimited adversary to distinguish PRF's from Truly Random Functions
Comment: Yes, truly random function
Comment: Welcome to Cryptography. Is this homework? If so, please write it in the question and show your effort.
Answer: Let's first define the domain and range of the function we want to distinguish to be $M = \{0,1\}^m$ and $N = \{ 0,1\}^n$.
Now, what does it mean for a function to be truly random? It means that it was selected uniformly at random from the space $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$, which consists of all functions from $M$ to $N$. How many such functions are there? I.e., how big is the space $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$? Answer: $N^M = 2^{n \cdot 2^m}$ (exercise: prove this).
On the other hand, if the function is a PRF, then it was not drawn from the full space $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$, but rather from a much smaller space indexed by the key of the PRF. That is, a PRF is formally a family of functions $\{F_k \}_{k \in K}$, where each member is a function $F_k \colon M \to N$. What we really mean when we say that the function is a PRF, is that we first pick a key $k \in K$ uniformly at random from the key space, and then we use the function $F_k$ indexed by this key to answer all queries. So how big is the PRF "function space"? It's simply the size of the key space $K$, i.e., $|K|$.
In the PRF distinguishing game we are then asked to distinguish a function which is either randomly selected from the set $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$, or randomly selected from the family $\{F_k \}_{k \in K}$. For concreteness, suppose $M = N = K = \{0, 1\}^{128}$. Thus, in this case we are asked to distinguish a function which is either drawn from a set of size $2^{128 \cdot 2^{128}}$, or from a set of size $2^{128}$. Notice the massive difference in size between these two sets! The PRF family lives inside a tiny tiny tiny bubble of the whole space $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$. In other words, the functions in the PRF family only exhibits a very tiny portion of all possible functional behaviors between the sets $M$ and $N$.
So how can we use this to distinguish whether the function we are given is truly random or only a PRF? Well, since we are an unlimited adversary, we can simply query the function at all possible inputs in $M$ to determine exactly which function in $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$ we are dealing with. If the function does not belong to the function family $\{F_k \}_{k \in K}$, then we of course know that it was selected as a truly random function and not as a PRF. But if it does belong to $\{F_k \}_{k \in K}$, what should we guess then? I claim that we should guess that the function was selected as a PRF. Why? Well, if the function was selected uniformly at random from $\mathsf{FUNC}(M, N)$, what is the probability that it would happen to coincide with a function in $\{F_k \}_{k \in K}$? Answer: really tiny. (Exactly how tiny I leave to you to figure out).
Comment: Is it the ratio between the number of PRF functions(cardinality of the key) and the number of TRF?
Comment: @PippoPluto Yes, exactly.


Days of Worship

Question: I understand Buddhists don't technically worship, but pray to the Buddha or meditate (apologies for any mistakes). My question is: do Buddhists have a certain number of times a day to worship/pray/meditate? And is there a certain day/days out of the week they congregate together to worship/pray/meditate?
Comment: @Hrafn Yes I am willing, and I have just accepted an answer, it was just hard to choose they are all so good :)
Comment: If one of the answers looks good to you, are you willing to accept it or provide feedback? ^_^
Answer: There are Uposatha days, wherein one makes increased effort at following precepts (either being more conscientious of the five precepts or temporarily adopting the eight).
I gather that there is often more deliberate meditation or study as well on these days, in addition to precept following:

It is usual for lay people to go to the local monastery and to spend all day and night there. In different monasteries, of course, the way they spend their time will not be the same and much depends on which aspect of the Dhamma is stressed there: study or practice. Where there is more study, they will hear as many as three or four discourses on Dhamma delivered by senior bhikkhus and they will have books to read and perhaps classes on Abhidhamma to attend. But they are quite free to plan their own time with meditation, discussion of Dhamma with the bhikkhus and so on. In a meditation monastery lay people will get less instruction and that will be about the Practice of Dhamma, while most of their time will be spent mindfully employed — walking and seated meditation with some time given to helping the bhikkhus with their daily duties. So the whole of this day and night (and enthusiastic lay people restrict their sleep) is given over to Dhamma.
Lay Buddhist Practice

Then there are other various holidays and festivals. I'm not sure if any of the other holidays involve increased practice or not. Some seem like they would just involve paying respect to the Buddha (Vesak) or monks (Kathina Ceremony).
Answer: First of all, in your question, "but pray to the Buddha" is not technically correct, as we cannot "pray" (assuming the meaning of the "pray" as praying to external being ie, god) to Buddha (He is no longer here to listen to the prays). We pay respect to Buddha (, Dhamma and Sanga). However in a way I agree with you that some people actually "pray" to Buddha. I don't think it will result in any benefit, though.
OK, about the questions, according to my understanding and experience:

Do Buddhists have a certain number of times a day to worship/pray/meditate?

The answer is NO.

Is there a certain day/days out of the weak they congregate together to worship/pray/meditate?

The answer is Quite NO.
However, during the full moon day (in countries like Sri Lanka), we observer "Uposatha sil". In some cultures, this happens every week accordance with the four phases of the moon.
Anyway, in practice, when it comes to daily routine, we like to start the day by paying respect to Buddha, Dharma and Sanga and end the day by doing meditation at least for 5-10 minutes.
Further, when it comes to actual meditation, I think you can do it with most of your daily activities. You could do "breath meditation" when you are waiting to the bus, or do some walking meditation, when you are walking to your work etc.
Answer: Speaking from my experience with Western Buddhist communities: There is usually a day (or more) in the week where members of the sangha can meet and meditate together. But that is not a specific day, just when it is convenient for the organisers.
Comment: Would you be alright with being more specific about which Western Buddhist communities you have experience with? I think that would help make this answer more useful to future readers.
Answer: Parinirvana day is celebrated in my Sangha (Triratna) and I believe some East Asian Buddhist communities. It's the full moon that is nearest to the time of the Buddha's death or parinirvana.
The tradition goes that the Buddha attained enlightenment or nirvana when he was a youngish man (around thirty). He elected to continue as part of the world spreading the Dharma for another 50 years only achieving final release on his death - his parinirvana. I find this very evocative.
Anyway for us it's an opportunity to re-engage and deepen our practice. To really get stuck in - with the other members of the community

Days of Worship


Do I need a visa to visit Bulgaria?

Question: I am a Moroccan living in Italy for several years and I hold an Italian permanent resident permit, next month I would love to go to visit Bulgaria, and also Turkey and Greece, with multiple entrance/exit from Bulgaria. I know that for Greece I do not need visa and also for Turkey as a Moroccan citizen I do not need a visa, but about Bulgaria I have some doubts and looking on the internet is quite confusing, somebody says yes others no, please can you help to figure out if do I need to apply for visa or not.
Comment: There's a partial ruling for Romania and Bulgaria regarding national permits issued by the other EEA states.  You may be able to benefit from it.  Check 565/2014/EU
Answer: You need a visa to visit Bulgaria. This document from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs contains an exhaustive list of all nationalities requiring a visa.
In this document, it's stated that citizens of Morocco do need a visa, there are no exceptions for residents, any exceptions apply to citizens of EU Countries only.
Comment: NOTE: This answer is outdated
Answer: As stated by Timatic, the database used by airlines:

Visa required, except for Passengers with a residence permit
  issued by Italy for a maximum stay of 90 days.

So no, you do not need a visa

Do I need a visa to visit Bulgaria?


Can you cast the Darkness spell on an in-flight arrow using the Ready action?

Question: A Level 18 Way of Shadow monk wants to Ready his action to use his reaction to cast Darkness on the tail feather of an arrow shot by one of his allies in mid-flight.  Is this sort of maneuver doable, or would it require some sort of check dictated by the DM in order to do so?
Comment: What is the intent of this usage?  I can only assume the PCs want to extend the range of the darkness spell or else they could cast it on the arrow after it lands.  They wouldn't be able to cast it before it is launched because it would prevent the archer from seeing to fire.  But, perhaps a GM could allow the casting on the nock of the arrow which could be covered by the fingers of the archer similar to a helmet over a stone with darkness cast upon the stone.
Comment: Related: [How does the Ready action work?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/80796/how-does-the-ready-action-work)
Comment: Related: [If I cast Darkness on an item and then leave it somewhere or give it to someone, would the spell persist?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/119611/if-i-cast-darkness-on-an-item-and-then-leave-it-somewhere-or-give-it-to-someone)
Comment: Related: [Readied actions to intercept projectiles](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/66935/readied-actions-to-intercept-projectiles)
Comment: Really super close to a Dupe: [Can a thrown javelin be catapult-ed back?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122181/can-a-thrown-javelin-be-catapult-ed-back)
Answer: It depends on how the DM interprets the rules
XGtE says:

If you're unsure when a reaction occurs in relation to its trigger, here's the rule: the reaction happens after its trigger completes, unless the description of the reaction explicitly says otherwise.

As Slagmoth points out, Sage Advice (page 10) also says:

Can a readied action occur during an enemy's triggering action, such as between its first and second attacks when it uses Multiattack?
A readied action occurs immediately after its trigger. If you defined the trigger as an attack, your action happens after that attack.

I think the question is then: when does the attack end? It is important to note that the rules to not define a travel time for projectiles. One could argue that it's after the arrow has landed/hit. Or it could be after the arrow has left the bow, since the attacker then could move on to do something else (conceivably before the arrow has landed, given a long travel distance).
The rules do not (I think) provide a definitive answer to this question, so the DM will need to adjudicate and be aware that allowing reactions between projectile departure and landing like this might have unintended consequences in other situations (such as allowing catapult to bounce a projectile back at the attacker)
If you wanted to argue semantics, you could define the trigger not as the attack but as the arrow being positioned a few feet from the attacker. This leans on the description of using a readied action:

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your Reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger.

However, the XGtE and Sage Advice rule from above further refine and narrow what a "perceivable circumstance" can be in the case of a weapon attack. As such, this is more an attempt to use a loophole in the wording than a solid, rules-based argument.
A stronger argument (I think) would be to lean on Rule Zero From page 6 of the PHB:

•The DM describes the environment.
•The players describe what they want to do.
•The DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions.

And from the DMG:

The D&D rules help you and the other players have a good time, but the rules aren't in charge. You're the DM, and you are in charge of the game. That said, your goal isn't to slaughter the adventurers but to create a campaign world that revolves around their actions and decisions, and to keep your players coming back for more!

Using these sections of the rule books, the DM could allow a novel use of Darkness like you describe.
Comment: In support, consider https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/shield, which also uses a reaction.  The reaction is triggered "when you are hit by an attack or targeted by the magic missile spell" - suggesting both that "targeted by" and "spell hits" are two different events and that "hit by" and "damaged by" are two different events.  The only way to say that "in midflight" isn't legit would be to say that the arrow's flight was instantaneous in a way that the moment between hit and damage was *not*.  That seems like it would be pushing things for all but the most gamist interpretations.
Comment: "When the arrow is fired" is a discrete, observable phenomena. One is not required to say "When [X] [attack]s [Y] with an [arrow] fired from a [bow]" like a computer parsing variables.
Comment: @T.J.L That's what I argued with slagmoth but he has a point that there are other rules which speak directly to situations like this which kind of prevent that reading when dealing with attacks. I've reworded the relevant portion of my answer to speak to this, though. Thanks!
Answer: This is entirely doable. The Darkness spell says:

If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it.

As the ready action can be used to cast spells, you may specify that you cast the spell as soon as the arrow is fired. Of course, you would have to specify which spell you would use on the turn you take the Ready action, and the circumstances in which you would cast it.
You should not have to make a check to do so.
Comment: Let's take this discussion to chat y'all: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/91938/ready-darkness


Does the Pomodoro Technique increase productivity?

Question: A lot is written about The Pomodoro Technique on various productivity blogs, is there any hard evidence that it improves productivity compared to basic scheduling of work?
Comment: Like @Job, I am particularly interested in the question of whether the "25:5" ratio is a good one for developers. In practice, I find the experience of 'breaking' every 25 minutes disruptive, but I'd love to read a study
Comment: What productivity techniques work for you is personal (because the reason you are unproductive is personal). Hence, if it works for you, it works for you. Otherwise not.

Studies could doubtlessly compare different techniques, and hence see which works for most people, etc. But no technique will work for everyone.
Comment: How about the Joel's 'it takes 15 minutes to get into the "zone"'?
Comment: "work some, then take a break." sounds productivity enhancing to me.
Comment: 25:5 on average is good, but don't set the clock to it. Just take regular short breaks when you're done with a block of work, rather than slaving along mindlessly all day until it's time to go home and discover next day that half you did was wrong because you weren't thinking straight the second half of the day...
Comment: Check on productivity.SE?
Comment: http://productivity.stackexchange.com/q/811/6191 seems related, though I'd love to have more research done on programming with pomodoro (is 25 too few?)
Comment: anecdotally, the pomodoro technique helps at work when I'm coding, but not when I'm doing physical tasks, like teaching robot points or setting sensors on a fixture. YMMV, but it's great when you're doing heavy thought activities.
Answer: It doesn't seem to have been properly evaluated, and from what I can tell it's primarily argued to be a study help and programmers.
The Pomodoro Technique for Sustainable Pace in Extreme Programming Teams has an analysis of it being used while doing XP (Extreme Programming). However the paywall is making it hard to access their analysis, but the slideshare from the authors make no mention of productivity, so I believe that it's purely been used as a way to structure work.
The inventor Francesco Cirillo has written The Pomodoro Technique (The Pomodoro) a fairly thick manual, but he's not citing any studies for his claims about productivity. It instead appears to be well reasoned manual with some anecdotes, but with little supporting evidence.
I also think that when you ask a question about the pomodoro technique, it's important to also ask; "As opposed to what?". The pomodoro technique forces you to become organized and do timeboxing. It also introduces discipline into the work process by advocating that unit work are atomical, and that you have to finish it before you get to do a break. If you are completely disorganized, then just about anything reasonable should improve your productivity.
As a last resort I tried looking up research that shows organizing your work leads to productivity gains, but I can't find anything directly looking into structured work vs unstructured work in terms of productivity. Maybe for the same reasons we can't directly answer Is the use of parachutes supported by peer-reviewed papers?.


Does the term "fitness advantage" or "fitness disadvantage" make sense?

Question: Same for the terms "selective advantage" and "selective disadvantage" which I intend to use synonymously.  There are usages of each on Google Scholar, but do evolutionary biologists understand what is meant?
Answer: What is unclear to you?
If you could highlight what is unclear to you, or what exactly are the semantic issues in your opinion, that would help to really address your misunderstanding. In absence of that, I will just give you a general explanation of their meaning.
What does 'fitness advantage' mean?
If a group of individuals has a fitness advantage, it means that this group of individuals has a higher fitness over some other group of individuals. The other group, then has a fitness disadvantage.
Natural selection
If we grouped these individuals based on genetics, then the genotypes having a fitness advantage will likely raise in frequency in the population. If we used phenotypic trait to group individuals and if the trait is heritable, then the frequency of these phenotypic traits is also likely to raise in frequency in the population.
Comment: The saying "les well-adapted" is less common the saying "fitness disadvantage". To me they sound very much the same. I would tend to think that we use the term "fitness disadvantage" when there is fitness variance in the population and we want to refer to it, while we could use "les well-adapted" to refer to the idea that the entire population has a lower mean fitness than some other hypothetical population (a load). In any, it really is the same concept but just eventually applied in slightly different context.
Comment: Thank you.  That is about what I expected.  I just haven't seen that term frequently.  I just wasn't sure whether if a group has a fitness it, by definition, has an advantage.
Comment: What about the terms "less well-adapted individuals" or "less well-adapted natural enemies"?


Is ordinal or interval data required for the Wilcoxon signed rank test?

Question: Having looked at multiple online sources, I can't seem to get a straight answer. Could someone please clarify for me if ordinal data is sufficient to use for the WSRT and if not, is the sign test an appropriate alternative?
Finally, this is for my dissertation project at university and so if any references/literature could be included in answers it would be much appreciated as I need to justify my choice of test either way and so far have only found answers from websites (which I can't reference!)
Comment: Well, you should not use the sign rank test. I would say that the sign test would be appropriate. I learned my nonparametrics out of [Lehman](http://www.amazon.com/Nonparametrics-Statistical-Methods-Based-Ranks/dp/0387352120). Using the rank test makes sense, because you have before and after treatment data. The one thing you need to take into account would be a control group, as time would probably play a factor in pain levels.
Comment: sorry, probably could have explained that slightly better! I'm comparing participants pain score (which they rate on a scale of 0 to 10) before and after treatment to see if there has been an improvement/deterioration. Hope this helps!
Comment: This question is more interesting than I initially thought it would be. See [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wilcoxon_signed-rank_test#Ordinal_data). You could always use just a [sign test](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_test), but this test is less powerful.
Comment: Thank you for the reply. I do realise the sign test is less powerful, my question was largely to ensure I wasn't going about this completely wrong! If I can ask for your opinion, which would you suggest under the circumstances - the more powerful wilcoxon, or the sign test, as it is definitely appropriate, if not as powerful? And can you think of any sources I could use to back up my decision for my paper?
Many thanks for this!
Comment: it's a comparison of pre- and post-test data, using an 11-point numerical scale if that helps
Answer: You can't use the signed rank test as a paired difference test for ordinal data, because you can't take differences of ordinal data.  If your scale were from A to K, & one patient's before and after scores were F and C, then what's F minus C equal to?†
The question really needs to be about the pain scale - is it reasonable to treat it as an interval scale, or can you transform it to an interval scale, so that going from '8' to '6' is the same reduction as going from '4' to '2'?  Just because you label it with numbers doesn't make that the case, & if it's not you need to use the sign test (which requires only the judgements that '8' is more than '6', & '4' is more than '2') instead.
The medical literature would be the place to start looking for more information.
† You could still use the signed-rank test if you're able to rank all the differences: F minus C may not have a numerical value but you know it's bigger than G minus D. But there could be a lot to compare & it's not often very practical.
Answer: According to the wikipedia page on Wilcoxon signed signed rank test, which could take ordinal data, it could still be applied to paired measurements like those in your case. I also found an examples using this test at this textbook.
However, with a closer look, in both examples, the magnitude of difference is assumed and require for computing the statistics. So It is not clear how, if possible to subtract e.g. 'Agree' from 'Strongly Agree' (quote @Scortchi
below). In contrast, a sign test signtest does not have this problem.


Tor on Firefox OS

Question: How can I use Tor on Firefox OS? Is there anything like Orbot or a browser bundle for Firefox OS based phones?
Answer: No, currently there is no way to use Tor on Firefox OS based phones, because there is no way to run the Tor program on Firefox OS. But it might be possible in the future, though no projects are working on it right now

We've [Guardian Project] talked to Mozilla multiple times about this possibility. They
  even invited us to a special event in Mountain View around a "secure
  Firefox phone".
The main issue is that they don't want to allow native binaries to run
  on the device as part of apps themselves. We can easily write an
  HTML/JS controller GUI, aka OrbotHTML, but we can't bundle in a native
  Tor arm binary into that app, apparently.

source: Nathan Frietas, Orbot developer Jul 2013, Tor-talk mailing list

However, there is now a Javascript implementation of Tor that could potentially be ported to Firefox OS, but there are currently no plans in progress to do so.
Answer: If I may: The real problem seems to be that JavaScript is essential to Firefox OS and JavaScript is a big no no for Tor. From https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2013-July/028740.html we see

They said we must cross-compile any native code into Javascript. I am
  not sure if that was meant to be a joke or not.

and at http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Jul-2013/msg00121.html you can see this explicitly stated as:

That is the rub, obviously. A FirefoxOS phone is built around the concept of JavaScript as the primary application programming language. If JavaScript is off, then the phone might as well be bricked.

Tor on Firefox OS


I was told this is a Sedum succulent. If so, what kind? There are so many!

Question: I have been told this is a sedum succulent. But what kind of sedum? I want to know to find out if it is indigenous in Cape Town.
Comment: It is definitely a Sedum but yours is a bit diminished and tough to tell form and color.  You need to make sure you don't water too much.  They store their own water and are extremely sensitive to wet feet.  Don't water so much that the water drains out of the pot.  A pot half that height would be best.  Water only when the whole pot is light to lift.  Is this potting soil or some other mixture?  Someone might be able to tell you the species and variety so wait until others have viewed your plant, okay?  Have you added any fertilizer?  What type?
Answer: It could be Crassula tetragona rather than a Sedum, which is a South African native, but because it's spindly with few leaves, it is hard to be certain, image here https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-134308073/stock-photo-closeup-of-miniature-pine-tree%2C-crassula-tetragona%2C-succulent-plant-with-woody-stem-grown-in-south-australia


Is there a simple way to identify the true Lunatic Cultist?

Question: During a battle with the Lunatic Cultist, he will summon duplicates of himself and perform a ritual. Attacking the incorrect cultist causes a Phantasm Dragon to appear. Is there a fairly easy way to determine (short of just guessing) which of the cultists is the true one? I occasionally get the feeling that the shading on the real one is slightly different, but I haven't been able to tell for certain.
Answer:
One way to determine which cultist is real is by playing at night. The real cultist does not emit light like the decoys, so it will be very easy to determine the correct one to attack, and only the real cultist has a health meter.

Source
Answer: The real Cultist's eyes are shaped more like a "/" and the fake one's are more circular. Check the wiki for images:
Comment: From the photos one can also see the decoy doesn't have a gold embroidery line running over the top of the head like the real one does.
Answer: Another very easy way to identify the true Lunatic Cultist is by using a Hunter Potion, which highlights enemies in red/orange. Only the true cultist will be highlighted by the potion.
Answer: Adding on to what Chippies said, having homing weapons (like the post golem possessed hatchet) can aid in finding the true cultist. This is because the homing weapon would ignore the cultist clones and only target the true one.


Is it plagiarism to submit the same work in a course after withdrawing from the course on a previous occasion?

Question: I took a course a couple years ago and was doing well until I could not attend any longer and abruptly had to stop. I am currently retaking the course and wanted to hand in the work I submitted years ago since I worked hard on it and did well. Is this plagiarism or against some academic code?
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/83130/discussion-on-question-by-patricia-clent-is-it-plagiarism-to-submit-the-same-wor).
Answer: Whether or not this is a problem probably depends more on the goal of the assignment for the purpose of this course rather than plagiarism as a general academic concept, because in both cases the work is your own sole work for a course assignment (the same course even), and is not owned by anyone else, published, etc.
The only thing you can do is to ask your instructor for guidance. Depending on their goals for the assignment, they may be okay with a re-submission of the previous work or they may want you to complete a new assignment; they may even want you to pick a new topic if the assignment allows for a broader interpretation.
Answer: I was once given credit for a paper that I'd submitted to a previous school after I moved. However, there were two considerations. I moved before I completed the first course so wasn't given complete credit for my work previously. Also, I asked the instructor beforehand whether I could submit it, as the assignment was nearly the same.
Even if I'd written it from scratch, it would have had the same ideas, and because thought and language patterns are fairly consistent over a short period, it might have had much of the same phrasing unless I'd tried to obfuscate it - a stupid practice.
Note that the earlier work wasn't published, so it really isn't a technical case of plagiarism to reuse your own thoughts. I also, I suppose, revised a bit to include more recent ideas (this was more than 50 years ago). But complete honesty with the professor isn't likely to hurt you here even though the professor isn't likely to know of your earlier work unless you tell him/her.
However, revision is worth doing in any case. Presumably you have learned some things since the work originated.
Comment: "Published" is a bad metric for plagiarism in the context of a class assignment. Many universities will consider the unreferenced reuse of previous assignments to be (self-)plagiarism, regardless of whether the work was 'published' or not.
Answer: I tend to fall more into the line of thought that such use of your work is not plagiarism. A key component here though is disclosure. I would speak with the professor about re-use of your work. If he or she approves re-use of the work, I would find it to be perfectly allowable to re-use that work.
I have had a few instances where my students have re-used work even from other classes. Insofar as it fulfilled the assignment, I was okay with this. It saved them from a busywork-like rewriting of an assignment into slightly different language. In each case, all I asked is that students indicate that they were re-using the work.
Some slight caveats would be cases where the student does not retain sole copyright of the work, or cases where the work was a collaborative effort. These cases require much more care not to plagiarize. However, in cases where a student is the sole author of the work and they have not assigned the copyright to any other party, I allow students to re-use their personal work.
Answer: I wouldn't focus too much on the label 'plagiarism'.  I'd suggest focusing on acting with integrity and honor and in line with your personal ethics.  Not everyone understands the word 'plagiarism' in the same way (as is evident from the answers here), and the specifics of the academic code might vary a bit from university to university and from class to class, but regardless of whether it counts as plagiarism or something else, you can still be sure to do the right thing.  Even if it is not 'plagiarism' per se, that doesn't completely settle the question; you should still ask whether it is right and acceptable to do this.
I don't know whether it will be considered acceptable in your particular class, but let me suggest some questions to help guide your thinking.  What would the instructor say if they knew that you were re-using your answer to an assignment from when you took the class earlier?  Would they be happy with it, or would they consider it unacceptable?  What would they say if they discovered that you had re-used an old assignment, without indicating that you had done so?  Would they feel deceived?  Would they feel like you were trying to hide that fact?  What would a disinterested third party think, if they learned that?  Your answers to those questions might help guide your thinking about what to do.  Of course, you might not know the answer to some of those questions, in which case the natural solution is to talk to your instructor to find out the answers.
In particular, I have some concrete suggestions:

Ask your instructor. Find out what their standards are.  This may make it clear what to do.  And I suspect the instructor would prefer to be asked, rather than discover it on their own after the fact.
Be honest about what you are doing.  Disclose on your assignment that you wrote the essay the last time you took the course and turned it in for credit then.  That way, no one can claim that you are hiding what you are doing.  (If you are thinking that you shouldn't need to do this, well, you totally might be right; but it's also worth considering that when we are tempted to hide some facts, that can sometimes indicate that we know or suspect it might be wrong.)  And it helps protect you: if anyone later accuses you of plagiarism or wrongdoing, you can point to the fact that you proactively disclosed it on the assignment, and I expect that would count for a lot.
Answer: In general, you need to understand the rules at your institution.
In broad terms, what you describe broadly fits the definition of what is called "self-plagiarism". I.e., using your own published work in a subsequent publication where there is an expectation of originality and you do not acknowledge that part or all of the new publication is taken from the earlier publication. Of course, in a student setting, replace the words publication with assignment.
At all universities that I have worked at (Australian context), there has been a rule that treats submitting assignments used in previous units without acknowledgement as academic misconduct. I imagine this is in place for pedagogical reasons. You are meant to learn by creating a novel piece of work, even if you happen to have done something similar in the past.
That said, your case is a little different. You are not taking an assignment from a different unit. Rather you are taking your assignment from  the same unit. This scenario is presumably fairly common (e.g., students that fail, students that drop out of a unit, and the re-enrol at
a later date).
I would seek explicit guidance from your professor about what is their policy.
Answer: Since you don't mention how long ago it was that you dropped your class, I would say no, don't laze your way through your first assignments. Man up and work hard again. I am a retired teacher and I agree with @louic. You are there to learn and to PROVE what you have learned. Use your past work as a study guide and fulfill your new syllabus again. If you are truly a learner, you will enjoy getting back into the swing of this class and breeze through the portions you completed earlier. Then, you will be prepared for the part of the syllabus that you dropped and have not done the work for. It sounds like this class is one you need for your major, so cutting corners will only hurt you in the long run.
It also sounds as though you submitted some of it for a grade already. In my opinion, it would be unconscionable to RESUBMIT ALREADY SUBMITTED AND GRADED WORK, whether it counted on your transcript or not. You would have an unfair time and learning advantage over others in your class that could skew the curve (if there is one).
At any rate, you're already ahead of the game by even considering the question, so best of luck!
Answer: My daughter received an F on a paper in college that she had self-plagiarized from a paper in high school. Best to check with the instructor and confirm their policy.
Comment: Sounds like she got an F for submitting the same work for credit in more than one course.  The academic honor policy at her school probably specifically forbids that in those or very similar works.  It benefits no one to use loaded phrases like "self-plagiarism", stick to the much more clear and accurate verbiage the policy uses.
Answer: Both the question (plagiarism) and the current answers (yes / no / ask your instructor) are not in line with what a typical teacher would expect: the purpose of the class is that you learn something.
Unfortunately a past achievement is not necessarily the same as something you can still do now. So the question you should ask yourself, and also what your teacher wants to see is: are you capable of completing this assignment TODAY.
In other words: you are not in university to pass exams. You are there to learn something. So the solution is simple: do the assignment again.

If you already know how to do it you will get it done quickly.
If there are details you forgot, you will learn something which is the purpose of attending the course in the first place.

Good luck!
Comment: @AndrewLazarus I'd argue that a math problem set might be at the top of the list of things I'd recommend redoing. On some written creative or analysis assignment particularly if you feel the same way about the subject and would come to the same conclusions as previously, it may be difficult to come up with completely original output, and redoing the assignment is likely to result in just rehashing the same arguments, but with math problems, you don't really do them as proof of your capability, but for practice.
Comment: Given that the OP seems to have dropped the initial class without credit, and is retaking it, I think it very possible that the repeated assignment is fairly narrow and there's little value in attempting to redo it. The most extreme example would be a math problem set.


Where should I put the "Definition of concepts" section in a Research Paper

Question: I'm writing a research paper and there are some concepts which I think would help a reader to understand the study better. However, I'm not sure where to put this section. Should I put it right after the Introduction? Or before Literature Review?
Comment: I decided to put it below the introduction since in this way it helps reader to understand the experiment better.
Answer: I would put the section in question before the first section, where the concepts you want to define are mentioned. However, note that, generally, you have two options, in my opinion. The first is to collect definitions (potentially, with brief explanations) under a separate section, which is usually called "Definitions of Terms". The second option is not to have a separate section, but to present the concepts' definitions and explanations as your paper's story line unfolds. While the benefit of having a separate section is clarity and ease of use for less advanced readers, the advantage of embedding concepts' definitions and explanations into the paper's main text is an opportunity to provide much more detailed explanations as well as smooth integration with the rest of material.
Comment: @MajidHassanpour: You're welcome.
Comment: I agree with this answer, If you do choose to include a "glossary" or "Definitions of Terms", it should go at the beginning of your paper.
Answer: Conventions like this vary between fields.  Look at other papers in your field or subfield, and do what they do.
Answer: Definitions of key concepts are important to the understanding of your paper. Hence, it is preferable to have them as a separate section under the title "Definition of terms." This section should be be placed towards the beginning of the paper, before you start with the major content. I would place it in the introduction, immediately after the statement of the problem at hand and the purpose of the study.
Answer: Right in the introduction / Background.  That's where you introduce everything, including concepts the reader needs to know.


Download El Capitan Outside of App Store

Question: does anyone know if it is possible to download El Capitan directly, as opposed to going through the App Store?  I'd like to be able to upgrade, but App Store is blocked on my machine.
Comment: You can always go into your local [Apple Store](http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/) and download it there.  They will even help.
Answer: Here is a link to download the latest updates manually from Apple.
Here is a torrent file to download InstallESD.dmg, getting speeds of 1mbps+. OS X is free and open to public so this isn't illegal.
This file's SHA1 Checksum is 306a080c07e293b6765ba950bab213572704acec. Here is a list of official Apple checksums. So this is official and not been tampered with.

If you are a developer, or know one that will give you his credentials, you can download it from https://developer.apple.com/download
Comment: I wouldn't touch a torrent of an OS installer with a barge-pole; unless you can confirm its checksum against a known good one.
Comment: I just read in another post that you cannot know for sure that the installer is safe unless you pull it from the App Store, and that the best way to go about getting the installer is to have someone else download it from the app store and then put it on a USB stick, transferring it that way.  How do you know that the file on the torrent is safe?
Comment: You just said that you can't download it from the AppStore, so how would you know if any other file is safe?
Comment: I wouldn't !!  I cannot download it from the app store on the machine I want to upgrade.  How ever, I can download it from another machine and just transfer with a USB or dropbox or something.  Thanks for the link though.
Comment: Why can you not download from the App Store?
Comment: Updated with proof of checksum. :)
Answer: If your are trying to upgrade from OS X 10.7 on an old MacBook (like I am doing) to get El Capitan and then be able to upgrade to the latest macOS, you can also try to use Internet Recovery. Press and hold CommandOptionR during startup and you will enter Internet Recovery. Then you can install the latest macOS version (High Sierra, at the moment).


Should this site cater to those trying to build community platforms?

Question: For example: If you're building software for chat, should you be able to ask on [moderators] about "how can I recognize that a person is likely coming from the same computer on an IP range to block them from being abusive?"
Answer: I had been thinking about this one for a while, because we certainly do have expertise in some fringe areas of this, so I'm going to sum up the other answers and add my own opinion to it:

Technical questions about implementation details and code ("is this code going to work for my plans?", "how can I implements this system?") should be off-topic.
Questions about the concepts behind a given system, their influence on the community, and how to introduce them in a system ("how do I tell my community about this change?", "what are the effects of this system on user retention/conduct?") should be on-topic.
Questions about user behaviour that might be considered while building such a system ("how can I trick a ban evader; what do they miss that I can use to find them again?") should be on-topic.
Answer: I believe that asking about how to properly build community platforms requires input from people who have administered community platforms before, so we should definitely be able to suggest how to build better community platforms on this site, if the question is objective and targeted, as per all SE standards.
Answer: I've been thinking about this question for a while, but here's what I think: don't focus on the technical side of things. However, that doesn't mean you can't talk about banning. Confused? Let me give some examples:

If it is about actually how to ban the IPs (as far as code), it probably is off topic. So How do I detect the IP of a client in PHP to block certain IPs? shouldn't be allowed.
If it is Are IP bans sometimes counter-productive? That should be okay.
I'm not quite sure about Is this code good for blocking IP a user?, but that might also be a little too much opinion based...
Answer: I just got stabbed by this rule, and its rather dissatisfying.  There's a lot of interesting ways to design a platform these days for your community that could potentially have profound affect on the interaction and collaboration of the people in that community.

I'm looking forward to employing some new ideas in a new community, but am rather sad to see that this community about building communities building is unnecessarily limited in sharing such ideas.

I'm not sure what people fear about "being technical." We're not talking about programming lessons or software configuration discussions. Its a very normal business discussion to ask "here are my requirements, what is the best way to meet this in a platform?"
Answer: No. I think this should be non-technical. I think that there are plenty of other SE sites for technical questions - Stack Overflow, Programmers, and Security are likely to be top candidates.
Comment: I think the questions shown here are less of how to implement something programmatically, but rather building of the actual platform from a user/admin/mod experience perspective.
Comment: This answers the specific example in the body of the question, but not the question itself as posed in the title. There are many non-technical questions that could be posed related to the design or development of community platforms.
Comment: @AirThomas The sentiment stands. Questions about building a community should be in, questions about designing or building a platform should be out.


How many steals runner do when accessing multiple agendas in the archives?

Question: The runner accesses cards in archives and there are 3 agendas in it. The corp's identity is the "Argus Security" (whenever the runner steals an agenda, he or she must either take 1 tag or suffer 2 meat damage). How many times the id's ability triggered? One or three?
Comment: The runner must steal all agendas they can when accessing. They can't steal an agenda if they don't pay the cost (due to say Obokata or Red Herrings) or if a condition makes them unable to steal (Haarpsichord Studios), and each card accessed is accessed independently, so if you can steal all three, you access each agenda one at a time, steal, trigger Argus, then move to the next one, taking any combination of 3 tags or 6 meat.
Answer: Argus gets triggered 3 times.
From the rulebook (page 18):

Archives: The Runner accesses all cards in Archives and any
  upgrades in its root. The Runner turns all cards faceup when
  accessing them, and does not need to keep them in order. The
  Runner steals all agendas in Archives and cannot trash cards
  that are already in Archives. After accessing Archives, all
  cards in Archives return to Archives faceup
Accessing Multiple Cards
  When accessing multiple cards, the Runner accesses them one
  at a time in any order he likes.[...]
The Runner must fully resolve his access to a card (steal it, pay
  to trash it, etc.) before accessing the next card. If the Runner
  scores an agenda that gives him seven or more points, he
  immediately wins the game, even if he would otherwise access
  more cards.

To summarise: runner accesses all cards in archives. Runner must steal all agendas they access. Runner accesses each card separately and fully resolves each access before continuing to the next card, so Argus ID gets triggered on each steal separately.
Comment: @user30903 As I understand, the point of the question was: is it 3 separate steals or a single "steal them all" bundle, because latter will trigger "Whenever X happens" only once. That is the case with The Cleaners + Scorched Earth = only 1 additional meat damage.
Comment: Yes, and it's worth being clear that the ID ability on Argus is worded "Whenever the Runner steals and agenda," which means each and every instance of an agenda being stolen. So, in the asked about example, the ability triggers three separate times upon that single Archives access. (Many abilities in Netrunner say "The first time each turn," but not the case here.)
Comment: Not disagreeing with your answer, just acknowledging that the OP asked specifically about how many times Argus triggers. I think it's worth clarifying that the wording on Argus means each instance of stealing, and doesn't count the entire access as a single trigger.


What is best practice for charging galaxy tablet? Will charging for long periods 24/ 7 damage it?

Question: Will leaving my galaxy pro tablet plugged in 24/ 7 cause any damage?
Answer: It's true that the underlying technology behind Lithium batteries cannot stand being overcharged (batteries that are overcharged may overheat and explode); however all consumer grade Lithium batteries have a chip that controls the optimal charging strategy and automatically cuts off the current once the battery is full.
Barring manufacturing defects, yes, it is safe to keep your device charged all the time. Keeping the device in the charger as much as possible is, in fact, the best practice to prolong the battery lifetime.
If you're in situation with heightened risk of having devices with manufacturing defects though, for example if you are running an application development shop that have dozens of continuously plugged devices in a small space, you may want to minimize your risks by switching the charger off when the device are not being used. This is good for saving energy anyway.


How do I clean off bread stuck to a non-flat / patterened cast iron pan?

Question: If this was a normal pan I'd be scraping it with a metal spatula right now, but it's a custom shaped pan (for making novelty shape bread/cupcakes). There are no flat spots, just a lot of grooves and curves. Should I be using a plastic or otherwise non-scratchy tool to scrape out one part at a time, or is there some other approach?
Comment: Long soaking is your friend.
Comment: Won't even take that much soaking. Just leave it in hot water for 10 minutes or so. Then it'll come off with your standard nylon brush.
Comment: @derobert I have to admit I was thinking about burned on....
Comment: I've been told in no uncertain terms by many people to never soak a cast iron pan.
Comment: @Sparr : it's all relative ... a 30min or hour soak isn't bad ... leaving it overnight or in your sink for a week is not good.  (you also have to be aware of where you soak it -- leaving it in your sink, where the back's also getting wet and staying wet isn't good, as the seasoning tends to be less developed there.
Answer: You should not use metal on cast iron or may damage the seasoning. It is best to clean it while still hot with a brush to get into the grooves and never use dish soap. Some coarse salt can help get rid of burnt on areas. Then reheat and coat with a bit of oil to protect the coating/seasoning. Patterned cast iron is difficult to season and may take more time developing a good seasoning.
Answer: As mentioned in the comments, start with a short hot soak (the hotter the water, the better, even boiling water poured into the sink is great for this). Remove the pan from the still hot water and scrub off all of the stuck-on stuff that you can using a nylon brush or a scrubby sponge . Repeat with fresh hot water as necessary until all of the big stuck-on stuff is gone. Once you get down to just little stuff, use kosher or other coarse salt to scrub it off. Do not use soap, do not use steel wool or a metal brush. Rinse very thoroughly.
NOW is when your pan is vulnerable to rust. Get it dry fast by using towel and paper towels, then stick it a hot oven (or on a burner) just until the whole pan is warm and completely dry. Lightly oil the whole pan (I use a paper towel for this), bake the oiled pan upside down at 350F (180C) for an hour. Once cool, it's ready to put away.
Answer: Get it nice and hot, nearly red hot, the stuck things will seperate and then knock it a bit to loosen anything left. But for safety, use tongs and oven mits/kitchen towels to handle it while it's hot and make sure you have some place to put it when you take it off the burner, like the sink or ceramic/stone surface, that won't melt or scorch.
And as Jolene has mentioned, a short soak with a thorough drying and re-oiling should be fine for the finer grit.
Comment: Under these circumstances, a short soak is fine, especially if she quickly thoroughly dries the pan. Your recommendation includes using a metal brush. I absolutely disagree with that, a metal brush WILL damage any seasoning she has.


When would I need to seek further help about my child's umbilical stump?

Question: What is normal for the umbilical stump? What signs would need further attention?
Answer: If you have any concerns you should speak to your midwife or health visitor or doctor straight away. You should especially talk to them if you notice any bleeding, or any discharge, or if the area is hot and red and inflamed.
The umbilical cord and surrounding area needs to be monitored and cared for.  It's a possible source of complications.  Luckily most of what you need to do is straightforward.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/your-baby-after-birth.aspx

Shortly after birth, the midwife will clamp the umbilical cord close
  to your baby's belly button (navel) with a plastic clip. They then cut
  the cord, leaving a small bit of it with the clamp attached (or your
  birth partner may like to do this). The cord may take about a week to
  dry out and drop off. Keep your baby's navel clean and dry until this
  happens. If you notice any bleeding or discharge from the navel, tell
  your midwife, health visitor, or GP.

The umbilical cord is supposed to turn black.

Between five and 15 days after your baby is born, the umbilical stump
  will dry out, turn black and drop off. After the stump comes off, it
  usually takes about seven to 10 days for the belly button to heal
  completely. Until the stump drops off and the belly button is
  completely healed, it's important to keep the area clean and dry, to
  prevent infection. If you notice any bleeding or discharge from your
  baby's belly button, ask your midwife, health visitor or GP for
  advice.
Comment: I think this is a useful answer, but it doesn't address color changes and the relationship to that and infection.
Answer: If the stump has a bad odour and a discharge then you may need to get it looked at by your public health nurse or paediatrician. It's important to keep it clean with cotton wool and cooled boiled water, do this at each nappy change.
Caldesene powder was recommended to us for the same thing and it has worked. It was applied at each nappy change and completely dried out the area.


What does to deglaze a pan mean?

Question: A friend of mine described a recipe to me, and she said she deglazed the pan (I think I understood correctly). What does that mean?
Answer: Deglazing removes caramelized bits (the "browned" bits) from the bottom of your pan or skillet after cooking meats or vegetables.
It is usually accomplished by putting stock, sauce, wine, or even water (or really any liquid) in the pan over heat after the pan has been emptied of whatever was cooked into it and any rendered fat and scraping the browned bits into that sauce with a spatula.  The browned bits dissolve into your liquid to create an excellent sauce for whatever you just cooked in the pan.
Comment: I would add: it is also useful for easily cleaning the pan.
Comment: +1. I would add that the pan needs to be quite hot before you add the liquid and you generally add a fairly small amount of liquid so that the pan heats the liquid rather than the liquid cooling the pan.
Comment: Deglazing with something alcoholic is more fun because you can light it on fire (careful--the flames can get very large). Brandy is my favorite.
Comment: @Adam - you know, the only thing I've ever managed to (intentionally) set on fire was Bacardi 151.  It comes with a label "warning, do not set on fire" because it is so flammable.  I fail at flambes.
Comment: It is easier to set moderate proof alcohols on fire *before* you add them to the pot. High proof stuff like the 151 is more tolerant.
Answer: Deglazing is a technique for making sauces and gravies. It occurs after you've accumulated cooked on meats and other deposits. First remove your meat and any excess liquid fat. Second crank the heat up high and get your pan nice and hot. Next add a cool liquid (water/wine/stock). The liquid will boil rapidly and lift the browned deposits to create a flavorful sauce.

What does to deglaze a pan mean?


How long are steam purchases valid?

Question: Having always purchased hard copies of games I am a bit apprehensive about going all digital.My main concern once I have a steam game in my library is there a download limit/number of installation on the game.Is it safe to say that I can dump physical copies for good?
Answer: The games you buy are yours forever (or rather a very long time) and can be installed on as many computers as you want (unless the game has a limit on its own, but the same limitation would likely be on the physical edition too).
Dumping physical copies is a decision you must make, but as I stated below, Steam has been around for 13 years already, and they are likely to be around for a very long time. I don't like physical copies as buying, storing, moving and organizing them is hard yet losing them is pretty easy.
Steam is generating billions of dollars every year and is unlikely to go bankrupt, and even if it did, most developers would provide a way to move your games to another platform, like most developers did when Desura went bankrupt.
Comment: One other thing worth mentioning: It's _way_ easier to install Steam games when you rebuild your computer. The only thing you need to remember to download is Steam itself, and then you can install the games you want, when you want to play them (or a bit before), rather than having to hunt for the CD/DVD.
Comment: Only Restriction: Some games might force you the Steam Client.
Comment: @h0ch5tr4355 To be fair, even hard copies will occasionally require the Steam client. IIRC, when I got my hard copy of Skyrim, it asked me for my Steam account details so it could download all the updates from there.
Comment: To be added, that IF you break Steam rules, your account can be banned, so you can lose access. However for normal people who don't cheat, etc, this is not a real problem. But if you want to do nasty things, then Steam can get rid of you. :)
Comment: @AntoineHejlík no. You only get VAC banned if you cheat. You do get community (unable to add friends etc) or trade banned if you try to scam people though. Losing access to all your games is pretty hard, and steam rarely bans people completely (they only ban you completely for 6 months if you buy something and contact your bank and chargeback).

How long are steam purchases valid?


Does halving ever end?

Question: Every certain number of blocks the reward is cut in half, for example from 50 to 25 BTC.  Will this halving continue indefinitely, so the reward never gets to zero?
Answer: It will, one day, reach 0, which mean mining wont be possible anymore (or it wont just be worth it). and by 0, I mean it could be 0.000001.
But if you look at it in a mathematical way, it should never end. Try that with a calculator, the number becomes really small.
The Bitcoin network is made so there will be a limited number of coins available and they have to be generated at a predictable rate, thats also why there is a difficulty on the mining
Comment: mining will be critical when the reward = 0 because it is required to confirm transactions.  The volume of transactions and the included fees will still make mining valuable to the network.  Mining was not designed to be highly profitable, it was supposed to help secure the network and offer a little reward to the miners.  I doubt Satoshi foresaw the ASIC race that we are seeing today.
Comment: I know it will get very small, but it will never actually reach 0? So the target number of bitcoins will never actually be reached?
Comment: If you look at the link below (which is a similar question to this one) you will read that there should only be 32 halvings. If the precision is not increased it WILL reach 0  http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5545/how-many-halving-days-will-there-be
Comment: It is also a pretty steep argument to assume that mining will not be profitable just because today the transaction fees wouldn't support the mining expenses. When the halving ends in more than one hundred years, either Bitcoin will have failed or there will be sufficient shareholders bound to lose a lot if mining fails - they will be putting some money into the fee pot.

Does halving ever end?


Will Juno be visible during its flyby?

Question: Juno is flying by by the planet Earth on October 9, 2013. Will it be visible to the naked eye anywhere on Earth, and if so, where and when?
Comment: If it is I gather it should pass along the sky very fast, much faster than satellites...
Answer:

This image shows the trajectory of the Juno spacecraft. It can be seen that the closest approach takes place in the shroud of Earth's shadow, so most of the world is going to miss this.
Source

Two minutes before closest approach
  Juno will experience the only eclipse of
  its mission, passing into the umbra of
  Earth's shadow for about 20 minutes.
  Chris Peat at Heavens-Above also told
  Universe Today that observers in India
  are also well-placed to catch sight of
  Juno with binoculars after it exits the
  Earth's shadow.
Answer: You may visit Heavens Above to configure your current location.
The next step is to visit this page on the same site. It renders a map showing your configured location against the Juno Ground-track. The page also renders a table to guide your observation of the spacecraft in the skies.

Will Juno be visible during its flyby?