Tips for wanna be testers?

Question: I'm a postgraduate student and want to become a software tester after graduation.
I have no work experience, but when I read some stuff about the traits a software tester should have I can relate to most of them.
But I'm wondering like what technical skills I should have to start a career in s/w testing, something that adds value to my CV.
Could you please give me some tips for starters (or anything you feel that will be helpful).
Looking forward for your comments.
Comment: Welcome to SQA, user8185 =) I don't want to discourage you from strengthening your skills or trying to beef up you qualifications. But unfortunately, this question isn't quite... well... answerable. The only people who can really answer this are the one reading the resumes for the jobs they posted, which require a broad selection of technical skills. If you choose a skill (you can use our tags to find some popular technologies) and try to learn it, and run into problems, we're here to help you through that process!
Answer: Even though most companies will look after people with experience in the field, you don`t need to worry yourself about that because there are a lot of entry-level available as well.
My advice would be to not limit yourself to what books say, this thing mostly revolves around poking a bee hive with either a stick, or a flamethrower, depending on the needs.
Also, being a tester wont always imply testing stuff, most of the time youll probably end up dealing with tons of documentation that you have to get familiar with so that you can start building your test framework accordingly.
Good part is that it can be very rewarding at times. For example youll start a new project that might scare you with the fact that you wont know little or nothing about the tools/environment etc, but once you get past that and look back, you`ll be amazed by what you accomplished.
So yes, sorry about the mini blog post but I could go on for pages.
If you have any questions I`d be more than happy to help you along.
Thanks,
Andrei
Answer: In addition to some of the previous suggestions, I have found a couple of specific languages/products particularly useful, especially as you may progress into test automation.  One is Python - it is a fantastic language to work with, particularly if you do not have a lot of programming experience in your background, and lends itself very well to automated testing - www.python.org.  Another is AutoIt, which is a great tool for automating GUI interactions with a VB-like scripting backend - www.autoitscript.com.
I have also found some of the work of Cem Kaner to be particularly insightful in the software testing field.  A great book for someone just getting into the field is "Lessons Learned in Software Testing" by Kaner, Bach and Pettichord.
Answer: For software tester, I assume you aim not at career in manual testing, but in testing automation.
It is special kind of programming, where you automate interaction with (in most cases) web-based application, making sure that results are as expected - that's why gurus like Cem Kaner prefer to use "automated checking" for this activity - it is done by computer. What manual testers do, Cem prefers to call "sapient testing". You need to understand the problem area, to be able to see that results on screen are not what they should be if application worked correctly.
Both testers are important, and you cannot automate process if you cannot perform it manually. You automate subset of activities which make economic sense (because automating consumes resources first, then later saving them if you perform same test repeatedly).
For test automation, you need to learn programming language (to write tests in). Python is excellent choice. Especially as beginner programmer, you will be substantially more productive in Python than in say Java. There are free Python courses all over internet. And later, when you know python: tool to allow Python program to pretend it is a user of tested website is Selenium.
Answer:
Step 1. Dont Worry.
Step 2. Get Educated on testing: tester tested on
blogspot James Bach Manual testing basics
Step 3. Skill up yourself
to Automation --JAVA VBSCRIPT SELENIUM
All the Best :)

Tips for wanna be testers?


In which tradition Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum mantra is used Mahayana or Thervada?

Question: It is Tibetan mantra.
In which traditon Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum mantra is used Mahayana or Thervada?
Or it is used in all three traditions, since this is Buddhism teaching?
Answer: The back cover of the book "The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra" by Alexander Studholme states:

Om Manipadme Hum, perhaps the most well-known and most widely used of
  all Buddhist mantras, lies at the heart of the Tibetan system and is
  cherished by both laymen and lama alike. This book presents a new
  interpretation of the meaning of Om Manipadme Hum, and includes a
  detailed, annotated precis of Karandavyuha Sutra, opening up this
  important work to a wider audience.
The earliest textual source is the
  Karandavyuha Sutra, which describes both the compassion of
  Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva whole power the mantra invokes, and
  the mythical tale of the search and discovery of the mantra. Through a
  detailed analysis of this sutra, Studholme explores the historical and
  doctrinal forces behind the appearance of Om Manipadme Hum in India at
  around the middle of the first millennium c.e.
He argues that the
  Karandavyuha Sutra has close affinities to non-Buddhist puranic
  literature, and that the conception of Avalokitesvara and his
  six-syllable mantra is influenced by the conception of the Hindu deity
  Siva and his five-syllable mantra Namah Sivaya. The Karandavyuha Sutra
  reflects historical situation in which the Buddhist monastic
  establishment was coming into contact with Buddhist tantric
  practitioners, themselves influenced by Saivite practitioners.

The mantra "OM mani padme hum" seems to be found only in Tibetan Buddhism.
However, Avalokiteshvara can be found in other non-Tibetan Mahayana traditions like Pure Land Buddhism. Avalokiteshvara is officially not found in the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, even if you can find images of him in some Theravada temples.
Mantras or some kind of phrase for chanting can be found in almost all Buddhist traditions like "namo amitabha buddha" in Pure Land Buddhism, "nam myoho renge kyo" in Nichiren Buddhism and "namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa" in Theravada Buddhism.
Answer: The mantra is not used in Theravāda.
Comment: @Swapnil "Theravada" or "Theravadin" is not a static nor homogenous concept. There are a myriad of interpretations under the umbrella term "Theravada", some of them being incompatible with each other. So, I don't think that any practice is forbidden (or nit recommended) as long as it does not transgress the core teachings and precepts given by the Buddha. But keep in mind that mantras are not magic spells, and that ritual alone are uneffective if not complemented with self-reflection, analysis, mindfulness and ethical training. Kind regards!
Comment: Thanks, I'm Thervada Buddhist so may shouldn't I practice this?
Comment: @Swapnil I found this insightful video where the Dalai Lama speaks about the meaning and use of the mantra. Even for Theravadins, this might be an useful resource: https://youtu.be/4QQKDP8SQZg
Comment: @BrianDíazFlores I had already watched this video. I know that isn't magical or miracle like think.  Buddhism practice is about philosophic and scientific so I think same in Vajrayana also. No restriction to practice freedom, liberty is name for Buddhism. Thanks a lot.
Answer: According to this article it is said;

The mantra originated in India; as it moved from India into Tibet, the pronunciation changed because some of the sounds in the Indian Sanskrit language were hard for Tibetans to pronounce.

and

The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is found written in two different ways in (and on) Mani wheels and on jewelry, etc.: in the ancient Indian Ranjana script and in Tibetan script.

So it should be belong to either Tibetan Vajrayāna buddhism or Mahāyāna buddhism. One reason I would say so is, Rañjanā script can be mostly found in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna monasteries.
Usually buddhists in Theravāda school of buddhism don't use mantra.
Note: This is what I understood. I may be wrong but not Dhamma.
Comment: Some people might consider "*namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa*" as a type of mantra.
Comment: I know there are no mantras are used in Thervada.
Comment: But I didn't find if it is belong to Vajrayana. I supposed it Mahayana.


How to change the labels font size

Question: I don't find how to change the font size when I print labels (I have a CiviCRM Spark account). The default size is far too small and the Post office don't accept it...
Answer: Yes there is a option to change the font size. The UI setting is not user friendly but it does allow you to update the attributes.

Navigate to CiviCRM >> Administer >> System Settings >> Option Groups.
Find for Mailing Label Format.
Click on "Edit options' link besides 'Mailing Label Format'
You will see list of formats, click on 'Edit' besides one of the format type.
In 'value' text field find for 'font-size' and change the value from old to new

for eg if the old value was "font-size":8 than replace it with "font-size":16
HTH
Pradeep
Comment: Thx a lot, Pradeep! However, my problem was another: I would like to change the font size of just a part of the label (1 row with a token that is NOT part of the address). If I change the font size, all the rows are the same size anyway... I tried to put some php / html codes in the "Mailing label format", but it doesn't work...

How to change the labels font size


Samsung UE590D external monitor settings

Question: I can't get quite the right colors on my external UE590D 4k. Does anyone have the correct settings/colors so it looks as close as possible to the MacBook Pro retina display?
Comment: Have you tried getting your monitors calibrated?  I had a similar issue until I had it calibrated by a photographer friend with a [Datacolor Spyder](https://goo.gl/nuYMts) which I subsequently bought so I could do it myself.
Comment: Seems like a good option, still I'm looking for something simpler. I'm a developer so colors/contrast/saturation are not really my expertise. I'm hoping someone with the same monitor share the settings that worked for him.
Comment: I tried that too,... It was closer, but not enough.  Each display is slightly different from each other.  If it's just for developer work, you may be able to get a photographer or designer to do it for you for a nominal fee, then you will have settings stuff for your display.
Answer: Here are the settings I'm using that's pretty similar.
Picture
Samsung Magic Bright > Custom
Brightness - 22
Contrast - 75
Sharpness - 76
Color
Red 69, Green 52, Blue 60
Color Tone - Custom
Gamma - Mode 3 (edited)
Answer: Went round and round on this - now the Samsung is matching my Laptop (MacBook Pro 15 Inch 2018) darned near perfectly.
The trick for me was ditching the U28E590 Profile in Display Settings for the monitor and choosing "Thunderbolt Display". This alone got things very, very close.
Then on the monitor, here are my settings:
Brightness: 100
Contrast: 100 (Adjust these two to taste, I like it bright and sharp)
Sharpness: 72
Red: 65
Green: 62
Blue: 62 (Setting these three above 50 gave the saturation a boost)
Magic Angle: Custom
Hope this helps someone.
Answer: For this particular Samsung monitor setting the Samsung Magic Angle (Menu > Picture) to Standing Mode and having a low brightness (22) did the trick I have the exact same colors as on the Macbook Pro Retina.


Would it be possible to detect a magnetic field around an exoplanet?

Question: Of course, we can't fly a magnetometer next to an exoplanet to measure the magnetic field, but might it be possible to find indirect evidence (e.g. polar auroras) of a magnetic field generated by an exoplanet? Has this already been done?
Answer: You usually look for electronic synchrotron emission in the radio, which corresponds to the magnetic field strength expected for giant planets. There has been a single detection claimed with LOFAR by Turner et al., (2020) around $\tau$ Bootes, but it's very noisy and hence disputed.
Other effects like Zeeman-splitting have been considered for detection, but require clean, high-resolution signals from planets. So far this is too difficult to perform due to stellar contamination.
Magnetic field searches around brown dwarves have been more successful, but those are not planets, of course.
Answer: Magnetic fields can be measured via the Zeeman effect, thus a change of absorption and emission lines in spectra - a shift which depends on the direction and the strength of the magnetic field. This is a method commonly employed to measure and map the magnetic field of the Sun (also here).
The difficulty in doing so is the necessary precision in the spectral data of the source and the ambiguity if you sample over a broad area where this effect is also convoluted with the doppler broadening due to mapping areas with different relative speed towards the observer. Generally, getting high-resolution spectral data requires much light or long exposure, both of which can be difficult to obtain for exoplanet atmospheres. I'm not aware of magnetic field measurements on exoplanets so far, yet it might become viable in the future. It is done for stars.


How can I warm my feet in winter without shoes and socks?

Question: In winter how can I warm my feet without using of shoes and socks? Because I can't use shoes dua to a injure in my feet . So what should I do for warming my feet?
Comment: This depends on where you are and what resources you have available. Are you indoors?
Answer: There are electrically heated feet warmers. They look like giant boots, wide enough to put two feet in. In themselves these are enough to keep your feet from going cold, but when you use the heater you will get them warm sooner.
Alternatively, you can put one foot or both in a sleeping bag and also put in a warm water bottle or an other heater which is safe to use in the bag and near your skin.
In the old days, they would heat a brick or stone in, over or near the fire, wrap that in cloth before using and put it in a bed before going to sleep. If you do not have a hot water bottle, you could copy that old example.
To prevent your foot getting cold (again) keep it wrapped in fabric and put an wind proof layer on the outside.
And it might be warmer to keep your leg/foot off the floor when sitting down. Drafts are often along the floor and are almost always cold.
Answer: I can think of two options.

If you have an electric hair dryer, you can blow that hot air on your feet for 20-30 seconds.  That should warm them up.
Fill a bucket, large bowl, or pot with hot water. Put your feet in it until they are warm. (Be sure to dry them off afterwards!)


A word for a company that provides a service

Question: I'm writing up a business model and have arrived at the point to place the business in the value chain. I know that the business would go in the spot where the 'retailer' usually is however, a retailer is usually meant for companies which provide goods rather than services. Therefore, I am wondering if there is any word (or phrase) which can be used to describe my company which provides a service. It would be nice if the word is commonly used in business jargon as well.
Answer: For most purposes, the generic term "service provider" (or even just "provider") would be sufficient, although depending on your industry there may be a more specific term (such as ASP: Application Service Provider). If you are looking to dress it up a bit - and depending on the audience for your document, you could consider a variation on "partner".
Answer: You can just use a "service company". There are many categories into which you can divide companies, but "service(-oriented/based) company" and "manufacturing (product-oriented/based) company", "sales(-oriented/based) company" are 3 major categories.
There is no company which doesn't fit into one of the 3 categories, I believe.
The below link explains what "public service company" means. You can just omit public because your company might not always work for the public interest.
Public Service Company:

A public service company (or public utility company) is a corporation
  or other non-governmental business entity (i.e. limited partnership)
  which delivers public services - certain services considered essential
  to the public interest. The ranks of such companies include public
  utility companies like natural gas, pipeline, electricity, and water
  supply companies, sewer companies, telephone companies and telegraph
  companies. They also include public services such as transportation of
  passengers or property as a common carrier, such as airlines,
  railroads, trucking, bus, and taxicab companies.

[Wikipedia]
Comment: One (or more) of those three categories.
Answer: I'd use 'supplier':

Definition: A supplier is an entity that supplies goods and services to another organization. This entity is part of the supply chain of a business, which may provide the bulk of the value contained within its products. Some suppliers may even engage in drop shipping, where they ship goods directly to the customers of the buyer.  (-- from accountingtools.com)

(and I wouldn't worry too much about the 'to another organization' part; it will be understood even if your customers are individuals)
Answer: In some situations, you could also consider:

Contractor
a person who is hired to perform work or to provide goods at a certain price or within a certain time

Merriam Webster Dictionary Definition.
E.g. "We hired contractors to install the new equipment by the end of the day"
This is certainly used in an industrial setting in the UK. A contractor (or contracting firm) would be an external body that undertake piece work or long-term contract work for a business.
Note: Through re-reading the passage, it mentions providing goods, this is something a contractor can do but it is a term more often used for a service. The answer is far from perfect, but still serves as an example of a 'service provider'.
Comment: Please explain in your own words why you feel this answers the question, perhaps what situations you feel it might work for.
Answer: Contractor.  I am a licensed realtor and legally considered a "Contractor" because I offer a service to consumers for an agreed upon fee.  It is a generalized term for someone that is legally recognized for offering a service, skill or trade in exchange for compensation and hired by an entity (i.e. person(s) or business) to deliver service(s) based on terms negotiated and agreed upon by both parties prior to service or compensation.  "Contractors" are "contracted" because profit based services are negotiable and the terms negotiated are finalized into a "contract" that summarizes the terms and acceptance of all parties.  The reason is because a service offered always varies in circumstances with each consumer and the delivery and outcome of service varying on the professional.
Answer: I am surprised to not see vendor as an existing answer, especially since I see it regularly used in business contexts in this sense.
AHD:

vendor, also vender
n.
2. One that provides products or services to a business for a fee.

Macmillan:

vendor NOUN [COUNTABLE]
FORMAL a company or person that sells a particular product or service


Still getting "ERROR: You need to send a valid key to execute this file" when running cronjob

Question: With a Joomla 3.4.8 and CiviCRM 4.6.14 setup, I have been unable to run a simple cronjob. Upon suggestion from my host support team I generated a new site-key [following instructions on https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Managing+Scheduled+Jobs]. I replaced the old key with the new one in both civicrm.settings.php files and ran the following cronjob on Terminal - curl -s http://ashguild.ca/home/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/bin/cron.php?name=username&pass=password&key=key but I am still getting the same error message. Any help would be appreciated.
Answer: Check that the user in your cron-script has superuser access in Joomla.
Answer: I encountered this with a password (or key) that had special characters.
Don't use special characters for the password/key you want to use.
Keep it [a-z] [A-Z] [0-9] (alphanumeric).


Secure delete files

Question: I have a folder which I need to secure delete. I tried File Shredder and BleachBit but I got error because the files were in use or priviledge problems. Is there a program to delete files and restart computer if needed? I prefer free or open source also trials would be fine. My OS is Windows 10 x64.
Answer: Try Eraser:

You can create a task to run on reboot.
It overwrites data several times using chosen patterns/algorithms.
Supports Windows 10 and even Windows XP etc.
It is free.

I have used it for years.
Comment: Hi, I noticed that it doesn't restart pc if needed, it gives me error.
Comment: Hi. I believe when I used in past, it did. Maybe anti-virus stopping it?
Comment: Thanks for helping, it happens on clean files either. Actually I couldn't execute task "run on reboot". When I restart pc the directory is still there.
Comment: Most of time I used it, I did not require reboot. Best to search their forum https://eraser.heidi.ie/forum/ or post a question there.

Secure delete files


Why does my mind naturally wander?

Question: Before sitting for meditation I got a few strange questions: why does my mind even wander? What does my mind want, and can it ever be satisfied completely? Can anybody please explain this to me?
Answer: Every life form is born in the world due to craving. Within life forms, there are seeds, such as sperm cells, which are propelled by craving. Parents of children engage in sexual intercourse & reproduce new life propelled by craving. New born children are born with craving to eat, craving to be safe, craving for love, craving for pleasure, etc. The mind wanders due to craving. This 'wandering' is called 'samsara'.
Comment: Wonderful Explanation ! i am really amazed by the clarity of your thoughts.
Answer: You ask as to why the mind wanders. But it is there for cognizing thoughts – just as the eye is there to seeing forms, ear for hearing sounds, nose for smelling odours, tongue for tasting flavours, and body for touching tangibles. That is why, the more we watch our mind and see what it does to us and for us, the more we will be inclined to take good care of it and treat it with respect. One of the biggest mistakes we can make is taking the mind for granted. The mind has the capacity to create good and also evil for us, and only when we are able to remain even-minded no matter what conditions arise, can we say that we have gained a little control. Until then we are out of control and our thoughts are our master.
Taming this monkey is not an easy thing. So you have to take baby steps in the beginning. Even if your attempt at meditation takes only a few seconds, or a couple of minutes, be happy about it.
Left alone the mind behaves like a monkey in a forest. Meditation is a great way to calm the monkey mind.  But prior to that we have to learn how to go beyond - being resolved on sensual passion, being resolved on ill will, being resolved on harmfulness—because all these things stir up the mind and interfere with its settling down.
Answer:
why does my mind even wander?

Whenever there is a contact we perceive this as favorably or unfavorably, this results in a feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness, this leads to thoughts of memories of the past or future expectations, these thoughts proliferate into more thoughts.

What does my mind want,

You mind always crave for sensations / feelings.

... and can it ever be satisfied completely?

Not by means of seeking pleasant experiences.
But still it it can be stratified if you practice meditation and realise Nirvana.
Answer: It's because of entropy, a natural law of nature which measures disorder (the higher the entropy, the greater the disorder), as physicist Rudolf Clausius stated: "The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum". The mind, like all conditioned phenomena, always tends toward scattering, fading away, disorder, decay, and cessation. It'd take effort to control and steady the mind just like proper effort is required to maintain a physical building from disorder and decay.
Comment: Since the original question is not particular toward a technical Buddhist topic, but about the scattering mind in general, I simply don't see the need to limit the answer to a "traditional Buddhist answer". I find it actually pigeonholes one's understanding and prevent one from seeing things in a bigger picture.
Comment: I suggest that you give the kind of answer that Saurabh Padwekar could not get anywhere but on a Buddhist platform. Something like a traditional Buddhist answer.
Comment: I'm not sure that it's a useful model (i.e. an appropriate model to mention in this context). Would you, for example, say that the *ocean* wanders "because of entropy"?
Comment: It's a fact that oceans, mountains, land masses do move. We just don't live long enough to see that. And notice, moving or "wandering" is just one  manifestation among many manifestations of entropy. As long as any phenomenon "move" from order to disorder, stability to chaos, creation to destruction, that's entropy. To say that entropy is not a useful model is the same as saying that anicca is not useful, or the 4 stages of formations of becoming, accruing, fading away, and destruction are not useful.
Comment: I'm not sure that "entropy" a useful model of the mind. Entropy is a property of (physical) thermodynamic systems; the connection (if any) between mind and matter isn't obvious; and "life" is a local reversal of entropy, isn't it? I suppose you're saying that entropy predicts cessation of the thermodynamic universe, but I'm not sure how that's a useful answer to the OP's question (except that, maybe, theories about physics try to be objective and self-less). Is the entropy model even prescriptive, does the model prescribe a solution (e.g. what is "effort" within that frame of reference)?
Comment: But how can you separate the mind from its bio/physiological processes that involves all kinds of chemical/physical interactions? You can't. And if you can't, then you cannot conclude that entropy is not useful. To understand entropy is to understand the process of becoming, accruing, decay, and destruction. I don't know about you, but it certainly arouses lots of viriya/energy to strive harder and at the same time, a sense of samvega also.

Why does my mind naturally wander?


Should/can we survey inactive users?

Question: I think it would be helpful to the site to know why some users stop using the Judaism.SE. Can/should we create a survey/poll specifically for users who meet a certain reputation level and have not used the site in an extended period of time (6 months?). This may be helpful in determining ways to improve the site.
Comment: @ShmuelBrill no problem, just make sure to never stop using this site! ;)
Comment: Let's start surveying now! Why did _you_ ('none', formerly 'moshe') decide to stop using the site? :-D
Comment: **I HATE SPAM!!!!!!!**
Comment: @ShmuelBrill ..And I hate all caps. We've all got problems! :-D
Comment: @DoubleAA, I don't think that would be an appropriate use of that information (viz, what their addresses are). Moshe, I don't know any other means of contacting them (besides leaving comments on their posts on the site and hoping they see them eventually).
Comment: not sure why it wouldn't be ethical, I get 'customer service' emails all the time. They can always simply choose to ignore or delete it; but any data that is received would be useful. The reason for this suggestion is because I've seen several users who were frequent and interesting contributors in the past that have been inactive for a while and I think it would behoove us as a community to know why.
Comment: If they are registered I think we (mods?) have their emails somewhere.
Comment: @msh210 I wasn't suggesting that it was. Just pointing out that the issue is an 'ethical' one not a practical one.
Comment: I don't think that would be an ethical practice.
Answer: Unless a user has posted their contact information publicly, only moderators and employees would be able to see this private information.
Per the moderator agreement:

I acknowledge that I may have access to potentially personally-identifying information about Mi Yodeya - Stack Exchange users and that in connection with such access

I will use such information solely in accordance with the then-current Privacy Policy of Mi Yodeya - Stack Exchange,

I will not disclose this information to anyone,

I will not store or copy this information and

I will only use such information in connection with performance as a Mi Yodeya - Stack Exchange moderator for the benefit of Mi Yodeya - Stack Exchange.

(Sorry for the formatting!)
Per our privacy policy:

If you are a registered user of the network and have supplied your email address, we may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what's going on with the network. We generally use the network to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of communication to a minimum. If we do send you information that you did not expressly request, we will provide you with a way to request that you don't get any similar notices (opt-out).

So, technically, yes the moderators could do an "exit interview" with users who seem to have walked away from the site.
However, we do not condone nor encourage this action. Our users have repeatedly made clear that they prefer not to be contacted unless absolutely necessary. Newsletter emails, election notices, even messages letting users know they were suspended have been met with responses that boil down to, "Why are you contacting me?!"
I strongly believe that conducting an exit interview, even with as nice a community as we have here, wouldn't be productive and could open you all up to some unhappy people.
Ultimately, the best way to stem any attrition is to

Always endeavor to have good content. Make sure you're using your site every day, asking questions, participating in chat, checking meta, etc.
Always be friendly to new souls. Make sure new users on the site feel welcome, but are also made aware of the ways and means of this community.
Always let top users know they're appreciated. Sometimes that means upvote, sometimes that means letting him/her know from time to time that s/he is doing an excellent job and that you really enjoy their latest posts.
Always remember that this is your home too. You're part of this group! Treat this place as your home, and extend to others the same courtesies you'd want to be shown yourself if you were on the other side of the table.

Some of that seems obvious, but it's always worth reminding ourselves.
I'm marking this status-declined because this request contradicts some of our core philosopies about how/when to use user contact information.
Comment: I think the key here is the 'certain reputation level'. If someone invested X[>>](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater-than_sign#Double_greater-than_sign)0 time in the site and then left with no obvious outbursts of anger, then the ratio of our chances of gleaning some information to possible annoyance level rises dramatically IMO. Although I suppose you could argue that practically speaking X is too large to gain a large enough data set to be worthwhile. I can't comment about that.
Comment: You're all free to disagree with me! If you feel I'm wrong, please let me know.
Comment: Wouldn't that be "soliciting feedback", though?
Comment: Would it be better if everyone who ever registered an account were sent the same survey that they could choose to take or not?

Should/can we survey inactive users?


Is it still a good practice to have a "Go Back" button?

Question: Is it still necessary to put a "Go Back" button? Or do users already intuitively know that they can use the browser's back function instead? I just feel it can be an unnecessary "action" to put and removing it helps simplify a page especially if it already has a number of other buttons that performs actions necessary for the application.
Answer: If the back button has another function than the browser-side button, it's more user-friendly and a good style.
For example on surveys or registration forms with multiple pages it's very nice to save the data you entered and not delete it when going back. (AJAX)
Answer: Honestly, I don't think it has ever been necessary to put a back button on a website. Even in 2001, when I first started making web sites, I never placed a "back" button on the page - because it's redundant within the tool being used to view the site.
Now, there are exceptions - but very, very, few. When I made Flash sites, before using hashtag URLs to maintain the functionality of the back button - if there was no other way for a user to back-track to the view they were just on, I would add a back button. What that means is, if the user could, based on the storyboards, go from say page A to page B, then, using the primary navigation get back to page A...no back button required/desired.
Of course with our ability to do things in a way which no longer breaks the ability of the back button to go back in the browser history - it just ups the logic to not have a back button to navigate from one page to another.
Edit:
In the case of a "previous" or "cancel" button like those found in surveys or forms, it makes sense. Especially if the button does not actually simply move the browser history back in the stack. For example, we may want clear some data from the form, or add a "jump to where I left off" functionality. Which is not literally the same as "the browser's back function".
Answer: I don't believe a back button is necessary most of the time, unless the application is more than just reloading the previous page. If back on the browser loads a previous page, but back on the page reloads a previous version of a form or reverts a change in an application then its OK. Or if for some reason browser back breaks the page like on some sites shopping carts. Of course fixing that code is preferable.
I do believe every page that lets you get more than a few pages deep should have bread crumbs though.
Answer: Single page applications or applications that rely heavily on ajax, in my experience, can benefit from a back link (which triggers another ajax load or invokes a client-side controller method).
This is because pressing back can sometimes break behaviour of your app if not very carefully designed.
Comment: This is true--of course, this is a band-aid solution because the app wasn't designed/programmed properly in the first place.
Comment: @Andrew Well, I would argue that navigating an SPA app user resorting to browser buttons hints at bad design: the interface itself should probably be entirely self-contained. Correctly handling a browser back event is itself a palliative measure to catch people who hit back by reflex instead of using your interface. IMHO.
Comment: @mansford I understand your point, but I am not convinced. Perhaps it all depends on context (e.g. if it appears self-contained or appears like a website). This is a similar topic to whether a mobile site should work well with the device or browser's back buttons (http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/7216/should-we-provide-back-button-for-mobile-website). I guess the only true way to find out is to observe in usability testing and monitor via advanced analytics.
Answer: My site offers a "back" button. It navigates to the home page from the activity profile page. I don't think it is a bad practice it may depend on the navigation flow of your site.


Burn stains inside microwave

Question: I heated a dish that my local fish store said was in a microwave-safe aluminum foil. Now I have a brown (chocolate looking) residue, mostly on the sides of the inside of my microwave. I have read that I can sprinkle baking soda, then add acetone (followed by liquid coffee) to remove these stains.  Will this work on a white interior or is it just for stainless steel? I have white.
Answer: Acetone is not considered a carcinogen in the United States
The Material Safety Data Sheet can be found here.

It is the active ingredient in regular nail polish (varnish) remover.
It may remove the 'paint' from surfaces.
It is legally sold in the United States.
It is highly flammable and explosive in the right concentrations.

I would not recommend it to clean your microwave as it's hazardous to health if used improperly under a variety of conditions or used without proper safety equipment.
I would also advise against placing an aluminum foil pan in the microwave and turning it on.
Where did you get this misinformation, Connie?

I have read that I can sprinkle baking soda, then add acetone (followed by liquid coffee) to remove these stains.

The above is incorrect!
Comment: Back when I was a kid, it was considered carcinogenic.  Reviewed and you're right: adapting my answer and +1 to you! **:-)**
Answer: No, please don't!
I would get a professional micro-wave cleaning liquid: Acetone is a prohibited product in some countries nowadays as it's highly flammable and slightly toxic whereas in some countries it's still readily available in cheap nail polish remover. As it's a strong solvent, it will damage most plastics including white plastic microwaves.
Comment: Fabby, acetone is nail polish remover - my question is, can it be used in a white microwave, or are the instructions given to me only for stainless steel
Comment: In some countries, cheap nail polish remover still *contains* acetone, but is not pure acetone. If the white microwave oven is made of plastic or has a plastic coating: **No, sorry!**
Answer: Please do not use Acetone or Nail Polish Remover!
Here's a generic Nail Polish Remover ingredient list:

(source: swatchandlearn.com)
That's not good stuff to have around food preparation products.
To clean your microwave safely and chemical free:

Buy a lemon or two

Cut into pieces

Place in a microwave-safe bowl and fill with water

Place the bowl in the microwave and turn on for 3-5 minutes

Let stand with the door closed for about 5 minutes

Carefully remove the bowl (it will be very hot!!!!) and wipe down the inside of the microwave with a cloth, towel, or paper towels until clean.

The water and lemon juice steam will help loosen and remove grease and other baked on substances, plus it will leave a nice smell in the microwave afterwards. Best part, it's 100% chemical free.
If you have really stuck stuff in the microwave  - you can use a mild natural abrasive and some warm water on a towel to help remove it. I recommend using Kosher Salt, since it's natural and won't leave chemical residue in the microwave afterwards.
Comment: @CorinneApostle In the future, skip the nail polish remover. It's a harsh chemical and should not be near anything you prepare food with. If anything, the baking soda provided an abrasive and you scrubbing removed the stain. If I were you, I'd thoroughly clean the microwave to remove any nail polish remover residue. There's more in there than just acetone, even if acetone were safe to be near food (I wouldn't).
Comment: thanks all, with some 600 grit sandpaper, baking soda and (ahem) nail polish remover, the stains came out. I appreciate everyone's input!

Burn stains inside microwave


DNS hosting better managed by Domain provider or Hosting provider?

Question: Is it better to let DNS be managed by Domain Provider like GoDaddy/Namecheap or point the nameservers to hosting providers like Linode? What are the differences and disadvantages/advantages of both?
Answer: Much more than web hosting, DNS hosting is a commodity service, so as long as the DNS provider is competent, there's not much difference from one provider to another. The reasons are:

The Internet DNS network is designed to be load distributed. That is, when users looks up example.com, they aren't all sending the request to your domain's authoritative nameservers. Typically, they're making the request to their ISP's local caching DNS server. And sometimes, these nameservers are forwarders that send the request to a more central recursive nameserver. And if the client's local DNS cache or the DNS caches of either the ISP's forwarding or recursive nameservers contain an unexpired record for your domain, then your authoritative nameservers won't be queried.
DNS is a very powerful system, but it's also very simple. And most people don't require very complex DNS setups or ever access all but the most basic DNS features. So aside from network performance and UI, there's not really much to differentiate one service from the other. For the end user, there's even less to differentiate one DNS provider from another.
Even the network performance is largely dependent on the client's ISP and intermediate links in most cases. And in the context of a web page request, DNS consitutes a very small amount of the total bandwidth and roundtrip time. In the context of a browser session, the performance of your DNS servers is even more negligible.

So for me, cost and convenience are the biggest factors. And it's typically cheapest and most convenient to use the web host's DNS servers. I typically register my domains through my web host as well (since it's another commodity service, and web hosts are a lot less shady on average than registrars), so I can manage nearly everything from one control panel. When I register a new domain, it's automatically added to my account, the DNS entries are created, and the vhost is set up on the web server.
On projects that demand higher security, I might look for a web host that supports DNSSEC (though this is irrelevant if you're using one of the many TLDs whose root nameservers don't support it). But aside from that, there's not a lot that necessitates shopping around.
Unless you need specific DNS features that your web host doesn't provide (and have a good reason for sticking with them) I'd just let the web host handle it. They're already managing 99% of your hosting needs, so why create another account (another bill, set of login credentials, admin panel, support staff...) and another failure point. It makes more sense to spend a little more time picking out a really good web host that's competent and trustworthy.

Edit:
I apologize for the length of this answer, but I just want to add a few more points:

There are legitimate reasons for choosing a dedicated DNS service if you're part of the 1% of users who require advanced features like:

DNS loadbalancing - typically, a CDN will provide load-balancing for you, but if you're running your own self-managed small-scale CDN with a handful of locations, then this could be useful. Round-robin DNS isn't the best load-balancing method, but a good DNS provider should have better DNS-based load-balancing methods.
Ultra low-latency - as mentioned earlier, unless your DNS service is exceptionally poor, the performance difference between different DNS providers is unnoticeable to the end users. However, there are certain niches where such performance micro-optimizations can make a difference, such as extremely time-critical applications and/or ones with a high ratio of DNS lookups to DNS-cached requests.
Dynamic DNS - a small minority of webmasters/server admins choose to host their server on dynamic IPs. This is far from ideal in most cases, but if you want to host a website on your home broadband connection without renting a static IP, then you pretty much need to use a specialized DNS provider.
High availability - at the opposite extreme, there are organizations with very mission critical apps/services where the 99.98% uptime offered by typical web hosts and registrars just isn't good enough. Such customers need the degree of redundancy and SLA guarantees that companies like Amazon and Dyn provide.

Still, most don't fall into the 1% that require these services. There's also a large overlap between many of these features and CDN/cloud hosting. So carefully evaluate your situation and options first. If you're focused on performance, do some benchmarks to see if DNS is your main bottleneck. There usually are easier and much more significant performance optimizations to be made before you need load-balanced anycast DNS, etc.
As per the comments, web hosts automatically handle a lot of DNS management for you. With a 3rd-party DNS provider, it'd take twice as long to set up a new site, and you'd have to worry about your web host making network changes that break your DNS settings. It's just more efficient letting the web host automate all of this.
Still, you should look out for incompetent web hosts and registrars with subpar performance & UI/features. They're a small minority, but Godaddy is one of them. In particular, they routinely drop DNS requests and even instituted a policy of selective DNS blackouts instead of refurnishing their underprovisioned DNS servers. Though in a case like this, I'd simply change registrars/web hosts, as their blatant undermining of the public DNS suggests more fundamental problems with the company, such as incompetent management.
Comment: What if I want to switch my webhost, all my DNS entries are gone, right? So in that case registrars are better?
Comment: @dpacmittal: If you wanted to switch webhosts, you (or the webhost) would simply do a zone transfer for all your domains and duplicate the entries, changing the appropriate ones in the process (most hosts will do this for you). If you were using a separate DNS service, you'd still have to manually change all the DNS entries to point to your new host. Unless you change web hosts often, having your web host host your DNS is still less work compared to having to edit your DNS manually _every time_ you create a new domain/subdomain or your server IP(s) change.
Comment: Especially considering that most web hosts' static IPs are not guaranteed 100% static (just as the static IPs rented from your ISP). However, they will at least notify you if your static IP changes or if you're being migrated to a different server. But if you _don't_ have a static IP on a particular domain, then your IP is liable to change without you knowing it whenever the web host needs to modify their network/move a server around. And this also goes for other services hosted on your domains (e.g. mail, database, etc.). You'd have to watch for these things yourself.
Comment: Excellent response and well formatted +1
Answer: Depends on how much you value your website. It you are okay with having outages and have low traffic then a Registrar DNS would be fine and free. If you DO value your website and want to ensure optimal performance and reliability then by all means go with a managed provider. I personally work for Dyn so I would be more than happy to talk more with you about our service. We have three levels of services, personal/smb/enterprise so there is a price point for everyone and we are leaders in this industry. Route53 and UltraDNS are the other two organizations that we would consider tier 1 providers. Check out these links. they may be useful to you. :)
http://blog.catchpoint.com/2011/10/05/free-dns-hurts-web-performance
http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2012/03/03/devops-dns-for-developers-ndash-now-therersquos-no-excuse-not-to-know

@CjSwan33
Comment: can you offer pricing cheaper than Amazon? Comparing Dyn's  standard plan 600,000 queries 10 zones $29.95 a year works out to $2.49 a month. Route 53 is 1,000,000 queries a month with 25 zones at around $1.00 a month?
Answer: I use Amazon Route 53 for DNS management. They have more options than my previous provider no-ip.com. The configuration I needed no-ip could not support. Route 53 is pretty cheap compared to other DNS management services.
Answer: GoDaddy/NameCheap etc. cost less, but offer less flexibility. Running a Linode virtual server is more complicated and offers more flexibility. An alternative middle ground is companies offering specialised DNS services.
Comment: But having DNS managed by registrar gives you flexibility of changing your webhosts, doesn't it? In my case, my MX entries are pointed to Google App's mailservers and DNS is managed by my webhost. So now that I want to switch, I'll have to again add MX entries after the switch, which wouldn't have been an issue if I had let my registrar manage the DNS.
Comment: Yes, that is another advantage.
Answer: DNS-hosting, as any other smart job, better done by professionals. Domain-sellers or WebHosting-sellers are not professionals in Hostmaster duty. So answer is "it depends..."б depends on where more competent employee in the required area of business will be found.


Legs sweating during exercise

Question: I was working out yesterday, I have recently increased the pace at which I run at yesterday, for the first time my legs were sweating more than my upper body, usually it is my upper body that does the sweating, but for some reason my thighs were sweating rigorously. This has never happened before, could someone explain why we sweat more in some places than in others? why it isn't all round? and perhaps explain why that happened yesterday? it was only a treadmill workout.
Comment: You've never sweated on your thighs before?
Comment: @Kneel-Before-ZOD no I haven't :S not even when I'm squatting or anything.
Comment: Maybe you were wearing sweats and not shorts ?
Comment: @brentwpeterson I was wearing trackies... :\ it does happen a lot more now though...like a lot
Answer: Here is a list of some common reasons that lead to excessive sweating at various sites of the body:
Low blood sugar levels,
Metabolism related issues,
Hyperthyroidism,
Any disorder of the nerves or injury to the spinal cord,
Stress or paranoia,
Panic or anxiety attacks,
Disease or infection of the liver,
Hot flashes (especially in post menopausal women),
Lymphoma,
Parasitic infection,
Diseases or disorders of the deeper dermal layer such as vitiligo,
Side effects of certain medications - especially those administered for treating ,cancers, AIDS and also s,ome antibiotics and paracetamols,
Heart disease,
Diabetes Mellitus,

Legs sweating during exercise


How to add meta info to mp3/wav file MAC OSX?

Question: How to add meta info to mp3/wav file MAC OSX ?
Is there any application?
Comment: Google your question. 3rd answer is a lsit of the best MP3 taggers, including some for Mac OSx.
Answer: This sort of thing changes over time, but currently the most common recommendation you'll find is to simply use iTunes due to its ubiquity - import the file, add the data, drag the updated file into a folder.
Answer: I've read lots of blogs where people give advice on adding metadata to WAV files.  Most of it doesn't work.  iTunes is useless for adding metadata to WAV or AIFF files, because it only sticks to the file inside iTunes.  If you send the file to a PC or Smart TV the metadata doesn't stick.  Same with VLC player, which I tried as well, it didn't work even though playing the file in VLC player kept the metadata set using VLC player.
Logic Pro X only allows you to add metadata to MP3s, same as Pro Tools.
What worked for me and is free and very easy to use is Audacity.  Just drag your rendered 16 bit 44.1khz  WAV file into Audacity > Edit > Metadata
Then fill in the form with all the metadata you want to include and export the WAV file as a 16 bit WAV file (CD quality). Note: This also works with AIFF files !! But make sure the project settings for Audacity are 16 bits and 44.1khz, otherwise it will resample the audio and you'll get artifacts from that.
You might think that using a free app like Audacity will give you inferior audio quality if you rebounce the original WAV file after adding the metadata, but NO, it is a perfect copy of the original.
I tested this in Protools 11.  Bounced down a mix to a 16 bit 44.1khz WAV file.  Then imported into Audacity, added metadata, and exported as a WAV file with the same parameters.  I then took the original WAV and WAV exported with metadata back into protools, inverted the phase of one of the WAVs and there was perfect cancellation at full volume on my sound system.  So Audacity is pristine, no phase alterations or spectral alterations.
If you want to then turn the WAV file into an MP3, there's lots of ways to do this.  Most DAWs can do this easily and allow you to add metadata for the mp3.  Or you can use the free VLC player > Window > Media Information. Fill in the info and click the "Save Metadata" button.  VLC doesn't render the file again, it just adds the data to it, and it works on computers and smart TVs, you can read the metadata.
How can you tell the metadata stuck?
Look in finder on your Mac if you expand the file window in 'Column or List' view you'll see all the metadata in the Finder window when you select the file, same on a PC. Or use 'Get Info' on your Mac, and the extra metadata appears under 'More Information' in the popup window.
Note: on older OS X the column view on a Mac might not show the metadata, but it will show when you select 'Get Info'
Smart TVs only see metadata from MP3 files.  So this method will work for computers but not smart TVs, at least not on my one.
By the way: Reaper will add metadata to WAVs as well by using the "Info" scheme when you enter the metadata.  BUT …… it doesn't seem to work well for AIFF files in version 6.12 of Reaper, maybe it needs fixing …….
Hope that helps.
Answer: A good program for adding meta info to MP3s is Tagr, you can find it at https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30610/tagr
In my opinion it's one of the better ones out there for Mac OSX. I'm not sure of any that will help with WAV files though.


Issue with the survey list settings?

Question: Have created a feature(list provisioning) to update the "showuser" property of the survey list and stappled on the webapplication, it works perfectly fine and sets the list property when the survey list is created. However, facing the issue when accessing and saving(without any changes) the general setting of the survey list, it actually resets the showuser property to false. Is that an expected behavior? how to fix this issue?
Answer: The General Settings contains the "Show user names in survey results?" which is the ShowUser property.
I just did a quick test then using PowerShell and a simple survey and the value stuck when changing it both in PowerSell and in the browser general settings page.
Here is my powershell script to test:
<code>$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://mysite")
$web = $site.RootWeb
$survey = $web.Lists["Mysurvey"]
$survey.ShowUser = $false
$survey.Update()
</code>

Issue with the survey list settings?


How is a women in her menses supposed to make dua without making wudu?

Question: I know we have to be purify before making salah and praising Allah swt. But how's a woman supposed to make supplications to Allah swt if she's on her menses and not purify.
Comment: @Medi1Saif what you mean is that after this kind of wudu, we can do prayer(salah) etc? which need wudu? if this is what you mean than i am afraid this is not the case.
Comment: i am not saying one cannot do wudu, i am talking about its validity. bathing comes first when one is junbi, only than wudu will be valid.
Comment: @ZiaUlRehmanMughal that was not at all a comment on your comment, i just realized that the addition was misleading and deleted my former comment and replaced it with a better one.
Comment: jazakallah brother.
Comment: Both dua' and dhikr don't need wudu'. On the other hand a man can still perform wudu while he is junub (and this is recommended before having an other interourse, even if it doesn't cahnge anything on the state of being "junub" or not being able to pray) so why a woman can't perform wudu while she is in her menses?
Answer: First of all note if all of us needed to be purified to perform dhikr or du'a logically that would mean that women would have a vast disadvantage, only because of something Allah created: They have menses and they have the postpartum period which are long periods of time where they would not be allowed to communicate with Allah, while men can only become impure due to intercourse or janabah which they share with women too. I think only from a logical view this can't be, as Allah would never "reject" people (as du'a or dhikr means asking Allah and remembering HIM) for something HE has created HIMSELF! Therefore purity has only been prescribed for the prayer itself by the Quran (Note that this is the only kind of worhsip women don't need to make up due to menses or postpartum period, while they need to make up fast and tawaf etc.).
So here's a fatwa on the Issue of your question.
Note that a women in menses can do the following worships:

She can read any book which has some verses of the Quran inside (as long as it is not a Quran) note that this already is dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
She can listen to quranic recitation or recite from her memory (See fatwa in Arabic).
She can even prostrate if she passes by a Verse of prostration (See fatwa in Arabic)!
She can recite any dhikr (see fatwa in Arabic)!
Some scholars allow it to read from a Mushaf (copy of the Quran) if there's something between her hands and the Mushaf (see this fatwa in Arabic), so if somebody put it on a desk and she reads from it without touching that also would be allowed (see also this fatwa)!
She can also attend the Khotba of Eid and attend the EId prayer without participating in it (see in sahih Muslim).

See also this fatwa on what a woman in her menses can do during lailat al-qadr!
I also forgot to mention that non-Muslims perform dua' and you may even find quotes in the Quran of disbelievers asking Allah, which underlines that purity (tahara) is not a condition for performing dua'.
And Allah knows best!


Does a magnet outside a black hole affect one inside it?

Question: If I had 2 really strong magnets, and I threw one into a black hole, while holding one outisde it at a safe distance, what would happen? Would the magnets affect each other in any way? Would one push/pull the other?
Comment: This is more like a Physics SE question than an astronomy one.
Answer: The tidal forces emerging from the black hole would at first break the magnet flung towards it into two pieces. Those two pieces would themselves undergo deformation and splitting, as the process of spaghettification will continue beyond the molecular, atomic and even sub-atomic levels, reducing everything that crosses the Event Horizon to a Singularity.

Note:
You won't actually see the magnet thrown towards the black hole crossing the event horizon, but that's a different matter altogether - please see this if it might interest you.

Now, magnetic attraction is essentially just an Electromagnetic Force, the range (not to be misunderstood as strength) of which is infinite - see reference.
In the context of the scenario stated in the question, the fate of attraction between a pair of magnets, one of which is thrown into a black hole, could be visualised by the following analogy: imagine holding a magnet in your hand and the other attached to a train which is accelerating downhill into a gorge. The two possible results are:

If the attraction is strong enough to pull the magnets together before the train falls into the gorge, then they both crash into the abyss together (assuming that the magnet attached to the train would easily be able to pull the one that's being held by hand). In case of a black hole, this would mean that both the objects (magnets) would be crushed to singularity. However, we might safely say that they both were "attached" before crossing the Event Horizon.
Or, the acceleration of the train reduces the attractive force infinitesimally, with the magnet in hand barely having any effect on the other magnet that crashed (and vice-versa). In a classical sense, this means that the force of attraction would still exist, even if it's reduced infinitesimally, to almost zero. However, with regards to a black hole, Event Horizon ensures that anything inside the horizon can no longer communicate with or influence anything outside the horizon (and vice-versa). This means, if the magnet somehow crosses the event horizon as a single piece, before losing its existence to singularity, its magnetic attraction would still never be able to cross the boundary defined by the horizon, even though the range of influence of the electromagnetic field is infinity. Ultimately, this would only last for a very brief moment and the magnet would be unable to prevent being pulverised to singularity, either by itself or by any attempts from any other entities outside of the Event Horizon.

Hope this helps.
Comment: so i would observe the other magnet stay on the event horizon, along with all of its attraction/repulsion, and if i try to detect it using the other magnet, it would in fact appear as if it's eternally on the event horizon?
Comment: @user2894959 You'd continue to observe the magnet as almost staying still _at_ the Event Horizon. However, it doesn't mean that it'll appear indifferent to you from the moment you first saw it approaching the Event Horizon. Anything crossing the EH would start to get [red-shifted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift) for an external observer. Meaning, fewer and fewer photons would reach the external observer with every passing moment. Eventually, the object at the EH would become way too dark to be detected and finally fade away - not the same as the object appearing to "cross" the EH.
Comment: It should be noted that it's the "photons" that make up any light visible to (and detectable by) us. It's also the photons that are the carriers of Electromagnetic Radiation. Keeping that in mind, we can draw a parallel that, since the object at the EH is getting red-shifted (less and less visible), its electromagnetic strength too would "fade out". Therefore, the magnetic attraction or repulsion on the magnet in your hand will be largely consistent with what you would get to "see" visually as a bystander outside the EH.


laptop with good memory

Question: I am a .net developer. I need laptop with 32GB ram with screen size 14 inch minimum.  I will have sql server 2017, Visual studio 2017.
Does anyone has good recommendations on this? Weight should not be more than 2kg. Any recommendations on buying virtual machines than can always connect to VPN? What does this VM costs? What about Docker? I am really going crazy with search for 32GB ram. Please help
Comment: Do you have any more requirements for the hardware?  How many VMs will you be running at one time? Will you be gaming with this laptop? What is your budget?
Comment: Also, We only recommend hardware here. There is a [software recommendations site](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/) that you can ask about what VM software to run on this laptop, but you will need to show prior research and have a good list of requirements.
Comment: @Cfinley i am not going to run any VM. I am going to install everything on my laptop
Comment: Then I am confused about the statements about VMs in your question. Can you please elaborate on them?
Comment: @Cfinley I just asked if i can use VM as alternative and what is costs? my vm needs to be connected to vpn
Answer: About your software questions, as commented, they belong on different sites.
To your question. If you are willing to pay you can certainly find a lot of laptop options that have 32 GB RAM.
One example is this HP Envy 15t, that has a 7th gen i7, 32 GB of RAM, a 512 SSD drive + a 1 TB HDD, and a 4K display.

laptop with good memory


I am not able to reset my password on Stack Exchange

Question: I've forgotten my password and never receive a password resetting link with the associated email ACCOUNT and anything,I don't want to log in via face-book what should I do to reset my login?I've seen my Junk and everything but did not find the mail?
Answer: Hmm, it looks like you logged in via Facebook 20 minutes ago (some time before posting this) but anyway. While we site mods can see how you log in, we can't see what's wrong with the central login server (openid.stackexchange.com). We aren't in a position to help debug email problems other than to say "it looks like it sent the message, check it isn't being binned".
So for service level issues like this, I'd recommend talking to SE directly via the contact page.


Why did Legolas save Thorin?

Question: After Legolas clearly hated Thorin Oakenshield, why did he save him? I mean considering that at the beginning of the movie Thorin hated all Elves, but at the battle of the five armies when he was about to get killed, Legolas threw that sword up and killed the orc. Didn't Legolas hate Dwarves?
Comment: Maybe he hates orcs *more*
Comment: Look at it like this: Thorin is a great soldier capable of defeating hundreds of orcs without anyone's help. Losing him would essentially mean they would have a few hundred more orcs to slaughter. Since they are on a quest to save the world, Legolas might have decided to keep his personal feelings aside and fight side by side with dwarves.
Comment: I felt that my answer to this one was pretty convincing, considering the quotes from the makers of the film. Is there anything else you'd like me to add before considering an acceptance?
Answer: In the Director's commentary, Screenwriter Philippa Boyens and Director Peter Jackson discuss both the in-universe and out-of-universe reasons why they chose to have Legolas sacrifice his sword to save Thorin. The very short answer is that it boils down to two factors; that the elves hate the orcs far more than they hate the dwarves (and by this point, have abandoned their enmity to team up against the greater threat, the orcs) and that they needed to somehow get the Orcrist sword back to Thorin so he could have it in later scenes.

PB: You know, another corner that you painted yourself into, and had to figure out was that that bloody elf [Legolas] has Orcrist, hasn't he? And you always wanted to get that back to . . .
PJ: Yeah, because Orcrist is ultimately Thorin's sword and he had it confiscated in the forest but we somehow had to figure out a way to get that back, and that's obviously coming up shortly

a few minutes later

PB: I like that in the end that it is the elves and the dwarves fighting against the orcs, side-by-side, even if it has just come down
to these two. Which feels true to the book.
PJ: We're emerging from our 'Orcrist Corner' here, Philippa
PB: You did.
PJ: We did! [Legolas throws the sword. Peter Jackson starts yelling at Thorin on-screen] Come on! Grab it!! As long as he grabs it, we've given him every opportunity to get his sword back. He did it!

You may wish to note that while the dwarves and elves have historically fought (for the usual mix of land, power and position) neither represents an existential threat to each other. If the dwarves win this battle, they won't go and murder the elves back home whereas the orcs will quite happily do so.
Comment: @RikerW - I added it because I was concerned that it's not a common word, nor is everyone likely to have come across the concept of existential warfare before.
Comment: I don't think the link to the definition of existential is needed. :P
Comment: Okay, that makes sense.
Comment: Tolkien said it best, in my opinion: *the Goblins were the foes of all, and at their coming all other quarrels were forgotten.*
Answer: I don't think it's just a matter of counting whom they hate more. I think they recognize that, while they have their differences and tensions between them, elves and dwarves and basically on the side of Good, vs. orcs, trolls etc. who are on the side of Evil. In fantasy, this distinction is real.
I see the elf-dwarf enmity as similar to what you see in modern-day friendly neighboring nations (e.g. France/England, Scotland/England, US/Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Scandinavians etc.) - they can make fun of each other, and they can dislike each other, but they'll still feel committed to protecting each other from, say, ISIS, because they recognize that "They" are on the same side, whereas ISIS is on the side of Evil.
Comment: There have been times when Scots and English were quite happy to do that to each other. And there was also the War of 1812.
Comment: It's not a *friendly* rivalry though. In the scenes before, the elves are quite committed to killing the dwarves and vice-versa.
Answer: To repay Thorin for having saved Legolas earlier in the barrel fighting scene.
Comment: Legolas didn't see Thorin save him. Besides, *that was 2 films ago*!
Comment: Can you elaborate on this answer, it's currently a bit short and low-quality.

Why did Legolas save Thorin?


What is the point of answering questions here if some self appointed expert just deletes whatever they do not understand?

Question: What is your problem ? Why do  you post questions and then just delete answers you do not agree with or understand. What a huge waste of time
Answer: You have one post that was deleted by a moderator. It was not deleted because it wasn't understood, it was deleted because it didn't meet the basic requirements imposed on all answers on this site. The moderator who deleted it left you a comment with an explanation already, but let me expand a little bit.
Most importantly you didn't really answer the question that was asked. You posted some related thoughts about one of the verses in the question, but barely touched the core issue of the question. Where you did touch on an answer, you only asserted it was so without showing how you arrived at that interpretation which is a requirement on this site. This is not a discussion forum and things work pretty differently from what you may expect. Do read the what makes us  different post you were already directed to.
Additionally—and this isn't why your post was deleted but it sure doesn't help—the post is very difficult to read. You should consider being more careful about your writing style and formatting. We prefer an academic tone over looser grammar like you might post in a Facebook comment. Repeated use of all-caps (which indicate yelling rather than the emphasis you may have intended), odd strings of punctuation that don't mean anything (e.g. ",,,,,"), and failure to capitalize normal things like proper names and the start of sentences makes posts look sloppy even if they have good content.
Answer: To expand on Caleb's comments, it is important to note that no moderators on this site are "self-appointed". Moderators are elected by the community to moderatorship by providing exemplary work. The community then votes (up or down) on said answers to receive a reputation score. Only after achieving sufficient reputation score are moderators able to do things such as delete answers.
This means moderators are regarded by their community as

Experts who generally understand complicated hermeneutics
Elected by their peers

You also had some comments deleted, but the bar for doing such is extremely low. Nearly anyone can flag a comment and comments will be deleted for reasons such as "too chatty", "obsolete" or even just "other".
This site is not just for answering questions, but also asking them. You might wish to try asking some questions instead and observing the answers you receive and then attempting to emulate the style and level of scholarship those questions generate.
Comment: +1 but the mods are appointed by SE for beta sites like this: elections will be held in the future sometime
Answer: A "Humane" Touch
It has long been my contention that the vast majority of users on BHSE are enthusiasts, and not 'credentialed academics'. Though there are a few, they have a plethora of other avenues to interact with other 'peers', plus conferences, peer reviews, academic papers, and students, which 'pay' for their service.
This leaves the vast pool of frustrated programmers who perhaps attended Bible school, dropped out of seminary, or those even like myself, who own a bible and know how to read, an opportunity to examine the nuances of the text in an attempt to more clearly understand it's meaning.
Unlike academia, we didn't have the 'finishing school' of how to present and exposit our ideas, and we may have come from the rough and tumble world of blogs, where shouting your conclusions the loudest and demeaning those who disagree is an acceptable form of communication.
Therefore...
As a conciliatory offer to those who 'visit' us for the 1st or 2nd time an attempt should be made to 'reconcile' their unvarnished contributions to something that more closely resembles our Site Directives. Although we primarily do this through reviews, 'suggestions' as how to improve their posts as well as specific insight into what a reviewer finds objectionable is much more helpful than VtC's and a "Here's the Rulebook-Read It", which many 1st time(myself at one time) contributors found offensive and parochial-the perception is, "If You Aren't One Of Us Already, Then You Don't Belong Here".
I realize this takes patience-and in an age where a society that measures Gigabytes and Nanoseconds, it is in very short supply. But I can testify as a once "unbridled colt" that a little patience and an attempt to 'understand' can have a far greater impact than dropping the hammer.
Comment: I think you might be heavily discounting the [Stack Exchange Theory of Moderation](https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/05/a-theory-of-moderation/) and its' effectiveness.
Comment: @JamesShewey I do discount the SE Theory of Moderation for one basic, profound, yet simple reason: it Is the Bible. It contains the "words of life", it contains eternal truths, and it contains a clear concise message by which all men must live their lives. It is not a book of history, although history is contained in it. It is not a book of poetry, although poetry is contained in it. It is not a book of science, although it is the true 'judge' of what science is (and isn't). It is a book of Truth, and it must be seen as such.
Comment: @JamesShewey Consequently, those that share this view(and there are many) are not solving a physics problem, or finding another way to write a line of code. These exercises can be conducted in an academically 'neutral' setting where a variety of views are presented and the one that 'best' solves the problem gets upvoted. Those who's views don't line up can go back and recheck their figures without making a 'moral commitment' as to the outcome. Not so with the Bible: 1) It is not neutral, 2) Those that read(study, pray, meditate) upon it are not neutral either.
Comment: @JamesShewey (Finally) Therefore, I make an exception with those who 1st(or 2nd) time visit us: they have " moral convictions", and whether or not I agree with them, I respect the fact that they also view the Bible as more than religious text. I do believe in the purposes of this site, and I do believe that we can learn from one another. But I recognize that "moral  convictions" cannot be factored out, nor do we want them to. This goes against the grain of SE's "Academic Neutrality" policy so it's necessary to 'coach' new users(IMO) how to participate, yet respect their beliefs.
Comment: @Tau **The Bible, It contains the "words of life", it contains eternal truths, and it contains a clear concise message by which all men must live their lives. It is not a book of history, although history is contained in it. It is not a book of poetry, although poetry is contained in it. It is not a book of science, although it is the true 'judge' of what science is (and isn't). It is a book of Truth, and it must be seen as such**. Bravo! The truth and nothing but the truth!


In principal component analysis, is PC a linear combination of input variables or vice versa?

Question: In every literature I've read each principal component is expressed as a linear combination of input variable. And the coefficient matrix is called factor loading. But why in John Hull's book (where he quoted Fyre 1997), an input variable is expressed as a linear combination of principal components? So he concluded that "When there is one unit of that factor, the 3-month rate increases by 0.21 basis points, the 6-month rate increases by 0.26 basis points, and so on". Is this just another convention or something? Thanks!
Comment: PCA allows for going both ways.
Comment: Or, to put it another way, the inverse of a linear transformation is also a linear transformation.
Comment: Okay, I see. It makes sense. Since there's no correlation among PC's, does that mean the inverse of the linear transformation always exists and thus the two conventions are always equivalent?
Comment: The "no correlation" is orthogonality of eigen vectors matrix. They're also orthonormal, so the inverse is a simple transpose.
Comment: @Aksakal That's a good point, but to stave off a possible misconception it's worth noting that the eigenvectors have to be suitably normalized for your statement to be true--and that is just another way of stating that the transformation is a little more complicated than orthogonal.  In particular, it shows why (and exactly how) the transformation may fail to be invertible.
Comment: @whuber in PCA the eigenvectors (loadings) are normalized, in fact in OP's example they're normalized in columns. In finance they also add intuitive interpretations to factors when applied to interest rates like in Hull's exhibit: level, slope and curvature
Comment: @Aksakal The opportunities for misinterpretation remain insofar as (1) not all implementations of PCA normalize the eigenvectors in the same way and (2) many eigenvectors may be normalized to *zero* when there is a true reduction in dimensions.
Comment: Yes, it is, both ways. This topic is what considered in https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/288646/3277 while comparing PCA and factor analysis.
Answer: Consider the purpose: why do in finance we extract the principal components from interest rate series? One reason is that we plug the factors to recover the rates, i.e. we take the modified output of PCA to get the new inputs. This may sound strange, so I'll elaborate.
One of the applications of the PCA applications is in risk management for the interest rate shock scenarios. Suppose that you have a portfolio of assets, that are sensitive to interest rates, and want to understand what is the interest rate risk of the book. One way of doing this is through scenario analysis.
If you had just one interest rate $r$ on the portfolio, you could look at the risk measure of the portfolio $V$ called the duration: $$D=-\frac 1 V \frac{\partial V}{\partial r}$$
Now, you could say that if the rates change by $\Delta r$, then the portfolio value would change by $\Delta V\approx-DV\Delta r$
The problem's that there's more than one interest rate, like in your exhibit we have rates from 3 months to 30 years. So what is $\Delta \bf r$ vector then? Of course, you could go with a so called parallell shock, i.e. set all coordinates of the $\Delta \bf r$ vector to an equal amount. This is quite popular, and still in use, especially in unsophisticated institutions and regulatory exercises a lot. However, we could try something more sophisticated.
One way to come up with this vector (shock scenario) is to use PCA. It happens so that if we run it on historical realizations of changes $\Delta r_{it}=r_{it}-r_{i,t-1}$ of the rate tenor $i$, the first principal component PC1 will account for up to 80% of the variance. Thus we can use this component to build the interest rate shock scenario, e.g. we could take one $\sigma$ shock up as follows:
$$\Delta \bf r=\lambda\sigma_1 PC1$$
Here $\sigma_1$ - the standard deviation of the first principal component score, $\lambda$ - standard deviation explained by PC1 and $PC1$ - the loadings that you show from Hull's book. We could also use this to construct yield curve steepening/flattening shocks by using the slope component PC2. PCA allows to do this kind of interesting scenario construction.
So, to summarize, we first plugged the interest rates (inputs) into PCA and got the factors (outputs). Next, we modified the factors (outputs) and plugged them back into PCA and using coefficients (loadings) got the interest rates (originally, inputs) back. We went forward, then backward using the same PCA coefficient matrix!
Comment: I just wonder if you need to divide the changes by its value as in $\Delta r_{it}=r_{it}-r_{i,t-1}$. If you put data of different tenor together (eg. 1 month and 30 years), because their absolute value differs a lot, you are not going to get a nearly constant factor loading for first PC as in the Hull's example.
Comment: In PCA you can scale the volatility (e.g. by variance), it's a standard option in most stat packages. In practice the volatilities are not that different to actually do this. In my work the differences in PC from correlation or covariance regression are trivial. I don't have Hull's book with me, but think that the exhibit is actually on rates themselves, no scaling
Comment: I checked the 5th ed of Hull's "Options, Futures..." book, Table 16.3, the factor loadings are for straight interest rates, no scaling was applied as I suspected. It's just not worth the hassle usually.
Comment: Yes. Hull used interest rate daily differences. I don't know if I do wrong or not, but I don't get the nearly constant factor loading for PC1 as in Hull's example when I try to verify this with data from 2001 to 2018. The factor loadings are increasing with tenor.
Comment: The factor loading will be changing day to day. You're not going to get constant loading most of the time. Whether it's a problem or not depends on your application. I personally do not bother about this in my applications


Non-prescription medicines in India and USA

Question: It would be very helpful if I could carry motion sickness pills, fever and cold antibiotic pills with me. I do not have fever or cold at the moment, but will very likely catch one due to sudden temperature changes. These medications are obtained over the counter here in India. Will these fall under restricted items by the US customs? I don't know their names, but these pills are usually non-sedating in nature.
Comment: You don't "catch" a cold or a fever simply due to changes in temperature. Colds are caused by viruses. Fevers are an immune response and can be caused by either a viral or bacterial infection. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics. Bacterial infections can be treated by antibiotics but these should always be prescribed, otherwise you are risking promotion of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
Comment: Related: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26089/travelling-to-the-us-with-codeine-based-medicines
Answer: I am in NZ and do not know the specific of US law, but I have little doubt that you are putting yourself at risk.
A number of medicines that can be obtained 'over the counter' in India would be illegal in NZ without a prescription, or at all. There is every reason to think that the same applies in the US. There is no reason not to check explicitly what applies re anything that you intend to carry. There are an ongoing number of foreigners spending time in foreign prisons or, in a few cases, waiting excecution, who claim complete innocence re what they were carrying. The US is not as draconian as India, but there are some things that can be freely bought in India that carry the death penalty in Singapore. In the US you may only face imprisonment.
While you say "cold antibiotic pills", the fact that there is no such thing demonstrates that your terminology and knowledge are inexact and that you run the risk of carrying "harmless" products that could cause you problems.
Pseudoephedrine based products, commonly used for "a runny nose" are used as precursors for methamphetamine production and can get you in major trouble with some administrations. Carry those undeclared into NZ and you would face instant eviction or prosecution.
Codeine based medicines can be problematic.
Unprescribed antibiotics are illegal in NZ - I do not know what applies in the US.
There is no reason not to investigate the specific rules applying in the US, and every reason to do so.
Comment: tell me more about the risks of having pseudoephedrine with you. I carry Sudafed at all times - I can't take antihistamines and when I catch a cold I take a decongestant. What would be the consequences of having 12 or so Sudafed with me in my carryon entering NZ for a few day stay?
Comment: @KateGregory - It's now a prescription medicine here but most doctors will not prescribe it to avoid the trail of people turning up with "good reasons" to need it.  I'd probably declare it 'just in case'. If it's in the original box / container and/or you have it on prescription you'd "probably" be OK not declaring it, but no guarantee. I usually carry a class 2 prescribed drug when I travel and have found customs officials are usually extremely good - I've never had it confiscated. I carry labelled container from the dispensing chemist and a medication list from my doctor.n
Comment: There's no way to have a Sudafed prescription in the USA for the standard dose, as it is available without one, although only with identification and recorded purchase. I. too, travel with a decongestant because I've had problems with sinus infections after flights.
Answer: Probably the pills will face no objection, if they are few in quantity and preferably in their original packaging.  However, there is no reason to bring most of them (apart from the  motion sickness pills perhaps), as they are readily available in the US at low cost.
Comment: @NateEldredge: the OP has no actual need for antibiotics so should not be taking them anyway.  :)
Comment: However, antibiotics require a prescription in the US,  which means you have to see a doctor, adding significantly to the cost and inconvenience.
Comment: Well, I'm not a doctor (at least, not that kind), and I'm definitely not the OP's doctor, so I figured I wasn't qualified to contradict him on that point.
Comment: @JohnZwinck "no actual need" is such a strong term :-). As described, yes. And the reasons given are not what causes the need. However, when I travel internationally, as well as presecription medicines that I use regularly (too many, alas) I also carry a number to use "as required"  - under remote supervision if needs. These may include anti-nausea, anti diarrhea, antibiotic-s , analgesics and more. These have proven extremely valuable on occasion. Most are presecription medicines and have been proscribed by NZ GP's or perhaps a "travel doctor". ...
Comment: ...  | Attempts to obtain an analgesic on one occasion in China resulted in prepackaged capsules with green unknown stuff in them sold by a "chemist". I did not take them. Subsequent deciphering of the label on return changed the description from 'unknown' to 'unknowable' - Chinese medicine products that did not match any of the things I asked for.
In some locations I take 1 x low dose Doxycycline tablet a day. As well as being generally-antibiotic it is a standard antimalarial treatment.  ...
Comment: ... Some get bad side effects. I'm lucky and get none. (You still may "get" Malaria but the cysts die when they enter your blood stream - ugh).


Does tapping Swiftfoot Boots remove Hexproof from the creature it's equipped to?

Question: So if my buddy has Emrakul, the Promised End, and it's equipped with Swiftfoot Boots, and I use Pacification Array to "tap target artifact..." can I tap the boots, thus eliminating the hexproof for that turn?
Comment: Why do you think tapping the Boots would remove Hexproof?
Comment: It's basically game over if he gets that equipped and I don't have a destroy target artifact. I was thinking that maybe tapping it would disable its abilities.
Answer: Tapping an artifact, or any other permanent, does not change its abilities, or whether those abilities have an effect, unless the ability says so. Tapped vs untapped is simply part of the status of a permanent [CR 110.6].
Historically, artifact abilities did in fact "turn off" when that artifact was tapped. Many of those cards have since been reworded to explicitly only work when the permanent is untapped. Examples include Winter Orb, Static Orb and Howling Mine.
Comment: In addition, tapping an Equipment does not prevent its Equip-ability from being played, unless tapping it is an explicit part of the costs for that ability (though I am unaware of any Equipment having to tap to equip).


How do I write a Mail.app rule to mark messages as read in one mailbox but leave them as unread in my in-box?

Question: I have a Mail.app rule that copies certain incoming messages into an archive mailbox. I'd like those messages to be marked as read in the archive mailbox but remain unread in my in-box until I actually read them. I tried adding "Mark as Read" to the copy rule but that marks the message as read in both the archive mailbox and my in-box, so I never have any unread messages in my in-box. Any ideas?
Comment: Depends on your mail provider and if you use IMAP or POP to fetch your mails
Answer: It seems Mail 6.0 in Mountain Lion has fixed this for me. When I have new mail it shows as unread in both my in-box and my archive mailbox. And now, when I read it in my in-box it gets marked as read in both my in-box and my archive mailbox. Chalk one up for Mountain Lion.


How long have you played/how long have you been playing

Question: Let's say I am playing a computer game (overwatch, for example) and I've just met some friendly people. In overwatch, there are rounds. One round usually lasts no more than 20 minutes, but it is possible to play round for more than an hour.
I want to ask them about their overall time spent in overwatch.
Normally, I would use present perfect tense ( How long have you played this game?) but I'm not really sure.
And, when I want to ask them about the amount of time they spent during this one round, I will use perfect continous (How long have you been playing this game?)
Is it right?
Comment: _How long have you played this game?_ seems to be asking when they started (example answer: _Since 2014_), which is not quite the same as "overall time spent in the game".
Answer: If someone asked me, "how long have you played this game?", I would take it to be asking about the amount of time since I started playing - i.e. if I started playing a year ago, I would reply, "about a year".
I would say the same thing if someone asked me, "how long have you been playing this game?" The verb tenses "played" and "been playing" are different -- but "been playing" means that the playing is still going on, which is definitely the case if you're asking inside the game.
For example, I played Quake 3 for 2 years. Since I'm no longer playing Quake 3, "how long have you been playing" isn't appropriate - "played" is the better verb tense because the action concluded in the past.
None of this has any bearing on the current round. In my opinion, the better way to ask that question is to change the noun, not change the verb tense. For example:

How long has this round been going on?

^^ This means that the round is still ongoing.

How long was that round?

^^ This means the round has ended.


How/where do I store The Liberator?

Question: Does anybody know how/where to store The Liberator in GTA V story mode? I tried in Franklin's garage as well as Trevor's and neither worked.
Comment: This somewhat depends on what version you are playing. In the PS3/xbox 360 editions, you have no need to save it, as it is accessible through the special vehicles menu. I've not encountered it on my PS4, so I'm not sure how it works yet on the current generation of consoles and PCs.
Answer: No need to store it in the garage, you should be able to select special vehicles at some point and it should be listed.
Found in each protagonist's garage in single player in the Special Vehicles section. It, along with the Sovereign, were no longer available as of 8/5/2014 due to a glitch. Both vehicles returned to the garages after the San Andreas Flight School Update (XB360/PS3).
More Information
Special Vehicles are features in the Grand Theft Auto series, this article contains a list of all the special vehicles featured in Grand Theft Auto V.
Answer: I have no problem storing the Liberator in Franklin's mansion garage.  It takes a little force but it will squeeze in.  Just stop the vehicle before it's roof reaches the concrete beam in the garage ceiling.  This will make backing out much easier.  This is my experience using PS4 in story mode.

How/where do I store The Liberator?


Why do thermal currents affect light but wind does not?

Question: I notice if I put heat under a laser beam it will cause the beam to shimmer. The heated air is causing a disturbance in the air which affects the light. Yet, I can blast a stream of air from a compressor across the beam and there is no effect on the light. What's going on?
Answer: Heat ripples the light beam because the temperature of the flame and its surroundings is sufficiently nonuniform that it creates significant differences in the index of refraction of the air that vary quickly with time.
The blast of air coming out of the nozzle is close enough to ambient that it doesn't create anisotropies in the index of refraction of the air near the light beam, and so you don't see any ripples.
Comment: If you measure very carefully, you will find the moving air produces pressure variations that affect the index of refraction. This effect can limit the accuracy of a interferometer used to measure displacement, for example.
Comment: agree with @The Photon. but the heat-driven effects can be readily observed without interferometry.
Answer: Wind, and generally atmosphere, causes considerable effect on light propagation. However usually the effects are too small for human eye to detect on short length-scales and regular environment.
A good example where this effect is big and important (that is, actively funded and researched) is astronomy, and a whole branch of optics called Adaptive optics tries to compensate the phenomena to increase the resolution of telescopes located down on earth.
As @niels nielsen mentioned, the thermal effects are more prominent, since the average velocity of the air molecules is larger in comparison to the velocity of air out of the compressor, thus the compressor is just a slight perturbation to regular state. You have to compare the velocity of the air out of compressor to the the RMS velocity of "air particles" -the speed of sound, which is about $340 [\frac{m}{s}]$. Only when the velocity out of the compressor becomes comparable to the speed of sound you will start to notice effects on light trajectories. On the other hand, even the use of a crude estimation found in Wikipedia speed of sound shows that for oven at $T\approx 200[C^\circ]$ the speed of sound changes by more than $30\%$, thus disturbing more the light trajectories.