How do I get more than 64 characters of message from serial

Question: I am trying to make a moving message board using an Arduino Uno, HC-05 Bluetooth module and DMD board.
Sending message to the DMD through the Bluetooth module can only give a not more than 62 character message.
I need help in what to do to get up to 200 or more. Thanks.
Comment: You need to read the serial data *before* the buffer fills up. Do *not* use the serial's buffer in place of your own.
Comment: What about reading the serial buffer into a ring buffer larger that 64 bytes?
Comment: I got to access the HardwareSerial through program files> arduino, till i got to it, but find it hard to implement a change, am a newbie in this stuff.
Comment: The point is, that you don't really have a good reason to modify the HardwareSerial library. You are a beginner, so start with using the library correctly by constantly reading the bytes from the internal buffer to your own big buffer in your code. You do not need to modify the library for this
Answer: First: There is no such concept of a message on the Serial bus, unless you implement it yourself. On hardware level only individual bytes are transmitted, and you don't even know, when each byte will be transmitted exactly. Since there are only individual bytes in the first place, there is no limitation on how many bytes can be transmitted.
Yes, the Serial library has a limited buffer of 64 bytes, but as Majenko wrote it is not intended for buffering all bytes for one of your messages. It should only buffer the bytes, until the main sketch can read them from the buffer. On reading the bytes will be removed from the buffer, leasing buffer space for new characters.
The buffer size of the Serial library can be increased by changing the numbers in HardwareSerial.h in the following lines
#define SERIAL_TX_BUFFER_SIZE 64

#define SERIAL_RX_BUFFER_SIZE 64

But this is not really the solution to your problem. When first filling the buffer and then read the whole message you just arbitrarly
constrain yourself to a insufficient solution.
Instead of waiting for all the messages bytes (and finally filling up the buffer) you should steadily check, if new bytes are available and then load them into your own buffer. You can use a delimiter byte to mark the end of a message, mostly "\n" (newline character) is used for this. Copy the bytes into your own buffer, until you read the delimiter byte. Then use the message as a whole for your application. Don't forget to clear your buffer afterwards.
The examples for the Serial library, especially the SerialEvent example show how to do this in your code.
Comment: It gets even worse.  There's no concept of a message in a serial line, but there often is in an application.  Further, a serial link proxied over Bluetooth will be bunched into packets and tend to arrive in bursts.  But those bursts often won't align with the boundaries between application messages!
Answer: The software from the transmitter can break the text you want to send into pieces of 62 characters in length and send them one by one. The receiver will save the most recent piece in a String and join it with a another String which will be storing the whole message. If you don't mind it being a little bit slower, then this is the solution for you


"Promoting Certain Keywords" petition for migration instead of close

Question: The question Promoting Certain Keywords cannot be answered by what it was tagged as an exact duplicate of. Instead, it should be migrated to WordPress SO, as the question is very specific to a set of global keywords for each page in addition to a set of local keywords.
Comment: Wordpress would just close the question and flame us for the migration, if I thought it was a technique question I would have answered but he does say "Site is for writers and bloggers so i want to promote some specific keywords like "online writing community" so that if some one search for such words on Google, search engine can place my site on some top results." Which led me to the conclusion it was a how to hack google results question.
Comment: Taking from that quote, it seems that the writer and bloggers are going to be his users (Or a select number of people). He simply wants to add global, static keywords in addition to the dynamic ones that his users / recruited writers can add. As he said in the beginning of the question, he is new to SEO - therefore he doesn't know how to phrase the question using the correct terminology to prevent such assumptions.
Comment: I get it, but it's still a question about how to make his site rank better which is why it got closed as a dupe. If you or he want to submit your question (which is a better question by the way) then go ahead, I'll certainly have a bash at an answer.
Answer: Wordpress is a tool for creating websites. I don't see anything in the question that would mean that you need to know about the underlying tool for this site in order to answer it.
Comment: As I said in my question; techniques to add keywords to your website isn't @Umesh Awasthi's question. It's clear he knows **how** to add keywords and what they are for. He's simply wondering how to add a set of static keywords for each page in addition to the dynamic ones. In either case the question doesn't belong here, atleast let WordPress SO try to give him the information he needs instead of the pre-packaged answer that doesn't give him anything useful for his situation.
Comment: He wants the static keywords to help his ranking. I think two of the things that would do that are creating relevant content using those words, which is a writing skill, and getting external sites to link to his using those keywords, which is a PR skill. Recreating the question in Wordpress SO is another option.
Comment: Yes, his question is in the realm of SEO, but there are plenty of questions that are similarly SEO-oriented that do not get closed, rather migrated or even answered. Regardless, the 'exact duplicate' question that is referenced does **not** answer his question, therefore not a duplicate. Recreating the question is unnecessary... I believed that the goal of SE is to provide a core of information, reopening the question then migrating it to WordPress is the best solution.


Are there any large aquatic mammals in Zootopia?

Question: Zootopia makes an effort to include mammals at almost every scale from every possible environment. There's Tundratown, Sahara Square, the Jungle place, home to animals from artic shrews to elephants. However, I didn't see any large aquatic mammals. Are there dolphins or whales that I missed? If there aren't, has the production team publicly discussed why there aren't any?
Comment: Don't worry, they will be in the direct to home video Birdtopia and Aquatopia, when Judy and Nicks hybrid baby gets exiled for being unnatural.
Comment: Not every animal had to have evolved. Maybe the tree-hugging iguana liked being a tree-hugging iguana.
Answer: According to the artbook "Art of Zootopia", it was simply too difficult for the film's concept artists to work out how to include large aquatic creatures (and other non-mammal animals) in the city. So they were just gently airbrushed out of the picture.

The team spoke with zoologists, animal behavior specialists, and
  scientists who study animal evolution. Based on what they discovered,
  the filmmakers decided to limit the film's animals to mammals,
  although "reptiles and birds and other animals do exist on this
  planet. We just don't go to those continents," says screenwriter and
  co-director Jared Bush. This constraint led to an "aha!" moment that
  became a central tenet of Zootopia—that mammals are divided into two
  groups: predators and prey, and prey animals outnumber predators
  ten-to-one.
Answer:
They show hippos, which are large aquatic mammals.  Further we see that the hippo commuters use a special water-filled "subway" that presumably could be used by other aquatic mammals.
Answer: I believe zootopia is like a regular zoo. If you go to a regular zoo, you can see lions, elephants, apes, birds, etc... , you don't see whales or dolphins only in an Aquazoo/park which Zootopia isn't.
If you look at the Zootopia Disney Wiki you can see the cast here and all the animals that are in the movie:

Ginnifer Goodwin as Judy Hopps, a rabbit
Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde, a red fox
Idris Elba as Chief Bogo, a cape buffalo
Jenny Slate as Bellwether, a sheep
J. K. Simmons as Mayor Lionheart, an African lion
Nate Torrence as Clawhauser, a cheetah
Shakira as Gazelle, a gazelle
Bonnie Hunt as Bonnie Hopps, a rabbit
Don Lake as Stu Hopps, a rabbit
Tommy "Tiny" Lister as Finnick, a fennec fox
Alan Tudyk as Duke Weaselton, a weasel
Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Big, an arctic shrew
Phil Johnston as Gideon Grey, a red fox
Raymond S. Persi as Flash, a three-toed sloth
Tommy Chong as Yax, a yak
Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Otterton, an otter
Jesse Corti as Manchas, a black jaguar
Katie Lowes as Dr. Badger, a honey badger
John DiMaggio as Jerry Jumbeaux Jr., an African elephant
Peter Mansbridge as Peter Moosebridge, a moose
Mark "Rhino" Smith as Officer McHorn, a rhinoceros
Kristen Bell as Priscilla, a three-toed sloth
Leah Latham as Fru Fru, an arctic shrew
John Lavelle as Mouse Foreman
Rich Moore as Doug, a ram
Byron Howard as Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, a kudu, and Travis, Gideon Grey's weasel friend.
Jared Bush as Pronk Oryx-Antlerson, an oryx
Josh Dallas as Frantic Pig Gita Reddy as Nangi, an elephant
Fuschia as Drill Sergeant, a polar bear
Zach King as a wolf
Comment: Actually, Zootopia isn't like a regular zoo. There aren't any apes or monkeys, reptiles or birds. Thanks for the Wiki content though!
Comment: Um... Every zoo I've been to has aquatic animals... At the very least they have fish and turtles. My home zoo even has bigger mammals like seals/sea lions. I'm not really certain what this list does for your answer, though. The question is asking whether aquatic mammals exist, not for a list of all the speaking characters. There are tons of mammals in the film that aren't speaking roles but are seen, including gerbils, mice and other small mammals, so the list isn't even complete.
Comment: @Catija I believe that totally depends where you are. I live in Belgium and in our zoo's there aren't any aquatic creatures. It's split.


Does light color change when refracting?

Question: When light refracts from a medium to a second one, its frequency stays the same, and its wavelength changes. If this is true, why we see the refracted light ray's colour is the same as the incident light ray in the second medium? The colors should not be the same. If the wavelength changes, colour should change too.
Comment: When seeing, isn't the last medium the light passes through always the stuff in your eyeballs?
Comment: Frequency does not change moving through another medium, so a (better?) different question to ask is whether color is dependent on wavelength or frequency.
Answer: The color will not change. What you're not taking into account is the speed of light in the medium. It's not the same $ c $ en vacuo. The frequency stays the same. What changes is the speed of light in the refracting medium and as a result wavelength. This difference for speed is the exact reason we have refractive effects, and I believe was the observation that led to Snell's Law. In symbols $$ \lambda = \frac {c} {\nu} $$ where $\lambda$ is the wavelength and $ \nu $ is the frequency.
The speed of light changes because the photons have to have its energy ( and therefore it's presence ) propagated across very long molecular chains. Electrons have to absorb the incident photons, re-emit, and repeat this in a longitudinal direction. Depending on what the material is made of, this will take variable time in variable media. That notion manifests itself in the different indices of refraction that different objects have.
Answer: Doryan pretty much explained it, I'll just add some intuitive points. The wavelength changes BECAUSE the speed of light changes and the ratio of these remains constant which is the frequency of the light wave. Colour is a direct result of the frequency of a wave, not it's wavelength. Wavelength is merely the distance between two consecutive crests/troughs of a wave. If a travelling wave changes it's speed, this distance must surely also change so that their ratio remains the same. Try looking at a wave graph to get the idea.
Comment: Colour is a direct result of wavelength, not of frequency. The colour of light changes inside a medium. If you look at the refraction from outside the refracting medium (looking at a prism from air) you perceive the light as being the same colour. That does not mean that it stays the same inside the medium. It changes and since the frequency is constant it is it that does not correlate to the colour of light
Answer: You seem to be mixing up a few concepts. The wavelength does indeed effectively change inside the medium (let's just say glass, like a glass window, to be simple). However, when it comes out of the glass, it turns back into its initial wavelength.


why do we look at dark energy as an energy?

Question: We call dark matter dark matter, because of the way it acts on galaxies, but why do we look at dark energy as an energy? With $E = m c^2$, can't dark energy be mass as well? Why dont we look at dark energy as a mass, in the same way as we look at dark matter as being a missing mass (as halo around galaxies)?
Answer: Since relativistic physics almost always takes units of $c = 1$, there is no difference between units of energy density and mass density. Conceptually, however, the gravitational charge is energy, not mass.
In general relativity, a perfect fluid has no viscuous shear stresses and no heat flux, and can be described by the stress-energy tensor $T^{\mu\nu} = (\rho + p)u^\mu u^\nu + pg^{\mu\nu}$, where $\rho$ is density, $p$ is pressure, and $u^\mu$ is the fluid four-velocity. In the case of vanishing pressure, the result is called a dust, and is appropriate for modeling cold dark matter, galaxies on the cosmological scale, etc. On the other hand, a radiation fluid has $\rho = 3p$, and is appropriate for modeling incoherent electromagnetic radiation, or a fluid made of strongly relativistic particles (e.g., hot dark matter), and so forth.
Thus, in the specific context of cosmology, the matter-dominated regime has $p\sim 0$ and radiation-dominated regime has $p\sim\rho/3$. Note that in the latter case, the fluid particles have zero (or at least negligible) mass. In-between, we can talk about a fluid of particles that are not strongly relativistic, and hence have some mass.
On the other hand, the standard model of dark energy is a cosmological constant, which is equivalent to a perfect fluid $p = -\rho$. It does not fit into the above scale; it is not matter in the above sense, nor is radiation, nor anything in-between. Furthermore, it has the peculiar property of being exactly the same in every local inertial frame. This frame-independence enables us to think of the cosmological constant as an intrinsic energy density of spacetime, but it also makes it inappropriate to think of it as a collection of fluid particles that have some rest frame.
For your purposes, this important because $E = mc^2$ is only valid in a rest frame.
Comment: So the formula says that mass equals energy, but the concepts dont fit the formula? Something tells me i need to read your post every 3 hours for a few days, and it will somehow sink in, but right now it hasnt yet
Comment: You can apply the formula to find a mass density if you like, but the point was only that unlike the previous cases, you can't decompose dark energy into a collection of massive particles zipping about.


How to get price of ETH to DAI within smart contract?

Question: Is it possible to get the current price of Ethereum to Dai within a smart contract? Can this be done without a transaction, using a read operation by the nodes on some kind of existing decentralized exchange or the dai contract itself?
Answer: You can use MakerDAO's ETHUSD feeds to get price of ETH in USD. This should be extremely close (<1% difference usually) to ETHDAI in the short term, and average to much closer in the long term (<0.1% usually).
Alternatively, you can use the ratio of ETH to DAI in the Uniswap ETH/DAI exchange to estimate the price, which is located here
Answer: You can query the latest price via HTTP/RestAPI, for that you need to implement oracalize service's. Its very easy to write and a lot of services are available, you can use an existing service. Obviously, it will cost gas and mostly this calls asynchronous. 2Way is to integrate DEX is a good idea, but most of DEX may not update timely. Some of DEX(Decentralized Exchanges) will not provide this method is in the smart contract. For more details please refer to idex.market api.
These api's values are changing exchange to exchange before integrating anything from other than decentralized you compromised your security. That means your giving one way to an attacker to enter into the system very easily. So I'll say be careful while integrating with the 3rd party services like oracalize or REST API's or any lib.
I am not advising to use idex.network or oracalize or any other services, this is intended for knowledge purpose only.
Comment: Bro your answer is outdated and not about MakerDAO and Dai. Read up on that project if you haven't already, it's like a decentralized oracle


Contractions and their unabbreviated forms in sentences

Question: I was wondering why some contractions in sentences don't make sense in their unabbreviated form, such as "why don't we do something about it" versus "why do not we do something about it"
Answer: You can get close by changing the word order slightly: "Why do we not do ...". Once phrases, contractions or acronyms become established, though, they tend to continue their linguistic development somewhat independently of their roots.
In the case of "Why don't we X", although it can be understood as a request for clarification (i.e. Why do we not do X?), it can also be construed as a suggestion to do X, without any hint of a request for clarification.

Why interrogative adverb
  1.1 [with negative] Used to make or agree to a suggestion:
  'why don't I give you a lift?'
  - ODO
Answer: Interrogative sentences, both closed ended (polar) and open ended can be in the negative. In Wh-negative questions ('who' excluding) and yes-no questions inversion of auxiliary verbs / modals before the actual subject is mandatory (after wh- words if any). Inversion of NOT is optional. The short form of NOT is n't. As a general rule we may say that if this short form is used, we invert the  shortened n't with the auxiliary or modal, otherwise NOT is retained at its usual place.
We were once tought not to invert 'not' in its full glory if the subject is a pronoun; no matter if a noun. But I haven't come across any authoritative source as yet.
Answer: Actually, one can find the construction "do not you agree" in (for famous example) Jane Austen, but I guess we'd call it 'archaic' when we encounter it in speech today.


War dial research

Question: Anyone know of any specific UK Law that would prevent the use of war dialling as part of a security research project?
Answer: Bearing in mind that I'm not a lawyer, you would certainly want to hire a legal eagle to evaluate whether you're contravening the Communications Act 2003, specifically:

§125: "Dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services"
§126: Possession or supply of apparatus etc. for contravening s. 125
Answer: Also need to be aware that there is a bit of backlash in the UK off the back of autocallers which leave you listening to silent connections. Was trying to find an appropriate link, but can't find the article I was after. I can't see anything that explicitly prohibits you doing it in law (but IANAL) but you might just end up very unpopular :-)

War dial research


Should everyone take an annula flu vaccine?

Question: Flu is a disease of all ages, with worst complications and risk of death in babies and the elderly, but people of all ages can get very sick or be hospitalized.
Comment: I think this question is better suited for health.se.
Answer: The CDC recommends:

Vaccination to prevent influenza is particularly important for persons who are at increased risk for severe complications from influenza, or at higher risk for influenza-related outpatient, ED, or hospital visits. When vaccine supply is limited, vaccination efforts should focus on delivering vaccination to the following persons who do not have contraindications (no hierarchy is implied by order of listing):

ll children aged 6 through 59 months;
all persons aged ≥50 years;
adults and children who have chronic pulmonary (including asthma) or cardiovascular (except isolated hypertension), renal, hepatic, neurologic, hematologic, or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus);
persons who have immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by HIV infection);
women who are or will be pregnant during the influenza season;
children and adolescents (aged 6 months–18 years) who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy and who might be at risk for experiencing Reye syndrome after influenza virus infection;
residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;
American Indians/Alaska Natives; and
persons who are extremely obese (BMI ≥40).

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/rr/rr6505a1.htm?s_cid=rr6505a1_w
The reasons for this are countless, if you can handle it read the article in the above link.
So in short: people at risk of complications of flu. "Normal" people can handle a "normal" flu very well. An example of how things can go wrong is the spanish flu where healthy mid-aged people where more vulnerable.
This is for the USA. I'm from Holland and we use almost the same criteria, except for the extreme obese and only for persons aged >60 years. Also health professionals get a shot. AND we don't recommend giving the vaccine to children/babies! Only in some cases with bowel disease.
Hope this makes sense.
Answer: No you should not unless you are chronically sick. This research proves that.
http://flushotcanada.blogspot.ca
The CDC will tell you otherwise, and doctors who's training is guided by the Industry will as well.
Comment: Some guy's blog is not a credible source. Do you have anything better than that to support such bad advice?
Comment: @Aaron It's not my job to invalidate answers. It's the answer's job to validate them. They have so far failed to do so for almost a full year.
Comment: @CareyGregory Neither does that automatically invalidate it. This is a controversial issue, so it is good to see an answer supporting this answer's point of view which is often not given for fear of being bullied out of the room. I will grant that the "research paper" at that link reads almost like an advertisement in some places, such as its introduction paragraph. It should be taken, just with a grain of salt (or two).
Comment: @Jan Please expand your answer if you are willing. I would be happy to up-vote a "No" answer, except that this answer is way too sparse. Could you summarize some important highlights from your link at least?
Comment: @CareyGregory I did not ever mean that it was your job, only that the linked article not being what you consider a "credible source" does not invalidate it. But anyway, I commented not realizing that this was not a new answer and hoping answerer could improve it; I later realized it is almost a year old, so I won't hold my breath.


A problem with the path in a design

Question: George here
I have a problem with illustrator ... I accidently draw something with the paintbrush istead of doing it with the blob brush. Now my problem is that i wanted it to be a shape like line but now it has a path and i don't know how to or if I can make it without a path without the need of drawing it again...
 Thank you for your time and I appreciate it if you respond.
Answer: Select the path.
Choose Object > Expand Appearance from the menu.
That should convert the path to a shape.
If it didn't in one step, then choose Object > Expand from the menu as well.

A problem with the path in a design


How to build a bitcoinj checkpoint file

Question: How can I build a bitcoinj checkpoint file
like the Bitcoin-wallet checkpoints?
Answer: From this discussion: How to create a checkpoint file
Run mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=com.google.bitcoin.tools.BuildCheckpoints in the tools/ directory from the bitcoinj repository.
BuildCheckpoints expects you to have a fully synced local Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind instance running.
Answer: Providing an updated answer:
Bitcoinj provides a tool for that. I'll assume you have downloaded bitcoinj repository:
Inside the 'tools' folder you will find a file called build-checkpoints.cmd (for Windows, or just build-checkpoints for Linux).
Try build-checkpoints -help to learn about the tool's options.
If you don't have a local bitcoin node, you should provide a node's ip using the -peer parameter.

How to build a bitcoinj checkpoint file


Select the same number of results for every group

Question: I have views where I select nodes and group all results in 3 groups by field. When I select for example a limit to 30 I get results but with the different count in every group (for example 20/7/3). What I can use to select for example 10 most relevant results in every group. I can do it with query alter or maybe need to create some plugin?
Answer: Yes, query alter helps.  Views flexible pager might serve as an inspiration for the code changes. Do contribute back if you find a solution, it has been requested before.
This problem is usually "solved" by creating different Views displays, as many as you have Groups, and filter each field value in its own display. Then show all 3 displays one after another and use styling to make them seem like they're from the same Views.


Does same-species racism exist in Star Trek?

Question: Like it or not, racism has been a major part of Earth's history. It still plagues the planet today. However, in the future that Star Trek presents, same-species racism has been practically eliminated, with all peoples (for the most part) receiving equal opportunity. Now, I know that sexism exists within various species (the Ferengi for example), but what about racism? Different skin colors are apparent in multiple species. Has there ever been evidence of racism within other alien species in any instance of their history?
Comment: Does the new Discovery series count? The first few episodes *heavily* imply that Klingons are racist towards members of their own species who don't conform exactly to how 'the average Klingon' looks
Comment: Are you really limiting the scope to just those 4 series for eternity? You realise you can use the [star-trek] tag as a general tag.
Comment: Different skin color doesn't mean different race. Biological racial differences in humans are far, far deeper than that. Skin color happened to coincide with race, but hair color doesn't (it also could have, it's more or less accidental development). You first need to identify a multiracial species in Star Trek.
Comment: What's your definition of *species?* Because humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Betazoids, and many more are all the same species if we go by the most common definition of *species* for eukaryotes (able to produce fertile offspring).
Comment: Are you asking about [institutional, interpersonal, or internalized same-species racism](http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.90.8.1212)?
Comment: @Xalorous I understood that after your clarification. My question is: if we don't call the distinction between Vulcan, Klingon, Terran, etc. "species", then what is the correct terminology?
Comment: Vulcan vs romulan?
Comment: @Wrzlprmft By that definition, lions, tigers, and bears are all the same species as well.
Comment: @Code-Guru If they produce fertile offspring, then they are the same species, by that definition of species.  By the definition used in taxonomy, they're compatible species.
Comment: @Code-Guru: Lions and bears can produce fertile offspring together? Do you have a link about that?
Comment: @O.R.Mapper The comment where I noted that I originally read that statement incorrectly was deleted.
Comment: @He means different lion species and bear species amongst themselves. Like grizzly/polar ear hybrids. They are fully viable.
Answer: There was "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," a remarkably unsubtle clunker of an episode, in spite of its worthy message.
SPOILER-NOT-SPOILER: The pair above is the mirror image of the other, i.e., their face is white or black on the respective opposite sides. This is an allegory for attaching significant differences in humanity to skin color on Earth. Here's a choice exchange between the pair:

Kirk: "You're black on one side and white on the other."
  Bele: "I am black on the right side."
  Kirk: "I fail to see the significant difference."
  Bele: "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."

And another:

"You're finished, Lokai! Oh, we've got your kind penned in on Cheron
  into little districts, and it's not going to change! You've combed the
  galaxy, and come up with nothing but monocolored trash, do-gooders,
  and bleeding hearts.You're dead! You half-white!" "You useless pieces
  of bland flesh! I'll take you with me! You half-black!"

Bele and Lokai, before lunging at each other

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield_(episode)
Comment: I'd need to re-watch to be sure, but didn't Bones identify them as the same species?
Comment: @Gaultheria: I think yes, afaik there is a short discussion about the possibility that in ancient times everyone had the same colour.
Comment: A better quote -- *Kirk*: "You're black on one side and white on the other." *Bele*: "I am black on the right side." *Kirk*: "I fail to see the significant difference." *Bele*: "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."
Comment: An entire episode blatantly devoted to the subject of racism. +1
Comment: Metaphor aside, do we know that Lokai and Bele are the same species?  Their two peoples are from the same world, but the divide between them could be deeper than between humans of different skin colour.
Comment: @PlasmaHH - Thanks; it's been a long time since I saw that episode.
Comment: @Skooba - Done.
Comment: @JohnBode good one.
Answer: Augments versus "natural" humans

"Whenever a group of people start believing they are better than everyone else, the results are always the same."
— Jonathan Archer, speaking to Arik Soong ("Borderland").

Genetically-enhanced humans (Khan and his followers; Arik Soong's adopted children) oppressed unenhanced humans in the Eugenics Wars and smaller-scale incidents.  Soong's children even heaped scorn on one of their own number (Smike) for lacking some (but not all) of their genetic gifts.
Among humans, backlash against Augments resulted in government-sanctioned genetic discrimination that continued to limit Augments' career choices -- even their existence -- into at least the 24th Century.
Yangs versus Kohms
The two ethnic/cultural groups in "The Omega Glory"1 had a longstanding conflict.  Their mutual hatred was so deeply embedded that one group, when it seized power, initially saw no problem with denying fundamental rights to the other.
Klingons
The augment virus did not affect all Klingons, and ship crews were never shown to contain a mixture of the two phenotypes.  This segregation could have been voluntary2 as a face-saving measure for the afflicted, but it may also have been imposed by the purebloods.

1 The episode doesn't definitively state that Yangs and Kohms are the same species.  They're just played by actors from different ethnic groups, without any alien prosthetics or makeup.
2 Dr. Antaak's idea for offering a cranial reconstruction service and Worf's reluctance to discuss the affliction demonstrated how strongly Klingons felt about the effects of the virus.
Comment: For the Yangs versus Kohms, that seemed to be prejudice due to different ideologies, rather than due to their appearance (especially given their origin).
Comment: Augments versus "natural" humans: are Augments strictly human - homo sapien - though? I don't think so and they are better than us in the sense they have superior abilities only. Remember Neanderthals are classed as human species but if one could be brought back I don't think anybody would agree that we are the same. For one thing they are stronger and had bigger brains and are likely to have been different in many ways.
Comment: But was it hatred over race? Or just hatred over being "other"?  It's been a long time since I've seen that episode, so perhaps they did address it. My recollection was that the "traditional hatred" wasn't due to the color of their skin (just like how US Capitalists vs. Soviet Communists wasn't "racism" because the discrimination was due to ideology, not skin color, or football rivals are at odds with each other but not due to skin color). Perhaps adding a quote from the episode to support that this is racism would help.
Comment: Augments don't count. Klingons have been retconned too many times, and if Thunderforge is right, Yangs and Kohms are the same race.
Comment: @Thunderforge - The *Enterprise* crew speculated that the war started that way, but by the time of the episode it had become more of a traditional hatred.
Answer: Voyager, "Remember"
We gradually learn the history of the Enarans. One of their factions/subgroups , the Regressives, were deported and executed in a program of mass genocide which they later attempted to cover up by teaching later generations that the Regressives died due to plague brought about by poor hygiene.

Vulcans vs Romulans
Although the same species, seperated for only a few thousand years Vulcans and Romulans... do not get on well.
Comment: I'm not sure about the Vulcans and Romulans. There's longstanding contention between the two groups, but prejudice boils down to "just because", and I don't think they've displayed that level of bias.
Comment: @Gaultheria One values logic above emotion.  The other embraces emotion at the expense of logic.  They're polar opposites, ideologically.  I'm sure there's edge cases where members of each group disagree with the beliefs of the whole, but in general, they're lucky if they can be in the same room without getting in an argument.  Think of it like extreme liberals and extreme conservatives trying to get along.  Or fascists and libertarians.
Comment: +1 for Remember. That was immediately what I thought of.
Comment: "The Drumhead" also implies that there is prejudice against Romulans (but not Vulcans) in the Federation. But it may not strictly count for this question, as it's not clear that any Vulcans hold this prejudice...
Comment: The Regressives weren't (said to have been) a separate race, they had a different lifestyle and creed.
Answer: I would say that some of the possible answers to this question depend upon your definition of racism.  As another answer mentions, there are not many multiracial species shown in Star Trek, aside from Humans.  Vulcans have some, but there are also portrayed as very close to humanity compared to many of the other alien races.
That being said, if what you mean by racism is any form of interspecies prejudice or bigotry, then I would suggest reading up on the history of the Vulcan Mind Meld and how those who practiced that ability were viewed for a long time.  There are a few episodes of Enterprise dealing with this and it is heavily likened to how homosexuality was viewed in the 1980s, as there is a disease is involved as well as a general taboo put onto the practice as a result.
Closer to the typical definition of racism is the case of the Aenar, who are a different race of Andorians than are typically portrayed.  Also featured in an Enterprise arc, it could be argued that they are discriminated against in some ways, but its hard to tell since Andorians tend to deal with everyone in the same aggressive manner and the Aenar's separation from the main Andorian society seems self-imposed.  But there are many forms of subtle or unconscious racism that might have led up to that state of being.
Answer: TNG espide "Attached" might count.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Attached
The Kes and Prytt appear to regard each other as inferior, and the Prytt call the Kes "xenophobic", but this could also just be seen as two nation states opposing each other as opposed to racism.
Answer: Humans
As Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction author writing the stories of Benjamin Sisko, experiences first hand the racism of twentieth-century humanity.
Benny Russell was an alter ego of Captain Sisko, experienced in visions initiated by the Bajoran Prophets.
Comment: This doesn't really fit though because the flashbacks show history as it happened here on earth in reality, not the present in the universe that Star Trek created.
Answer: Yes, bigotry exists in the Star Trek universe.  And xenophobia as well.
FWIW, prejudice against species from outside is called xenophobia.  'Racism' is misused in 99.9% of cases.  We say "that's racist" when what we mean is "that's prejudiced", or "that's bigotry".  It's all xenophobia in the end.  The subconscious "fear of other" or "fear of the unknown" is at the root of prejudice and bigotry.
There is plenty of xenophobia in Star Trek.
Also, many cases of conflict within individual species.  Humanity still has vestiges of prejudice.  e.g. enhanced humans (Khan).  Romulans and Vulcans are the same species, biologically, with polar opposite cultures.  That's just two, and they're not all of the examples from ToS.
From the beginning, Roddenberry shone the light brightly on bias and prejudice as destructive human qualities.  Even if an episode wasn't about prejudice, there were often symbolic references to it.
Edit:  Added explicit answer, made the answer clearer.
Comment: Not only does this not answer the question, it essentially accuses the OP of not using the right words to ask what (you think) they want to ask. I'm positive that the OP knows there's xenophobia in ST.
Comment: @Beanluc Actually, I do address prejudice and bias.  OP did not use the right words.  Sorry that I wasn't as explicit enough in my language.  Race is a biological distinction, not a social one.  Prejudice based on appearance or ethnic background or religious belief is bigotry.  Roddenberry was perhaps one of the first to use the media with such a strong emphasis on social issues.  OP is asking if "racism" such as we see in the US still exists in the UFP.  My answer is yes, plus there's xenophobia too.
Comment: @Xalorous Well, I thought the title "Does same-species racism exist in Star Trek?" made it clear.
Answer: One theme that is very strong in Star Trek: Discovery is "abuse" and therefor there is this kind of xenophobic undertone running through the first season. However, the series is not so much just looking at the abuse, which can be seen as predjudice against "others", but rather a deeper pyschological element on abuse in wartime and if perhaps war itself is xenophobic in nature?
Some examples in Discovery's first season:

Klingon Houses - Although there is an effort to become an Empire of Klingons, there is an aspect of this story that is looking at factions of Klingons through both houses and leadership of any given house. There is a competitive nature and a thirst to dominate, proving that some of the Klingons are more than ok with hurting each other, let alone members of Starfleet.
The Female Klingon L'Rell's relationship with Ash Tyler. L'Rell had been working as an interogator and sexually abused and tortured Ash Tyler, resulting in the character beginning to display symptoms of PTSD. It's unlcear if despite that the audience would clearly see this as abuse, if L'Rell does--If she does not have romantic feelings for him, despite doing her job or if this is how she normally would do her job to any subject??? However, there is an additional plot twist here, that I will not reveal, but makes this more complicated in terms of race.
The abuse of the Macro-Metaphysical Snetinal Tartagrade. Being a science vessel turned into weapons program, Lorca pushes his Discovery crew to get results. When the characters discover a spore-loving creature that can change the way Discovery (and other Starfleet vessels) travels, Lorca, through Commander Landry, tries to motivate the tartigrade, through torture, until Landry is killed and Micheal Burnham finds results through more humane efforts. However, after realizing that the Tartigrade can only last so long being used as a hub of the ships' new spore-drive, Michael is able to convince Lorca to free it. This then leads Lorca to find another way...
Lt. Stammets is convinced by Lorca to genetically alter-himself and become a new component for the spore-drive. Lorca continiously manipulates Stammets into this position, even though it's clear that the genetic modification changes his personality and/or creates bi-polor personality shifts and is taking a toll on his body. (human on human abuse).
Captain Lorca displeased with Starfleets orders, sends his friend and higher commanding offier, Admiral Cornwall, to a set meeting with the Klingons to replace an indisposed Sarek, where he hoped she would meet her death.


How do I get Skin off my untamed baby leopard gecko?? HELP

Question: So I got a juvenile leopard gecko named Scout about 3 days ago. I haven't held him yet because I wanted him to get comfortable in his new home before I did that. He had just finished shedding a bit before when we got him, but he still has little "socks" on his toes. I was told to put him in a warm shallow bath, but he's not tamed yet and happens to hate water. what can I do to get it off but not make him uncomfortable??
Answer: You can use a damp cotton swab (Q-tip) to gently massage the stuck shed off his toes. The bath would be best to get them soft enough to easily remove. It's important to not let the shed constrict blood flow to the toes as this can result in necrosis. The skin shrinks as it dries, so make sure you check his feet every day to make sure you got all the stuck shed off.


Modify github history

Question: I apologize in advance for asking this question as it has been asked a million times already.
I need to modify the git history of my project,
the commit history currently looks like this:
<code>[E] <- [D] <- [C] <- [B] <- [A]
</code>
Where:
A: Added some code,
B: Added some code & added some data,
C: Restructured project,
D: Removed all data,
E: Added some code
The problem was that at commit C our project group was notified that data had to be stored locally and not publicly on git. I am not very experienced with git so the first thing I did was to remove the data. But that did not do much since the data could still be accessed in history. How do I fix the problem so that the history looks like this:
<code>[E] <- [C] <- [B] <- [A]
</code>
Where:
A: Added some code,
B: Added some code,
C: Restructured project (Without any references to data)
E: Added some code
Comment: Note that any answer you get will require a force push, which will in turn require everyone who has this repo on their local machines to do some stuff as well to remove commit D.
Answer: Here is a way to remove specific commit if from history
git rebase --onto commit-id  commit-id HEAD
You can use below command to remove commit "D" from history
git rebase --onto D  E HEAD
Comment: have you tried git commit --amend ? It allows you to edit commit.
Comment: I believe it should be `git rebase --onto E D HEAD`. Also, this requires a force push.
Answer: You can do it with these commands:
<code># Rebase from C commit in interactive mode...
git rebase -i C

# Then remove the D commit line in the editor, save and quit.
# You can edit commit messages by using "edit" option for
# concerned commits.
# Resolve conflicts if needed and finish rebasing.
</code>
OR (without commit message editing):
<code># Rebase from C: Pick E history but exclude D history
git rebase --onto C D E
</code>
Then you will have to push force the modification (with all troubles that it can lead to...).
<code># --force-with-lease means:
# "If anybody already pushed after the last known origin/<branch> sha1,
# The push force command will be aborted (avoids to loose newers pushes
# from your friends...).
git push --force-with-lease origin <branch>
</code>

Modify github history


What was the consumer photo printing process in the 80s and 90s?

Question: How did machines in the 80s and 90s print from a roll of developed negatives fed into it?
What makes those legacy machines different from a roll of negatives fed into today's machine for printing?
Answer: My profession revolved around the printing machines you are asking about. I was technical manager for 7 giant photofinishing plants in the Southeastern United states. Each plant was sized to handle, on a daily basis the peak volume generated by the holiday season. My labs were sized to develop and  print 20,000 rolls of color film a day.  I worked for Eckerd Drugs, a chain of 2,000 drug stores. Photofinishing was big business in that era.
The rolls of film arrived at the lab in individual envelopes. The pre-printed envelopes were filled out by the customer with name, address and instructions as to number of prints per frame and what size prints wanted. The envelopes were opened, contents inspected, and sorted into bins by film type.
Each roll, accompanied by its envelope was passed to a room in total darkness. Each bag and roll received an adhesive label with the same unique number. This twin check tied the roll to its envelope.
The twin checked rolls were spliced together making one long roll, hundreds of feet long. This long roll of spliced film was threaded onto a machine that transported the long roll into a series of vats filled with chemicals. The chemicals were maintained at a specific concentration and at a specific temperature. The duration time each roll remained in each chemical vat was precisely timed. The film exited the film as a roll of dry developed film.
The long roll of developed film was moved to the printing room. Dozens of automated printers and their operator worked under safelight conditions. These printers were loaded with a long roll of light sensitive photo paper. The printer transport mechanism advanced the long roll of film, frame by frame to a printing gate. Each frame is viewed by the printer operator and an exposure analyzer built into the printing machine. Based on experience, he/she can take no action or override the automated exposure assessment.
The printing machine's shutter opened, an enlarged image of the film is projected on the light sensitive printing paper. The lamp-house contained automated colored filters that custom modify the color of the exposing light. Thus the exposure time and color of the exposing light applies corrections that counter camera exposure errors and lighting conditions at the time of film exposure. The rear of the print paper receives a printed number and letter code. The code corresponds to corrections applied to the color and timing of the exposure. They will be used if the finished print must be reprinted to improve its color balance.
The now exposed long roll of paper moves to an automated paper developing machine. The paper is transported through a series of chemical vats. The paper is developed and dried.
Next the developed paper, developed film, and envelope converge at an assembly station. An operator feeds paper and film into cutting machines. The film is cut into short strips and each is inserted into protective transparent sleeves. The operator inspects each print for off color.  Prints that can be manually reprinted for improvement are culled. If no action is taken the film and prints are inserted into the respective envelopes. The finished package is returned to the drugstore.
Let me add, from about the mid 1950's to the end of the 20th century, photofinishing machines evolved with higher exposure determination accuracy. Operators were able to see a computer generated image that pre-visualized the finished print. This allowed the operator to override and apply manual corrections. The goal always was a high quality product with little need to reprint a frame.
Today's digital printing stands on the shoulders of a century of evolving exposure determination technology. It was my occupation, I loved every minute.
Comment: Does the fuji frontier "minilab" descend from these processes?
Comment: The first automatic projection printer was the Kodak 4BK. It had black boxes attached to control color filters and was renamed 4S for subtractive printing and a 4C additive printer. Next came the Kodak 5S and the Pako 77WC, Noritus and Fuji made printers based on the 5S. The Frontier used a Laser print engine, a departure from the optical design.  Latter this printer was made for Fuji by Noritsu. I worked for Noritsu as Technical Manger Noritsu America.
Comment: @AlanMarcus I worked for a major transporter of electronics, medical, and telecommunications equipment in the early 1990s. We sometimes delivered Fuji minilabs ("mini" was a misnomer, some were as large as commercial ovens!) to retail stores that had "One Hour" service. Our delivery was usually coordinated with a factory rep who would be on location when we delivered and would direct us as to exact placement of the machine(s) within the photo department. Would those guys have been working for you?
Comment: @Michael C - Fuji factory reps worked for Fuji not Noritsu, Noritsu operated a factory in Japan that mainly made Noritsu minilab equipment. However, the factory was charged to make Fuji devices using Fuji specification. These one-hour lab equipment was miniature when compared to equipment used in the large photofinishing labs. The big lab devices were massive.
Answer: Prior to the introduction of scanning on the mass consumer level (late 1990s), all prints were made optically.  By the time C-41 was mature (early 1980s), RA-4 was the standard for print chemistry -- the same process that's still used for both projection printing and laser prints in color.
The general operation was that negatives were processed in machines very similar to those still in use (roller transport or leader card type, for consumer labs, dip and dunk for professional, mostly), albeit without the integrated scanner now common.  The uncut negative strips, once dry, were then fed into the printer where an human operator would handle setting (at least) the first frame position.  Filtration was generally adjusted generically for film type (that is, all Kodacolor II would get the same filter pack, at least until there was a change in paper batch), without the rebalancing per frame that's common in today's scan-an-print systems.
Once the first frame was aligned, the machine would automatically print, advance by eight perforations, and print again.  The most human intervention would be for an operator to watch a reflex viewer to ensure the framing stayed aligned (sometimes cameras will slip spacing -- overlap frames or insert extra space -- due to mechanical fault), and possibly push a button to accept framing.
Paper was supplied on a roll, the width of the print's smaller dimension.  That is, for 4x6 ("four inch prints") from 35mm, the paper would be four inches wide.  For labs that handled other formats (most of them, in the earlier part of the time frame) that same paper would be used for various 120 frame sizes (producing 3x4, 4x4, and 4x7 prints from the standard 120 frames), for 126 (4x4) and for 110 (4x6 again).  The common sizes were three inch and four inch, often with a small price premium for the larger prints.
Prints came out of the printer in a strip and were cut apart (with a very slight trim to ensure the join was discarded) separately.  A human normally had to select the starting point and format to be cut, and if a mistake was made you might wind up with a whole roll of prints in which a narrow strip of the next or previous frame was included and a narrow strip of the current frame cut off (and attached to the next or previous).
By contrast, in today's process, the negatives are scanned (usually at pretty low resolution, one or two megapixels) by the same machine that develops the film.  Few local labs handle 120, even fewer 110, APS, or disc.  The scan files are then transferred (usually via LAN) to the printing machine, which uses lasers in red, green, and blue to "write" the image directly to the RA-4 print paper, which is then developed and cut in much the same way it would have been in 1985 -- with the exception that the machine can now accurately cut the prints apart and stack them into roll batches without human intervention.
For these standard three inch and four inch print sizes, there's little if any difference in quality between the projection printing of 1985 and today's digital process, for correctly exposed film.  Overexposed will print at corrected density values, usually almost indistinguishable up to a couple stops over, and underexposed will generally get green and grainy beyond one stop error, due to the automatic attempt to raise the overall brightness into the "normal" range (where projection prints made by machine would simply print very light, or very dark on earlier machines, and have slightly different correction artifacts on the last generation of optical commercial printers).
Comment: In your opinion, what would be better for the laser darkroom machine: physical negative or scanned-and-inverted image (essentially a regular jpeg file).?
Comment: @wearashirt For the laser imachine, there's only one choice.  It can only print from a digital file.  And for small prints, better prints are had at lower cost from the digital process.  If you want a 16x20 to go on a wall, IMO an optical print made by a master worker is to be preferred.


Does condensate on a skylight indicate a broken seal?

Question: Couple of times in the morning I noticed that the skylight is foggy in the center (see picture below). No other windows are foggy. The temperature/humidity is outside 50F/77% inside, 70F/44%. Does this indicate a problem with the skylight?
Comment: Skylight is fixed double glass sealed with argon gas inside it.
Answer: It's possible that your double pane glass has failed.  You should examine it closely under less extreme conditions.  If the interior has a "fog" in normal conditions, then the gas has likely leaked out.  Sealed window assemblies are only warranted for about 10 years.  Some last longer than that.  YMMV
I replaced all my Velux window panes a few years ago, when I was getting the roof redone.  They were fogged and had interior condensation frequently in the winter.  I contacted the manufacturer, and was able to special order replacements via the local Home Depot.  Though it can depend on if the model is still in production.
Comment: If you can't wipe the moisture off with a rag, then it's inside a failed window.
Answer: If cold, moist air is comming in from outside, then it would be unlikely to condense on a warmer (interior) surface. Condensation occurs where there is high humidity in a warm environment, which becomes cool. In this case the temperature inside is higher.
44% humidity doesn't sound very high, but at 70 °F it has about 0.26 grams of water/vapor per cubic foot. At 50 °F (the temperature of the skylight-glass) the humidity (of 0.26 grams of vapor per cubic foot) would be about 92%. So, general condensation is a viable explanation- especially if the cool surface is just-right for condensation. But I would still take a closer look.
The test that I would perform, to see if the skylight was airtight, would be to light some incense under the window and then go onto the roof to see if any smoke is escaping. If not then, then after all the smoke has cleared, I would try again, but this time I would put a box over the skylight and put the incense under the box. Then go back inside to determine whether air is comming in through the skylight. If you cannot find evidence of a leak, then your best options are to treat the surface of the skylight with an antifogging solution or film, or use a fan to help circulate air (usually it helps), or you could opt for a dehumidifier.
There are many DIY antifogging solutions (see thread: Is there a technique to make a shower mirror fog-free?). But some of the listed solutions actually cause more condensation, allowing a water film to occur, which is easier to see through than condensation.
Answer: Probably the skylight's fine - this is similar to the condensation on car windows when you drive out of a cold garage on a warm humid day.  The reason vertical windows are less foggy could be some combination of  (1) the windows are double-pane insulated, (2) the airflow along the exterior walls differs from the flow along the roof.
You didn't indicate whether these are fixed or openable skylights. If the latter, check to be sure the drive is fully closed.
BTW, if there's an exterior leak, you're far more likely to see water dripping along the box edges when it rains.


What advantage does an enzyme serve over catalysis by the addition of heat energy?

Question: I understand that an enzyme lowers the activation energy, allowing the reaction to run faster, however I am not sure, how it may be favorable during the addition of heat energy. Wouldn't that lower the activity of the enzyme since the enzyme is sensitive to heat?
Answer: Enzymes have two benefits over raising the temperature:
First, reducing the activation energy by reusable enzymes is far more energy-efficient, apart from the fact that the required temperature would vary for different reactions.
Second, enzymes are able to be controlled by allosteric mechanisms, which facilitates metabolic control by feedback loops, feedforward motivs and receptor-mediated processes. In the example of glycolysis this enables the cell to fine-control its supply with energy equivalents (see figure from Wikimedia Commons below). This mechanism may be the most important function of enzymes.

Reference

William C. Plaxton: Principles of Metabolic Control. In Kenneth B. Storey (ed.): Functional Metabolism: Regulation and Adaptation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2004
Answer: The enzyme does only one thing: It lowers the activation energy which is necessary for the specific reaction to happen. It does not change the speed of the reaction, nor does it change the rection enthalpy or the quilibrium of the reaction. See the figure for clarification (from here):

Without the enzyme the Ea (activation energy) would be so high, that the reaction would be possible in the cell. Either because this high amount of energy is not available or because the amount of energy would destroy the cell or the reaction. So the lowering of Ea allows this specific reaction to take place.
Answer: By reactions there is an energy barrier called activation energy. Your substrate molecules have kinetic energy (they move, rotate, etc...), so when they collide properly, their kinetic energy can be used to overcome the activation energy and so the reaction takes place. According to the Arrhenius equation the reaction rate depends on the temperature, which is evident, because the kinetic energy of your molecules is higher by higher temperature. Enzymes lower the activation energy, because they help the substrates to collide with the proper orientation.
Enzymes are mostly composed of amino acid chains. These chains must have proper folding. Increasing (or decreasing) the temperature can disrupt this folding and make the enzyme useless. This inactivation can be reversible or irreversible depending on the enzyme type, the temperature and other environmental factors e.g. pressure, osmotic pressure, etc...
To answer your question, every enzyme have an optimum working temperature. At this temperature the inactivation is slow enough to be compensated by the increased reaction rate.

figure 1 -  optimum temperature of a single enzyme - ref

figure 2 - optimum temperatures of multiple enzymes - ref


Get Image Information From Paint.NET

Question: How can I view detailed information (width, height, bit depth, etc) of an image I have loaded in Paint.net?
Answer: Interesting.  There doesn't seem to be a way to do that in Paint.net.  If you don't mind popping out to use Windows Explorer: open the file's properties, go to the Summary tab and click the Advanced button if you can see it.  That should show what you want.  Yes, I realize that this doesn't answer your question.  But a workaround is the next best thing, right?
Answer: The image height and width is displayed at the bottom right of the status bar, next to the current cursor location.

Get Image Information From Paint.NET


LCD on Canon Rebel T2i stopped working after tethering to Mac

Question: After plugging my camera in to my MacBook Pro and using it successfully in live mode, an error message popped up on my computer saying "USB device is draining too much power. USB device has been disabled. " My EOS crashed and the LCD on my camera went dark. No matter what I do, I can't get the LCD screen to turn back on.  Everything else seems to be in working order. Is there a way I can fix this? It's $300 for Canon to replace the LCD screen and I just spent $300 on a new lens, I don't really want to spend that much on replacing a part, and I don't want to have to spend $600 on a new camera.
Answer: It's probably not the LCD, it is the driver card of the LCD that burnt out (more specifically, the power regulator that went hopefully into current limiting or shut off). This should be repaired under warranty by Canon... You must not be able to pull currents from any source without the internal regulators limiting it. (Except, if you plugged your camera into a USB 3.1 12 V or 20 V port, I highly doubt it.)
So get the problem fixed by Canon. If they do not fix it, get the problem assessed by a technician, who might as well just do a quick rework on the burnt out part. (Or get a replacement component on Alibaba...)


How do I create custom regions in a theme?

Question: I want to add a new area which will be site wide. Describe the process of getting this new region into my theme, if possible generalize it for adding any new, custom region.
Comment: detail blog:http://goo.gl/kD3TZu
Answer: You define regions in your theme .info file. See: Structure of the .info file
You then need to put the relevant template tags in your page.tpl.php file.
So for example if you defined the region sidebar in your themes .info file, you would then add: <?php print render($page['sidebar']); ?> to the relevant place in your page.tpl.php.
Comment: If your theme doesn't have a page.tpl.php file you can copy the default from system module into your theme, and modify that copy.
Comment: Omega doesn't need the page.tpl.php part, just declare the region in the .info AND CLEAR CACHES.
Answer: One other point: Don't miss the required regions!
regions[content] = Content
regions[help] = Help
regions[page_top] = Page top
regions[page_bottom] = Page bottom

More on this can be found at http://drupal.org/update/themes/6/7#closure.
To clarify on this point: If you define your own regions, you need to define all that you are using, including those that are required. In other words, you cannot just define additional regions: If you define any, you must define them all.
Answer: Creating a region for a Drupal 7 theme is not different from creating a region for a Drupal 6 region; the differences between Drupal 7 and the previous versions are essentially:

The regions are not defined using a mytheme_regions() function as it was done in Drupal 5, but they are defined in mytheme.info using regions[] directives, which is what is done also with Drupal 6 themes.
The regions are rendered using the Drupal function render(), instead of printing the content of a variable.

The default Drupal 7 regions are the following ones:
regions[header] = Header
regions[highlighted] = Highlighted
regions[help] = Help
regions[content] = Content
regions[sidebar_first] = Left sidebar
regions[sidebar_second] = Right sidebar
regions[footer] = Footer

Drupal 7 core themes now include a region named 'highlighted' which uses the same display as the mission statement area in Drupal 6; they also include a region named 'help', that by default has the same content of the $help variable used by Drupal 6.
Answer: The theme regions are defined in your theme .info file — see docs. Just add a line with regions[corner] = Corner to get a Corner region.
Then you need to edit the page.tpl.php file and add <php print render($corner); ?> where you want the region to show up. If your theme doesn't have a page.tpl.php, copy from the base theme or from the system module.
Common pitfalls:

If the theme.info file had no regions declared, it was using Drupal default regions. If you want to add, you will have to re-declare the default regions. You can, of course, remove any region but please support the required regions. See the docs again.
Changes to the .info file or adding new files to the theme (like page.tpl.php) will only be noticed after you clear caches.
Omega, a very popular base theme, won't need any change in page.tpl.php, just the .info file. But you will have to visit the theme settings in the UI and assign your region to a zone.
Comment: This is a wrap up of the answers with common pitfalls.
Comment: Is `regions[content] = Content` the only required region in D7?  https://www.drupal.org/node/171205#regions seems to imply this, but then https://www.drupal.org/node/171224 says that the required regions are `content`, `help`, `page_top` and `page_bottom`
Comment: I don't know if Drupal checks for any of the regions, but `content` is definitely very important. `help` is supported by core (to output help messages), `page_bottom` is probably where bottom js is printed and `page_top` seems to be used for navbars such as core toolbar's.
Answer: Follow the below steps to create custom region in your theme:

Go to your theme.info file and add this line.
regions[machine_name_of_your_region] = Name of your region

Although you can also call region blocks in the node template as
well, you will generally add the region to the theme's page
template. This is usually page.tpl.php, or if you have custom
template files for different pages, edit those ones too. The new
region will appear only on the pages built around the template you
add the new region to. Paste it wherever you want your new region to
appear.
<?php if ($page['machine_name_of_your_region']): ?>

  <?php print render($page['machine_name_of_your_region']); ?>

 <?php endif; ?>

Configuration - Performance - Clear all caches
Answer: Create a New region in Theme
You Just need to define it in two files.

Theme.info
Page.tpl.php

Theme.info
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Regions
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

regions[navigation]      = 'Navigation'
regions[header]          = 'Top Bar'
regions[highlighted]     = 'Highlighted'
regions[new_region_name] = 'Region Name' ;; Add New Region

Page.tpl.php
Now render this region
  <?php if ($page['new_region']): ?>

        <?php print render($page['new_region']); ?>

  <?php endif; ?>

Now Clear all cache, Here you go, you have a new region in your theme. You can see it at your block configuration page.
For more visit http://drupal.org/node/171205


Did eklavya blame himself for cutting the thumb?

Question: Eklavya's abilities were far better than any other archer during his time, the story is no secret that he cut his thumb as Gurudakshina. But after that did he blame himself for trusting, Did he ever think that he should have denied it?
Answer: Ekalavya didn't blame himself for cutting of his thumb because his guru Dronacharya told him to do it and he had to do it. He also didn't blame himself for doing it because he never had the thought that he did something naive.  It says here. Ekalavya likes his guru Dronacharya.
Comment: Please quote from reputed sources. Wikis and blogs are not valid sources
Comment: I now made so many reasons @Carmen sandiego
Comment: You can make as many reasons as you want. But answer need backing from reputed sources .
Comment: ok i will @Carmensandiego
Answer: Vaiśampāyana describes Ekalavya as 'ever devoted to truth' (satye nirataḥ sadā) so it's unlikely he had any regrets later for cutting off his thumb and keeping his promise.

Then Drona, O king, addressed Ekalavya, saying,

If, O hero, thou art really my pupil, give me then my fees.

On hearing these words, Ekalavya was very much gratified, and said in reply,

O illustrious preceptor, what shall I give? Command me; for there is nothing, O foremost of all persons conversant with the Vedas, that I may not give unto my preceptor.

Drona answered,

O Ekalavya, if thou art really intent on making me a gift, I should like then to have the thumb of thy right hand.

Vaisampayana continued, 'Hearing these cruel words of Drona, who had asked of him his thumb as tuition-fee, Ekalavya, ever devoted to truth and desirous also of keeping his promise, with a cheerful face and an unafflicted heart cut off without ado his thumb, and gave it unto Drona. After this, when the Nishada prince began once more to shoot with the help of his remaining fingers, he found, O king, that he had lost his former lightness of hand. And at this Arjuna became happy, the fever (of jealousy) having left him...'

Interestingly, in a similar conversation between Paraśurāma (guru) and Bhīṣma (śiṣya), Bhīṣma rejects Paraśurāma's demand that he marry Ambā saying Paraśurāma is unacquainted with the conduct of a guru:

Then Rama [Paraśurāma] answered me with eyes red in anger,

Thou knowest me, O Bhishma, to be thy preceptor, and yet, O Kauravya, thou acceptest not, for pleasing me, this daughter of the ruler of Kasi! O delighter of the Kurus, I cannot be gratified unless thou actest in this way! O mighty-armed one, take this maiden and preserve thy race! Having been abducted by thee, she obtaineth not a husband.

Unto Rama that subjugator of hostile cities, I [Bhīṣma] replied, saying.--

This cannot be, O regenerate Rishi! All thy labour is vain, O son of Jamadagni, remembering thy old preceptorship, I am striving, O holy one, to gratify thee! As regards this maiden, she hath been refused by me before knowing what the faults, productive of great evils, of the female sex are, who is there that would admit into his abode a woman whose heart is another's and who (on that account) is even like a snake of virulent poison? O thou of high vows, I would not, even from fear of Vasava, forsake duty! Be gracious unto me, or do me without delay that which thou hast thought proper. This sloka also, O thou of pure soul, is heard in the Puranas, O lord, sung by the high-souled Marutta, O thou of great intelligence! The renunciation is sanctioned by the ordinance of a preceptor who is filled with vanity, who is destitute of the knowledge of right and wrong, and who is treading in a devious path.
Thou art my preceptor and it is for this that I have from love reverenced thee greatly. Thou, however, knowest not the duty of a preceptor, and it is for this that I will fight with thee. I would not slay any preceptor in battle, especially again a Brahmana, and more specially one endued with ascetic merit. It was for this that I forgive thee.
Comment: I don't see how these are similar .In one case guru is asking for fees and in another Guru wants to be pleased
Comment: @Carmensandiego I only said similar 'conversation' between guru and śiṣya. If Paraśurāma had asked Bhīṣma the favor of him marrying Ambā as 'guru dakshina', would Bhīṣma's response have been different? Besides, what kind of guru asks the very thing he taught to a disciple as "dakshina"?
Comment: I believe that question (what kind of guru asks thumb ) has been answered/covered elsewhere in HSE. Now i don't want to engage in speculation like "what if" Parashurama had asked it as Dakshina - thats the kind of stuff one finds in quoras, blogs and wikis
Answer: Ekalavya, from what we see of him in the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, he seems to just do what is told to him. When Dronacharya asks for his thumb as Guru Dakshina, he gives it without any second thoughts. So we can assume that he never wanted to not give his thumb or he never had any second thoughts. He respects his guru, and he did what was told to him. Ekalavya is one who is glad to do anything that his told by his guru, so we can safely assume that he never felt sad that he will never be able to shoot an arrow again.
Source: Critical Edition of Mahabharata (the book).


Case-insensitive URL in nginx

Question: I want to be able to access both www.mrmerch.com/TERMS and www.mrmerch.com/terms. I currently have two subfolders set up to accomplish this - TERMS and terms. Inefficient and incorrect, I know.
Here is my current configuration. I added the very last location block, but I still can't hit anything that doesn't exactly match that (e.g., "Terms"). Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
server   {
server_name www.mrmerch.com;
return 301 $scheme://mrmerch.com$request_uri;
}

server {
listen 80 default_server;
server_name mrmerch.com;
server_tokens off;

access_log /var/log/nginx/mrmerch.access_log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/mrmerch.error_log;

root /home/paul/www/mistermerch.com/;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;

gzip on;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_min_length  1000;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_types text/plain text/html text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6].";

location = /favicon.ico {
            log_not_found off;
            access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
            allow all;
            log_not_found off;
            access_log off;
    }

location /artwork {
    alias /home/mistermerch/www/;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
    try_files   $uri =404;
    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index  index.php;
    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    #fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME /home/paul/www/mistermerch.com$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
            expires max;
            log_not_found off;
    }

    location ~* ^/Terms/ {
    }

}

Answer: You could use a case insensitive regex location to rewrite the URI internally:
location ~* ^/terms {
    rewrite ^ /static/terms.html last;
}

In this case, /terms, /terms/, /TeRmS, and /tErMs/ etc. are all rewritten to a location which is outside the regex location match.
If you wish to use a destination URI which also matches the regex location, you can extract it with an exact match location:
location ~* ^/terms {
    rewrite ^ /terms/index.html last;
}
location = /terms/index.html {
}

See this document for details.

Case-insensitive URL in nginx


Salesforce Web to lead

Question: We have a web to lead form setup. The people that enter these leads are NOT SFDC users. Part of the form requires them to enter their name and email. It also makes them pick from a list of sales reps. These sales reps become the lead owner. They want the person who entered the lead (not the lead owner) and the territory manager to be emailed every time the lead status changes (after the original lead was created). Can this be done? Would this need to be done using trigger?
Comment: How is the "territory manager" defined?
Answer: One way - if the guys who enter the leads are few in number, we could add them as contacts in you SFDC app and then create a trigger to email these contacts
Better way - create a custom object with profiles of these guys who enter the leads. create a lookup in lead to this custom object. once linked your job is done, u can now create a workflow rule or a trigger
Answer: You can create a workflow rule that fires on ISCHANGED(Status) which fires an email alert that sends to an email address field - that would be the email address field with the non SFDC user's email address.
That will email the non SFDC users.
I need to know how you identify your territory managers to understand if they can be emailed via workflow too - if not it might have to be a trigger. More info please :)

Salesforce Web to lead


Where can I find all the Resplendent Chests?

Question: Resplendent Chests only show up in special (randomized?) encounters within certain locations, I think there was one in the Cathedral during the beta. In my experience with them they drop some pretty good loot. What map locations can I look for these encounters and can I do it more than once?
Comment: I'm unaware of a comprehensive list of resp chest locations; but more pertinently - since the MF nerf (doesn't affect chests) they are almost worthless.
Answer: THERE ARE NO SET PLACEMENTS FOR ANY RESPLENDENT CHESTS
Yes, they are generally at the end of a minidungeon, and yes, there are some along the maps generated in the game, but they are randomly placed, and are not always in the same area. Even in the minidungeons(if there is one, since sometimes there are none) they aren't in the same generated area of the map.
As for hunting for these chests for loot, it is not worth it anymore, as they decided to make Magic Find no longer affect the loot from chests, so better gear dropping is not as likely anymore.
If good armor is what you are looking for, you can find really nice gear for really cheap if you just get gear with 90% of the stats for 2k-20k, instead of the top stats for upwards of 1-25mil.
Comment: The warp that gets you closest to The Archives of Zoltun Kulle is reliably close to a resplendent chest as a random encounter. The chest is enclosed in a large spiral that is very easy to run into - it should only take you two minutes to find it. If you can't find it, then leave the game, go back to the warp and try again.
Comment: I expected this; is there at least a list of potential zones that they might spawn in?
Comment: In the second level of minidungeons found throughout the game there is a chance for them to be there, but you could clear the 2 levels and find nothing. I found a resplendant chest right near a regular chest once, and many times ive found no resplendant chests down there at all.
Comment: @SadlyNot - That may be a spot you managed to find a chest a few times, but there aren't any directly set locations of resplendant chests(or regular ones for that matter) anywhere except for the 2nd level of a minidungeon(and even at that, they arent always there).
Answer: Actually, I'm fairly certain that in all dungeons, except for maybe cellars there is a small chance of finding one of these chests. I.e. I farmed the false crypts in Act 1 for a while to get the Matriarchs Bones event, and sometimes I found these chests, and sometimes in the same place there was only a normal chest.
They're basically the equivalent of Diablo II's glowing golden chests. They just have more gold + higher percentage of magic items in it. They can practically appear all over the place (of course with some restrictions), even in the overworld.
Comment: The only ones I've seen have been related to mini events and thus can't appear in every area.
Comment: I didn't mean "all over the place" literally (that's why I said "with some restrictions"). Of course, they're not going to appear in the midle of the field. I just meant that there's no restriction to certain dungeon types, or places in dungeons, or event types.
Answer: The mini-dungeons seem to have a fairly high chance of spawning resplendent chests.
I've found them in well over half of the mini-dungeons that I've explored in Act II, so far (ignoring the single room dungeons).
If a dungeon has two levels, it (almost?) always has a resplendent chest.
Answer: Act one, fields of misery;
In single player start from the quest beginning and run to where the Scoundrel is to save your checkpoint.
After that run left to find either the "Old man" tree boss, next to a resplendant, or the Dead beast that when you kill opens the cellar with the man and his ... "Wife"
If neither of those are there, restart your game, its like 3/5 games will have one or the other.
Happy farming
Answer: You have a very high chance of getting such a chest on the second level of all random dungeons with multiple levels. For instance in the Cathedral on the second level there isn't always such a chest.
They can also spawn on the edges of a map, mostly at places where you don't come around if you rush through the game, but they can occur also in all other places on the map.
Notice that all chests aren't affected by MF any more so it is more viable once you reach level 60 to farm the elite packs, cause they will always drop a yellow item.


What's the in-universe explanation for why most aliens are humanoid in the MCU?

Question: In Star Trek, there's an in-universe explanation for why most aliens have a humanoid appearance. Is there an explanation for why it is also the case in the MCU and other versions of the Marvel universe?
Comment: Easier to draw in the comics?
Comment: I'd say thankfully no, but there's probably something somewhere in the comics.
Answer: It appears to be because the Celestials manipulated life throughout the universe to be in their form to protect their embryos. As shown in Eternals Vol 1 #1 they created three races on Earth in their image: the Deviant, the Human and the Eternal.

That shows they used apes as the main life form to create these species but they also did it on other planets where apes were likely not present and so they modelled them after their own image. This is shown in the alternate universe Earth-9997 and in Earth X we see the description.

In the MCU I'm pretty sure nothing about this has been said yet, or at least I can't find anything. Will update if I find any new information though I doubt there will be any.
Comment: Great answer, and this is so close to the Star Trek reasons it's funny
Comment: @GordonBennett Also similar to Dr Who's expanded universe explanation (at least in the BF audio plays), except there is was essentially because the architect of timelord society was a massive racist with a God complex who wanted to force intelligent life to evolve in their image.


How to diplomatically ask for advancement opportunities in an interview?

Question: How do you diplomatically ask for what career paths there are to take from the current position you are interviewing for without putting off the interviewers?
Comment: Are you asking specifically for that company? in which case they dont know what the company will look like in 5-10 years time and wont be able to answer, or are you asking in general for someone in your career line?
Comment: Yes specifically for that company, and the interviewers are usually the managers...so I would assume they are knowledgeable about paths in their department?
Comment: Usually probably differs by company, HR are sometimes the interviewers, or fellow team mates, it might be hard to answer for someone not versed in the plans of the company. Other than that, Good question!
Answer: While there should be thought put into the correct phrasing of any question you plan on asking during the interview, this does not seem to be controversial topic
At some point in the interview they will ask you if you have any questions. If they haven't already discussed this with you this is the perfect opportunity to ask this sort of question.
Other related topics that should be covered by one party or the other include:

Long term prospects for the position/contract.
Makeup of the team and your vertical position within that structure.
Opportunities to move from a junior position to a senior position within x years
Opportunities to move to a leadership/management role.
Other opportunities withing the same building/town with that company.
Comment: @Louise: Actually, I'd avoid asking that. They may have been fired, or quit for a number of reasons, and maybe the interviewer will think that if they tell you, then you won't want the job. Also, if the team is growing, there might *not* have been someone in that position before, because it's a new position.
Comment: Maybe I can ask whereabouts the previous person in this position has moved on to?
Comment: +1 on Joe Stazzere's comment. You might find out that the person in the previous position got promoted :). But even if they were fired, talking about this might be a good opportunity for both parties to help establish the expectations (e.g. the previous person couldn't get along with our clients would mean that you will be expected to really get along with clients).
Answer: It's definitely OK to ask.  It's generally wise to be aware that you don't want to imply that you think the position is so beneath you that you will expect a promotion in a set amount of time.  More that you want a sense that the company is growing and changing enough that you'll be able to grow along with the business.  It's fair to expect that as you become a greater asset to the work, the work should be prepared to help you grow your career accordingly.
Some things I'd look into in this area are...
Company Growth
What's going on in this business?  What's the model and how are they making (or planning to make...) money with the stuff you'll be working on?  How fast do they think the work will ramp up, and what's the plan in place to grow the business?
That'll tell you a lot about job opportunities.  There's all sorts of ways to grow a business.  Some may involve promotion of internal staff, but others may involve acquisition of other organizations, or outsourcing or other sorts of growth ideas.  For great staff, there's almost always a way to stay with the company, but not every opportunity will be something you yourself want.
Career Paths
"What are some career paths in this company?" is a perfectly valid question.  A large, mature company may have a very well defined set of patterns for how people grow and get promoted in various "tracks".  But a younger, newer, less well defined organization may not be able to answer this so easily, which is why the company growth question may be a first place to start.
Volunteer Ideas
Only you know how much a given type of opportunity will matter to you.  I know that when I was fresh out of school, I only wanted to know that there was room to grow, and opportunity to learn - I didn't know enough about my chosen field to have a strong sense of what I would want to do in 3-5 years.  10-15 years later, many folks who've worked in a given field for a long time likely have a collection of different job experiences, and are likely to have a fairly specific idea of what growth opportunities are most appealing.
The counterpoint is that only you know how much you want the job.  If you've got a fine job and you're looking to grow, you're likely to be a LOT choosier than someone who was laid off last year and hasn't worked in 6 months.
But - if you know that certain types of work and opportunities are a drop-dead, "won't the take job without them" sort of deal breaker - then don't leave them guessing.  Saying "I want X, is there an opportunity to go that way when I've proved myself?" is a fine approach.  When you're very certain of what you want, and in a position to say "no", then be clear, don't waste the other group's time trying to guess.
Be aware, though, that when "having a job" takes precedence over "having the right set of opportunities" - that you may want to stay with the vaguer questions above.  If you're too aggressive, you can give the impression that you'll leave in a short time frame if you don't get what you want.
Answer: My suggestion would be to backup for a moment and consider asking how well do they have a formal review and professional development plans for employees.  If they don't, then asking about career plans is likely to put off the interviewer as if you're inquiring in a start-up that is only a handful of months old, there isn't going to be a career path for your position as the company is still forming itself so do consider that there is something to be said for what assumptions do you have in asking this question.  On the other hand, established companies with an HR department may be more likely to have these and thus it becomes where you could follow-up the question with whether they have career paths and where could you be in 2-3 years and in 5-7 years with the company as ways to see the career paths at a high level.
While it is a fair question to ask, there is something to be said for understanding how well can a company answer that as this could be similar to asking parents of a 1 year old, "What major do you think your child will have in college?" that is just way too far in the future to predict with any degree of accuracy.
Comment: I've found it almost worthless to ask these sorts of questions. I mean, they're great questions to know the answers to but any company that does a poor job of this (e.g. most companies) aren't going to admit to it even if they know it to be true. My last employer had an annual review policy but I only got one every 18 months and they didn't have much in the way of concrete actionable steps. Other companies had regular reviews but were box-checking-for-HR-compliance and similarly useless (outside of the fantastic raises I got!).


Southern Hemisphere climate

Question: Does oceanic and land mass positioning affect tropical storm evolution in the southern hemisphere? And, do cold fronts migrate latitudinally " upwards " the way they drift "downwards" in the northern?
Answer: The fact that there is much less land mass in the southern hemisphere affects the climate and sea currents, but the situation is otherwise much the same as the northern hemisphere. Cold fronts tend to move north, whereas in the northern hemisphere they tend to move south. Hurricanes and typhoons are less common in the southern hemisphere, especially in the south Atlantic, and drift south, where there is less land to get in their way.
Cyclonic tropical storms form where ocean waters are heated by tropical or subtropical sun, and this heat is the source of their power. In the north, the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are a prime source of hurricanes because the ocean is hemmed in by land and heats up more easily than the south Atlantic. Hurricanes here do more damage and attract more attention than they would in the less populated vastness of southern hemisphere oceans. Just as hurricanes from the Caribbean tend to move north, those forming below the equator in the Indian ocean, where they are called typhoons, tend to drift south toward the vast emptiness of the Southern Ocean.

Southern Hemisphere climate


How can I draw pixel- or vector-based UI elements in Emacs?

Question: With that I mean UI elements (for example text fields and animated buttons) that are not restricted to the monospaced character grid of terminal emulators, but can be arbitrary shapes at arbitrary pixel positions on the screen.  I'm simply curious whether and how that is possible, and if it's not possible, whether it's planned for the future.
Comment: If you only want to draw, then yes, you can see.  See the `svg-clock` package in GNU ELPA for a "simple" example.  But if you want to draw *on top* of other elements, then the answer is sadly "no", although many people would be happy if someone were to write a patch that does that.
Comment: Well, yes – the splash screen is evident to this fact.  I would reword your question into *how* this can be done.  As it stands, a simple yes/no answer would 'answer' this question.
Comment: @SeanAllred arbitrary shape, yes; arbitrary pixel position, no.
Comment: @Malabarba Whoops -- yes, you're correct. You can cheat though with display margins and text faces, though -- you can get pretty precise.  But you're right in saying that you cannot say `Draw image.png(400x600+16+30)` to draw a scaled image at that particular coordinate relative to some corner.
Answer: Textfields and buttons (like, in the Customize buffers) are actually subject to the grid Emacs aligns characters on.
What you can do is telling Emacs to display an image of the SVG (vector) or XPM (bitmap) type.  Since those aren't limited to be read in from a file, you can generate a string and turn it into an image.  I've seen examples of both canvas-like usage where the image occupies most of the window and is freely drawn on (see svg-thing, slime-volley, svg-clock, my own svg-2048) and less obnoxious usage which rather resemble UI elements (see the icons in AUCTEX, gnus' modeline icon, the graphical version of M-x tetris, svg-modeline).  There's still quite a bit of footwork to do considering Emacs does not have a canvas-like image type, but it's possible to displace these images and to use them as display property of other UI elements like the modeline or margin and bind keys including the mouse ones to them.
Answer: For drawing raster graphics you might try EPaint.  It appears to support freehand drawing and basic geometric shapes.


Can I have open source notices in my app which are only displayed after authentication?

Question: I work on an Android app which is only used by customers. Anyone can download the app from the Play Store but if they don't have credentials then they will just see a login screen and won't be able to get past that. (Registration process is handled separately and not in the app.) My app uses multiple open source libraries and I will have a button which opens the list of open source licenses. Ideally I don't want to have to add this button to the login screen as it has a fairly clean design. Is it acceptable to add the button to my app's "about" screen which is only accessible post-authentication? This will however mean that people who are not customers will not be able to access this license information, but there would be nothing they could do with the app anyway. Are there some precedents here with how other major apps have approached this?
Comment: What licence is the app itself distributed under?
Comment: Why not make it a simple link, leading to a website, below the "Log In" button? Here you can explain why no registration, all the privacy rules, licenses etc.
Comment: @MadHatter app itself is a proprietary app, not open source. the libraries are using various types of license (not GPL) such as Apache 2, MIT and ISC
Comment: And what (type of) licenses are the libraries under?
Answer: I would strongly suggest that compliance-related information is immediately accessible, without requiring a log in. This includes documents such as your contact details, your terms of service, your privacy policy, and yes, open source attributions.
The intent of most open source licenses is that you have to at least attribute the various open source components you are using. This attribution is due whenever an end user receives your app, even if they are not logged in. For example, the Apache License 2.0 is quite clear:

You must give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of this License

Your app includes the Apache-covered Work, thus the end user who has downloaded your app is a recipient of this Work even if they're not logged in.
It might be sufficient to provides these notices and licenses in documentation for your app, for example by linking it from the app description in whatever app store you use. But I'm not necessarily convinced that this would always be compliant with all open source licenses. Including these notices directly with each copy of the app, and making them accessible to the typical user without any hurdles, is the safest path towards license compliance.
Comment: I think the last sentence is exactly the point I was trying to make in my original post. The "typical user" is someone who will have login details. I think 99.9% of people who download the app are our customers who will already have such login details. There is simply no reason for anyone who is not a customer to download and install the app, as it will be of no use to them. So I felt that by displaying a screen in the app, even behind the login screen, we absolutely are making the notices accessible to the typical user.
Comment: @AdamBurley I should rephrase. By "typical user" I did not mean "a type of user who is likely to use your app" but "a user with a typical level of mental capability and technical skills should be able to access the licensing information". For example, making licensing information inaccessible unless the user scores >120 points on an IQ test would clearly violate the license even if the app is intended for Mensa members; an app where licenses are accessible only over ADB would be a violation even if its target audience is Android developers.


DDR3 Ram 1066 vs 1333?

Question: Can I install DDR3 1333 RAM into a notebook that is currently running DDR3 1066 and will it have any effect on performance?
Comment: Depends on the motherboard , check your motherboard model and see if it can support ddr3 1333 RAM
Comment: use cpuz -http://www.filehippo.com/download_cpuz/ to check your motherboard model
Answer: If the memory is otherwise identical, it will work fine at the lower speed. The clock speed specified for a memory module is the MAXIMUM speed that it will work at. There is no harm in using in a system configured to go slower.
Answer: lookup the manual on your notebook, it should mention all the different speeds of ram the motherboard supports.
Answer: Old question, but only partially answered, as the question has two parts; the second part is "will it have any effect on performance?.
And the answer is yes. Not really noticeable under common routine tasks; but on heavy tasks, the faster speed will be noticed up to a 15% increase from 1066 to 1333 in the different stream memory tasks, as shown in the following test.

DDR3 Ram 1066 vs 1333?


Get Wifi signal strength with OpenNetCf in VB.Net

Question: As the title says, I want to get the wireless signal strength from adapter on Windows CE, VB.Net, Visual studio 2008.
I believe opennetcf.net library has to be used.
Answer: I'm not going to write any code for you but maybe I can at least point you in the right direction. In the beta documentation for OpenNETCF.Net.NetworkInformation you'll see a class called WirelessNetworkInterface which has a SignalStrength property which returns a SignalStrength object.
Answer: I found what was the problem.
I tried to program it on Motorola MC3190 hand scanner with some stupid Motorola Jedi Wireless Drivers which are identifying the interface as ethernet instead of wireless and this is the reason why tehere is no such option.
I also tried few versions of Motorola EMDK's, but those are also not working with MC3190.


seq24 is connected to zynaddsubfx but I can't get seq24 to play patterns

Question: So I got seq24 to play sounds when I click on the piano roll but when I try to play the pattern nothing happens.  It's running through qjackctl but clicking play in seq24 isnt doing anything. I'm using 12.10.
Answer: You probably need a patched version of seq24 as the version in 12.10 (0.9.2) has a JACK transport issue. Keep an eye on the KXStudio-Team PPA, it will soon have a patched seq24 package for Quantal too.
Regards,
Jeremy