Where can I find Windows 98 drivers for VIA sound card VT8237A/VT8251?

Question: I'm looking to try and get a VIA sound card working in Windows 98. I have everything else running no problems, just the sound. I've tried everything I can think of including VIA's website which lists this as available but when tried it's not compatible, alternatively the XP drivers work brilliant.
Hardware I'd from Linux, "Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller (rev 20)"
Comment: I wonder if there's some sort of backwards-compatible SoundBlaster16 mode you could use...
Answer: I get a feeling it's not going to work. The VIA 8237 had AC'97 audio, but the 8237A has HD Audio (the successor standard to AC'97, which was published in 2004). To the best of my knowledge, there are no HD Audio drivers of any kind for Win98. If VIA says they have a download available, there's a good chance that they're mistakenly routing you to the AC'97 drivers for the 8237, and that's why those drivers don't work.
Comment: What steps would be needed to build a device driver? I realise this is probably not an easy task, but I'm willing to give it a shot, or is this just not worth it?


Is it possible to add modifiers dynamically with animation nodes?

Question: To add modifiers dynamically, I know that one can modify values of existing modifier via attribute output node. Can this node be used to create modifiers or does it need some sort of scripting?
Comment: try pressing I over the Eye Icon of the Modifier
Comment: sorry I dont know Animation Nodes but that would be the way I would try to do it
Comment: No that´s not the case. Needs to be added dinamically
Comment: but it would be not effectively there if you hide it. That was my thought
Answer: The only way to do this is by using scripting, there are three important points to take into consideration when making this:

Make sure not to add the modifier if it was already added in a previous execution.
Output the input object and plug it into the attribute output node, making sure you are not editing a modifier before it gets added.
The modifier name should never be an empty text because then blender will automatically add a name and our first test will fail, so we should set a fallback value.

Making sure we got those three points right, we can write a code like this:
<code>modifierName = modifierName if modifierName != "" else "Fallback"
if not modifierName in object.modifiers:
    object.modifiers.new(modifierName, 'ARRAY')
outObject = object
</code>
Comment: Great!!! This was what I was looking for.


What would be a suitable aircraft for a short haul freight forwarding business?

Question: I just graduated with an Aeronautical Science degree and I am planning on starting a freight forwarding company.  It would need to be high payload capable and relatively fuel efficient, the route that would be flown everyday is only 300 miles one way.
Comment: For that, I'd have to know where the route is, how big of a payload we are talking about, and the conditions of the airfields at either end of the route.
Comment: Cigars on demand?... As Carlo mentions, the Caravan is a solid bet. They are flown all over the world, potentially easier to get parts for than some of their older counterparts and from my understanding, reliable. They also run Jet-A which is easy to get at most airports. 100LL is not always available outside the US (in large quantities if at all) so avoiding piston options is something to think about.
Comment: Is the business to make profit, or is it a prestige project?
Comment: It is a business to make profit and expand upon.
Comment: The route being flow would be from Ft Lauderdale to Havana.  Pay load would be around 4000 - 5000 pounds.  Conditions of the destination airfield are good.
Comment: Metroliner or Beech 1900.  Stay simple.
Comment: Check out what the local contract UPS guys use. You know that they are the low bidder for the route. so costs are low, and uptime must be high or else they would lose the contract. Ours uses Fairchild Metroliners.
Answer: You would have to provide more answers to the comment I made above.
But for a relatively small payload (<4000lbs), I'd say you can't go wrong with a Cessna C208 Caravan.  You can buy a good used C208B Super CargoMaster for just shy of $1 million.
Another recommendation for that route would be the DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter.  Payload is increased by 1000 lbs or so over the Caravan and you have the additional safety of two engines for over water operations.  The downside is that these aircraft are fairly prized and will set you back about $ 3-4 million.
Another heavy lifter with an excellent reputation behind it, even after 80 years of service, is the venerable Douglas DC-3/C-47.  You call, we haul 6,000lbs to just about anywhere within fuel range.
All of these aircraft are extremely rugged and have a good reputation after decades of hard use in bush flying.  They are capable of operating on short, rough airstrips - a good benefit in case you decide to expand to more remote destinations within Cuba and can carry tremendous loads.  They're also turbine powered using PT6 engines (except for the DC-3) so fuel is readily available anywhere in the world as is maintenance and spare parts.
Comment: There are turbine refits of DC-3s too. Didn't check price though.
Comment: Thats what I was thinking.  Thanks for the response.
Comment: The Beech 99 could also be a good choice, though it might be hard to find any available as I understand most are already in use by freight companies. Payload capacity is around 3500 lbs.
Comment: The Cessna 208 was pretty much designed for FedEx and they use them extensively as feeder aircraft. That would indicate it is probably ideal for the role. Another possibility for a twin is the Fokker/Fairchild F-27 which FedEx used for a long time as feeders.
Answer: Are you a pilot?  Are you familiar with aircraft regulations and operations?
I would avoid radial engines.  I would seriously consider planes powered by TPE-331over the PT-6.
The Metroliner will haul about 5000lbs over that distance.  They're airliners and have maintenance bills to match.
The MU2 is also a popular freighter.  Somewhat smaller than the Metroliner it is still an efficient plane.  It requires special training.
The Beech 1900 is also a popular freighter but I would prefer a Metroliner due to the longer engine life and better fuel economy.  Like the Metro, they're airliners and will require some good maintenance.
The Beech 99 is a popular freighter.  I've never flown one but it has a reputation for reliability.
For piston aircraft, the Cessna 404 will lift about 2000lbs.  I love the plane but the engines can give you trouble (@ $50,000 each) if flown by a low time or poorly trained pilot.
The Piper Navajo (350hp) is also a common freighter.  It won't lift quite as much as a 404 but it's a solid machine.
The Cessna 401/402 line is also good.  On par with the Navajo.
You'll also need an air carrier certificate.  Have you started that process?
Comment: Agree, but with good training it's not bad.  If you look at the accident rates before and after the SFAR you'll notice a huge improvement.  Still, the Metro/Merlin and MU2s are "big boy" planes and must be taken seriously.  You don't just hop in and go.
Comment: I would NOT recommend an MU2 for a neophyte pilot.
Comment: @CarloFelicione what are the issues with the MU2?
Comment: The aircraft has had an unusually large number of accidents in its service history with over 330 fatal crashes in its service life, most involving engine failures during takeoff and landing.  This is a crying shame as the MU2 is a fine aircraft with good flight characteristics if handled properly.  In 2005 the FAA did a safety evaluation of the MU2 and found the aircraft was safe, if handled properly but mandated type specific initial and recurrent training for MU2 operators (Mitsubishi even went so far as to recommend the creation of a type rating for the aircraft).
Comment: I agree with Mitsubishi that the MU2 should require a type rating but apparently the FAA is satisfied with the section 108 training.  It demands a pilot who can fly it by the numbers and react quickly and correctly should an engine loss occur at low altitude because it can bite when cornered.....


What is the current size of the blockchain?

Question: What is the current size of the blockchain? Is there a site that tracks this quantity in real time? I only see sporadic numbers around (e.g here), which seem to be calculated from someone already running a node. Yet, for someone not currently running a node (and perhaps interested in running one), this method is unhelpful.
Also, I read that there is a plan to limit the actual size of the blockchain users need to have. Although this is clearly not implemented yet, it would be useful to also have a real time measure of the "effective" size of the blockchain needed to run a node.
Comment: You can use the mainnet-snapshots branch already. See here https://blog.nomadic-labs.com/introducing-snapshots-and-history-modes-for-the-tezos-node.html . Right now in full archive mode the chain takes between 90GB and 100GB on my desktop.
Answer: At 2019-03-19T05:27:36Z current size of ./tezos-node folder , practical size of blockchain is 107.3 GB
Comment: That's not the size of the chain, that's the size of all intermediate contexts.


What is the physical reason behind linearity of Schrodinger's equation?

Question: What is the physical reason for Schrodinger equation to be linear? Though in physics many interactions or dynamics are found non linear.
Comment: More on linearity in QM: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1201/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/33344/2451 and links therein.
Comment: I think it simply due to the postulation of quantum mechanics that time evolution is linear
Comment: Since Dr. Schroedinger came up with it, it may be an interesting thing to ask him: http://web.archive.org/web/20081217040121/http://home.tiscali.nl/physis/HistoricPaper/Schroedinger/Schroedinger1926c.pdf
Answer: It should be understood that physics - at least in it's current form - does not provide answers to "Why these laws?" questions. It can only describe an emergent law from a deeper and more fundamental one. Quantum theory is so far the most fundamental framework we have, so there is no more fundamental "reason" to describe it's structure aside from finding links between various properties of the theory.
The linearity of the Schrödinger equation is a consequence of the more general superposition principle. This principle states that causes add up linearly towards effects and it is postulated.
But what lead us to this postulate? Experimental observations - wave effects such as interference, and certain experiments with spin/polarization of particles. See e.g. the double-slit experiment for interference and Malus's law for polarized light - even though you pass a beam of perfectly polarized photons through a polarizer at a different angle, they can be "linearly decomposed" into photons of different polarizations and a part of them passes through. I.e. the photons that pass through will be polarized in accord with the orientation of the polarizer and this process can be fully understood just through the linearity of quantum-mechanical states.
However, the postulation of linearity was only a consequence of knowing mainly linear wave equations. These effects are conceivable in a theory with slight non-linearities and, indeed, this has been proposed. This article briefly reviews the proposals and their experimental tests that yielded that the proposed nonlinearities are beyond detection scope.
The linked article also provides a "proof" of linearity of evolution of quantum mechanics under some reasonable assumptions. But I would understand it more as a proof of a deeper connection between the usual structure of operators and linear state spaces with the general linearity of quantum mechanical evolution. I.e., the article shows that we would have to switch to a different framework, without states $|\psi\rangle$, linear hermitian operators and their usual interpretation, to include non-linearity in quantum mechanics.

So the conclusion is - it seems that linearity of the quantum-mechanical evolution (aka Schrödinger equation) is a vital part of the structure of the theory. Nevertheless, we can never justify the linearity completely, the main reason for it is "it just works". But that does not preclude the possibility of a paradigm shift including the introduction of non-linearity.
Comment: Could you please fix the reference to the paper you mention? That's the last link in the answer. It seems nobody followed it in all those years, since it goes to the wiki page on polarizer (the same as the link before).
Answer: It is better seen in the Heisenberg representation. Physical quantities, Observables, are represented by hermitian linear operators. Equation of movement is then (for a non-relativistic massive particle) :
$$ m \dfrac{d^2\hat X(t)}{dt^2}  = - \dfrac{\partial V(\hat X)}{\partial \hat X}(t) \tag{1}$$
with the quantization conditions :
$[\hat X(t),m \dfrac{d\hat X(t')}{dt}]_{|t=t'} =i \hbar$
The equation $(1)$ is an equation between operators, so we have :
$$\forall |\psi\rangle,  \quad m \dfrac{d^2\hat X(t)}{dt^2} |\psi\rangle = - \dfrac{\partial V(\hat X)}{\partial \hat X}(t) |\psi\rangle\tag{2}$$
Here $|\psi\rangle$ is a constant state (not depending on time).
Equation $(2)$ clearly arises because, in Quantum mechanics, one is using linear operators.
Now, this does not mean that equation $(1)$ is a linear equation relatively to the position operator $\hat X(t)$. This is generally not the case, except for very particular cases (free particle, harmonic oscillator)
We may also use an energy integral equation  which is also an equation between operators :
$$ \frac{m}{2} \dot {\hat X(t)}^2 + V(\hat X)(t) = E \tag{3}$$
where $E$ is a constant matrix (not depending on time). We have then :
$$\forall |\psi\rangle,  \quad \frac{m}{2} \dot {\hat X(t)}^2|\psi\rangle + V(\hat X)(t)|\psi\rangle = E |\psi\rangle\tag{4}$$
As before, this equation is "linear" in $\psi$, but does not correspond to a linear equation of movement for $\hat X(t)$, except if the potential is zero or at most quadratic in $\hat X$


When is a wheel considered true?

Question: Generally speaking, how much runout can a bicycle wheel have and still be considered true?
Comment: No wheel is ever truly "true".  They just may have more/less runout than circumstances require.  A wheel on a beater bike can be considered "true" so long as it's not rubbing.  A wheel on a racing bike is not true if there is any measurable runout.
Comment: One to two millimetres side movement is acceptable. Same for up and down motion. The front wheel being more sensible than the rear because wobble may shake the handlebars at higher speeds.
Comment: @Carel It all depends on it's use; see Daniel's comment. Handlebar shake is the least of your concerns on a twisty 80kph descent - the entire *bike* shakes!
Comment: It also depends on whether you have rim brakes or disc brakes.
Answer: The standard for what "true" means varies by mechanic and the intended use of the wheel.
A perfectly true wheel, in the mechanical sense, may not be attainable. Roundness and lateral runout are measurable to .001 millimeters using commonly available shop tools. Most mechanics do not consider that tolerance necessary, but as that is the limit of the tools, that is what I would consider perfectly true. However it requires 4 things:

Perfect roundness, measured by placing a gauge under the edge of the rim, and spinning the wheel.
Perfect lateral runout, or rather a lack of runout. This is measured by placing a gauge at the brake track of the wheel, and rotating the wheel to track the runout.
Perfect Dish.  Dish refers to the centering of the rim on the axle, or in some cases between the dropouts of the frame. This is measured using a truing stand or a dishing tool.
Perfectly even and balanced spoke tension. Measure using a tensiometer, the value here will vary significantly based on the type of spoke, the size of the rim, the material of the spoke nipple.  But the constant here is that all the spokes should have exactly equal tension.

I am well aware that the description here is of a mechanically perfect wheel, and that such a thing does not exist. It would require a perfectly formed rim, a perfectly machined hub, which perfectly drilled and finished spoke holes, and that each spoke be drawn from a perfectly pure metal at exactly equal and even dimensions.
The beauty and simplicity of the bicycle wheel is that while our manufacturing tolerances are not up to that standard, the design of a spoked wheel allow you to offset the tolerances in one area with spoke tension. If a rim is not perfectly true and round, more or less spoke tension can be used to pull it true and round.
So a "perfectly" true wheel might not exist, but a functionally true wheel is relatively easy. And "perfectly" true isn't necessary.
Comment: The additional to all that is that even if you had a mechanically perfect wheel, you still need to add a tyre (and maybe tube) to the setup.  They aren't nearly as adjustable as a wheel.
Comment: A great summary.  Any standards or rules of thumb on an acceptable amount of out-of-round, lateral runout and dish?  I am looking at the front wheel I just built and wondering if there is much worth trying to do better than 0.5 mm out of round. (This is coming from a hobbyist perspective.)
Comment: What runout is acceptable depends on the use of the wheel, and the manufacturer.  Xentis uses .2mm as acceptable runout. Lightweight, because of their manufacturing process, uses 1mm. I personally find anything more than .25mm to be an annoyance. But .5mm is not likely to be an issue.  If you have doubts, check with the wheel or rim manufacturer.
Answer: If your wheel is trued (lateral movement) to within 0.5mm it is considered good.  Same 0.5mm tolerance for the roundness of the wheel.  Just remember that you may need to take the "stress" out of the wheel as the spokes can wind up with the torque applied to the nipple.  It is that pinging sound that happens when a freshly built wheel is ridden for first time. Simply squeeze the spokes together, as though you were playing it like a harp.  You should hear some pings then check if it is true and round, adjust as needed.
You mentioned it was your front wheel so you can flip it round to check if you have it dished equally (lateral offset) as is the norm for most front wheels.  A blob of blutac and a pin on the fork blade can be used as a guide.  And finally the wheel will go out of true with use especially during the first few rides, so check it after a couple of months.
Hope this helps.
Mark
Answer: Wheelbuilding machines can be configured for a .1mm precision. But the choice of tolerance is up to the wheel factory. Best machine-built wheels are trued to this maximum of .1mm precision, which is pretty good. Most man-built wheels have a run-out around .5 mm when new.
But when you are building your own wheel, or you are fixing it, a tolerance of around 1 mm is acceptable imho. More than 2mm and you will have problems with brake pads or you may feel some shaking while riding.

When is a wheel considered true?


Is personal check data PHI if used to pay a covered entity?

Question: Is the information on a personal check such as a name, address and phone number considered personally identifiable health information or PHI if paid to a covered entity?
Answer: Yes it is PHI. What is PHI doesn't change because the name or other info is on a check instead of a chart. The goal is to stop patients from being identified without consent. Here is a list of items commonly covered as PHI. If I had to use that list to classify the check, I would consider it payment history. Those are not the only things that could be covered. Any information that conveys the identity of a patient could be on the list. The same rules apply no matter where the PHI is located, as long as it is transmitted to or in the care of a covered entity.
Comment: @FernThomas I'm glad it helped if it did, can you approve my answer please?


No Artist when uploading music to my Nokia Lumia 620

Question: I have a Nokia Lumia 620, when I add music to my phone from my computer, it copies the songs over fine but the phone does not recognise the artist even though the information is there.
Comment: And how have you verified that the information is there?
Answer: I had the same problem on my Lumia 920.  Turned out it was caused by the tags being written into the MP3 files in an "old" standard (of the tag format definition).  I downloaded this software and updated the tag information (by hand) in the MP3s and fixed the problem (there is a dropdown that specifies the tag format version for each file).
I'm sure there are other packages available - a utility that automatically changes the tag format on all files in a folder would be really useful (but I stopped looking when I found my solution - maybe you'll try harder than I did).
Answer: You can get the artist/song name by changing the meta data in your file explorer. For Windows you just click on the file so it is highlighted then edit the boxes at the bottom.


What is "jubilee(s)"?

Question: My Mother in her 90s and in treatment for Alzheimers would frequently go into a state of trance and chant about going to jubilee.
Does "jubilee" or "going to jubilee" refer to heaven or eternity in Christianity?
Answer: In the Hebrew Bible, Jubilee refers to a set of practices around forgiveness of debts and restoration of land. Basically, every 7 years the people were supposed to hold a "sabbath" for the land and rest from farming. Then in the 50th year (the year after the 7th Sabbath/Sabbatical Year), all land ownership was supposed to resort to it's original tribes/clans/families, all debts be forgiven, all slaves set free, and a general year of celebration and festivity observed. This was known as the "Jubilee Year." See Leviticus 25 for a description of how this was supposed to work.
It's not originally a description of heaven, but it's an image a lot of later Biblical writers would use to describe "heaven" or "the kingdom" or "salvation" and other similar concepts. For example, Isaiah 61 talks about the deliverance of the people by God as the "year of the Lord's favor" when the captives are set free, the cities rebuilt, and the people are too busy celebrating to tend their own flocks, which sounds a lot like the Jubilee year. So Jubilee takes on more meaning as an image of what heaven is supposed to be like.
Comment: Nice first answer.  I hope to read more of your work in the future.
Answer:
The Jubilee is a year of absolute liberty for mankind
From E-Sword Strong's Concordance: H3104 - יבל / יובל - yôbêl
BDB Definition:
1) ram, ram's horn, trumpet, cornet
1a) ram (only in combination)
1a1) ram's horn, trumpet
1b) jubilee year (marked by the blowing of cornets) (metonymy)
Excerpts from Fausset
The 50th Jubilee, after seven weeks of years, when alienated lands returned to the original owners and Hebrew bondservants were freed (Lev 25:8-16; Lev 25:23-55; Lev 27:16-25; Num 36:4).
It is referred to as antitypically fulfilled in "the acceptable year of the Lord," this limited period of gospel grace in which deliverance from sin and death, and the restoration of man's lost inheritance, are proclaimed through Christ (Isa 61:1-2; Luk 4:19). Literally, hereafter (Eze 7:12-13; Eze 46:17) to be kept. Liberty to bondservants was given every seventh or sabbatical year.
"The times of the restitution of all things" are the coming grand Jubilee (Act 3:21), "the regeneration" (Mat 19:28) ushered in by "the trump of God" (1Th 4:16-17). The Spirit is meantime "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:19-23).

In the image, the female seed is the Old Covenant or the literal understanding of the law. Under the New Covenant, the male seed is Christ or the spiritual and prophetic understanding and application of the Mosaic Law.
A Jubilee is the equivalent of 50 years. The Jubilee speaks of the removal of debt (sin). Under the Old Covenant, every slave had to be freed from all their debts or wrongdoings.

Lev 25:10  And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim
  liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it
  shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every one unto his
  possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family.
Lev 25:11  A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall
  not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy
  consecrated vine.
Psa 5:11  And all those that put their trust in thee shall rejoice:
  they shall ever be in jubilee, for thou shalt cover them; and all that
  love thy name shall be joyful in thee.

Excerpts From the Temple: It's Ministries - The Day of Atonement
In connection with this point, it may also be well to remember that the Jubilee Year was always proclaimed on the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:9).

EXCERPTS FROM MATTHEW HENRY - Matthew 24:4-31

[5.] That he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
  Mat 24:31. Note, First, The angels shall be attendants upon Christ at
  his second coming; they are called his angels, which proves him to be
  God, and Lord of the angels; they shall be obliged to wait upon him.
  Secondly, These attendants shall be employed by him as officers of the
  court in the judgment of that day; they are now ministering spirits
  sent forth by him (Heb 1:14) and will be so then. Thirdly, Their
  ministration will be ushered in with a great sound of a trumpet, to
  awaken and alarm a sleeping world. This trumpet is spoken of, 1Co
  15:52, and 1Th 4:16. At the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the
  sound of the trumpet was remarkably terrible (Exo 19:13, Exo 19:16);
  but much more will it be so in the great day. By the law, trumpets
  were to be sounded for the calling of assemblies (Num 10:2), in
  praising God (Psa 81:3), in offering sacrifices (Num 10:10), and in
  proclaiming the year of jubilee, Lev 25:9. Very fitly, therefore,
  shall there be the sound of a trumpet at the last day, when the
  general assembly shall be called when the praises of God shall be
  gloriously celebrated, when sinners shall fall as sacrifices to divine
  justice, and when the saints shall enter upon their eternal Jubilee.

Excerpts From Matthew Henry - Luke 4:14-30

[3.] The acceptable year of the Lord, Luk 4:19. He came to let the
  world know that the God whom they had offended was willing to be
  reconciled to them and to accept of them upon new terms; that there
  was yet a way of making their services acceptable to him; that there
  is now a time of good will toward men. It alludes to the year of
  release, or that of jubilee, which was an acceptable year to servants,
  who were then set at liberty; to debtors, against whom all actions
  then dropped; and to those who had mortgaged their lands, for then
  they returned to them again. Christ came to sound the jubilee-trumpet,
  and blessed were they that heard the joyful sound, Psa 89:15. It was
  an acceptable time, for it was a day of salvation.

From E. W. Bullinger  - Ezekiel 46:17

The year of liberty = the year of jubilee. Reference to Pentateuch
  (Lev 25:10). App-92. This shows that this prophecy will, and must yet,
  be literally fulfilled. Moreover, the jubilee occurred only twice in a
  century.

Luke 4:19
The acceptable year = the welcome year. Either the Jubilee year (Lev 26:8-17) or on account of the Lord's ministry commencing then.
Answer: Many believe that mankind has been on this planet for almost 6000 years (6 Millenia). The 7th, or Jubilee, Millenium is right around the corner. That will be the time when the Messiah (and us with Him) will reign in righteousness for a thousand years on Earth. This is what she is refering to. That should make any believer happy! Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!

What is "jubilee(s)"?


kind of past tense

Question: For example,I want to tell a memory of past tense and explain how i used to take shower in wild camping.Is "used to" the only option? Is it Ok to use simple past tense? I've learnt English through reading books and don't know much about grammar.
Answer: Simple past tense is by far the most common, but I suppose it depends on your usage.  If you're writing creatively or in a way which lends itself to building a scene, you could go with a descriptive route.  Something like:
I recall many times showering in the wild or bathing in the lake, the sun low on the horizon.
Making the primary verb past tense works just as well, and often better, than going with used to.
Answer: You are looking for a tense to describe repeated actions/states in the past. This is called the past with habitual aspect or habitual past, which can be expressed in several ways:

Simple Past [with Adverb]
  Whenever I visited my grandmother, I [always] brought her a box of chocolates.
Would
  Whenever I'd visit my grandmother, I'd bring her a box of chocolates.
Used to
  I used to bring my grandmother a box of chocolates whenever I visited her.

As Jesse Williams pointed out, you can be quite literal about it and remember performing some action at least twice in the past:

I remember bringing my grandmother a box of chocolates every time I visited her.
Comment: So I can say "when we camped wildly, we always took shower in river" Or " Everything that we'd camp in nature, we'd take shower into the river" or " we used to take shower into the river, whenever we camped". Are those sentences correct?
Comment: I'm not sure how you would take a shower, as opposed to a bath, in a river unless there was a waterfall, but you're headed in the right direction. _When we camped in the wild, we always bathed in the river. Every time we'd go camping, we'd bathe in the river. We used to bathe in the river whenever we went camping._

kind of past tense


Which ML approach to choose for the game AI when rewards are delayed?

Question: Question: Which Machine Learning approach should I choose for the AI of my computer game, where the actions of the AI do not lead to immediate rewards, but delayed rewards instead?
About me:
I am a complete beginner in the area of machine learning. This is my first own machine learning project. I have been part of other projects that included machine learning before, but I have never done everything from scratch and completely by myself.
About the game:
The game is similar to "Age of wars": It is 2d and two players play against each other. Both own a castle (one on the left side, the other on the right side of the playground) and can build units. Those units fight against each other and try to reach the castle of the opponent and to destroy that castle. The player, who destroys the castle of the opponent, wins.

Features and machine learning task: The task the AI should solve is classification. Based on the feature vector input, the AI should choose between the following labels:

Nothing
Unit 1 (Boss)
Unit 2 (Tank)
Unit 3 (Melee)
Unit 4 (Ranger)
Unit 5 (Mage)

The feature vector currently contains around 60 features, including:

Available money
The distance of the furthest unit to the enemy castle
Sum of unit health
Count of units
Count of units of each type as separate features
Cost of each unit type
Castle health
Recent damage taken / Recent damage dealt
Current effectivity of each unit type against the current enemies (some units are more effective/less effective against other units, based on their armor and attack class)

Most features are calculated for both the AI player and the opponent of the AI player.
Game-specific details: It is possible to estimate a score live during a match, however, I think, it is, basically, impossible to determine whether one specific action was good or bad. When a unit is purchased by a player it takes some time until that unit reaches the enemy and attacks the enemy, possibly damaging enemies or getting damaged.
One big advantage: Due to recent architectural adaptions, one match can be simulated around 100 times faster than a real-time game. Therefore, a complete match (which takes around 5-15 minutes) can be simulated in less than 10 seconds. Multiple matches can be simulated in parallel. Therefore, on my computer, almost 60 matches per minute can be simulated.
I also prepared the game for machine learning: A standalone executable of the game can be called from external software (e.g. Python tooling) and takes a configuration file as input. It simulates the matches given by the configuration file and then produces a result output file, listing the results of the simulated matches, as well as a lot of details about the matches (e.g. match duration, a detailed list of game events, such as EntitySpawn, EntityDamage, EntityDeath, etc.). That output file could be accessed by the external tooling to evaluate the success of the current ML model.
My current considerations: For this classification task, I think a decision tree model, like a Random Forest, probably makes a lot of sense. My problem is mainly, that I do not know how to train and how to connect the machine learning tooling part with the game part. As the data is not really labeled, I guess, reinforcement learning might be a good choice here. I have already read some articles regarding Q-Learning. Now, there are two difficulties:

The "delayed reward" topic: Usually, directly when a decision is made by the ML model, a score can be given, telling whether the decision was good/bad compared to other possible decisions. This is not possible here, because it takes some time, until it is known, whether a decision is good or bad. Additionally, even after some time, it is not known which decision contributed to the current state in a positive way and which did not.
An architectural difficulty: At least with the current architecture, it is not really possible for the training process to consider single classification processes, as the game is decoupled from the machine learning code. Only the results of a completed match can be accessed by the machine learning code. At least right now, the ML code does not have access to the game during a running match.

Although those limitations exist (the second one could be adapted if really necessary), I think there should already be many possibilities to successfully train a model. As thousands of complete matches can be simulated within just a few hours, it should (I think) be possible to do something like the following:

Start with random model parameters
Simulate a few matches and calculate result score.
Adapt some model parameters
Repeat step 2 and 3 again and again, with the goal of increasing/decreasing the score. This sounds just like hyperparameter tuning, which would already be possible IF there was an appropriate model with parameters that can be adjusted.

Note that the simulation accepts an ML model as input for the player AI. This makes it technologically possible to automatically try out different models and to compare those.
This is all I can come up with right now, with my limited knowledge in the area of machine learning.
If you have any ideas or know about approaches that you think might work well, please let me know!
Additional note:
The goal here is to create a strong AI. Game design topics, such as "The AI should be fun to play against" should not be considered.
Thank you very much.
Comment: You should go for Reinforcement learning. An agent scores based on the actions. You may need image processing if you don't have access to the game code.
Comment: Have you tried implementing the NEAT genetic algorithm?
Comment: @Mehdi Yes, I agree. This would probably be the best choice. The question was mainly aimed on the "can this be done easily without accessing the game code and just the game results & how?". To be fair, I think the question is written not precise enough and the scenario is described in too much length and with too much detail. I also agree that image processing would probably work, however, I would like to know, if there is a simpler and less overkill approach. In theory, all data should be available for reinforcement learning to successfully work with just game results.
Comment: I just posted this more precise follow-up question: https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/74966/can-a-classifier-be-trained-with-reinforcement-learning-without-access-to-single
Comment: @MrPythonic not yet, but I will definitely check it out. Looks promising.
Answer: I would use temporal difference learning from reinforcement learning. Temporal difference learning employs TD propagation rather than backpropagation. The difference being that TD takes into account the time delay aspect. In fact, it is likely in this scenario that combining the two propagation methods would be optimal.
Comment: I will try this out too. Sounds really good. Once I have results, I will mark the best answer as the accepted answer.


CiviCRM upgrade from 5.12 to 5.29 - failure

Question: Tried to upgrade CiviCRM on Drupal 7 website. Drupal core 7.73. Using PHP 7.1. Upgrade process started well but received this message: You must reload the database with the backup and try the upgrade process again. I do have a good backup of database. What should I do? How do you reload the database?
Comment: Hi Vic - how to reload a backup isn't specifically a CiviCRM question so you may find another SE channel that will give you a better response, but i will poke someone who may be able to chip in.
Comment: I was curious about the word reload. I believe I have to drop current database, recreate a new one and restore from the good backup. There is no reloading database process I can think of. I basically need to go back to (restore) earlier database and corresponding Drupal website that had civiCRM 5.12.  Is that right? Thanks.
Answer: Welcome to SE!  There's lots of useful advice from Luke in his answer but I'd start by looking at the CiviCRM log file.
That error message is a bit misleading.  It's not random luck as to whether an upgrade succeeds so restoring to the previous state and just trying the same upgrade code is very unlikely to produce a better result.  The upgrade probably failed because of a mismatch between what the code was expecting to find in your system, and what it actually found.  Until you track down and correct that problem reloading and repeating won't help.
You can often fix the problem and continue the upgrade without reloading a backup.
If you look at the log file you should see the various upgrade steps logged there.  What was the last successful upgrade step?  What messages do you get after that?
Update
The log file shows:
Row size too large. The maximum row size for the used table type, not counting BLOBs, is 8126. This includes storage overhead, check the manual. You have to change some columns to TEXT or BLOBs
Updated table to row_format=dynamic and then reran the upgrade.
Comment: Thanks Aidan. I did get a message when the upgrade process started. I did not write it down. It said something like "300 sec script timed out". The progress bar froze within first few minutes. I waited for a while. Nothing changed. I was able to go the website. Then I saw 5.29 on CiviCRM bottom page. Also, the partial completion message as I posted in this question. I am able to use the website and civiCRM contacts.
Comment: That might actually be good news!  It took a long time but may have completed successfully although your browser or proxy got fed up of waiting.  The log file under `sites/default/files/civicrm/ConfigAndLog` will provide more answers.
Comment: I am looking at that file. I believe I should seek some expert help.
Comment: Oct 05 06:35:26  [info] $CRM_Queue_ErrorPolicy_reportError = Array
(
    [is_error] => 1
    [is_continue] => 0
    [exception] => Error 1: Maximum execution time of 300 seconds exceeded in public_html/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Core/Error.php, line 827
    [last_task_title] => Add title to civicrm_payment_processor
Comment: If you put the complete log file on gist or something we can take a look.
Comment: Not sure yet how to use gist. any other option?
Comment: Create an account on github.com  Go to the '+' menu (top right) and select 'new gist'
Answer: You'll need to track down what caused your error first however. I'd take a copy of your database, potentially a backup of your "broken" database depending on whether this is of any use to you.
The easiest way (assuming you are runnign on dev) is to drop the existing database, recreate it and reload your backup. The exact details for this will depend on how you are interfacing with your mysql/mariadb server - either via a command line (using mysql, or potentially using phpmyadmin or similar) or you might have a different GUI based way. Check the relevant documentation for the tool you are using. This process should be the same as you might restore you live site from backup.
Some things to think about.
You probably shouldn't have any problems if you are reloading the same database but you might want to think about stripping out triggers and views due to them including a "definer" which can cause problems. Assuming you are using the command line the following perl will do this:
perl -pi -e 's#\/\*\!5001[7|3].*?`[^\*]*\*\/##g' /path/to/mysqldump.sql

For more about that perl and triggers check this question
You will probably want to identify how and why your upgrade failed.
Your civicrm_log table will show you which upgrades ran giving you an idea of where you got up to.
If you have the upgrade window open you can check the console - sometimes error messages will show there.
Then you could try your drupal watchdog log (if enabled).
Otherwise you want to dig into your Civicrm Log - This can usually be found under sites/default/files/civicrm/ConfigAndLog although this can be customised so if you don't see it there check your civicrm.files directory. (Admin -> System Settings-> Directories)
If you have a large database and are loading it via the command line you might want to use a utility like pv to track how far through the import you have gotten.
Otherwise you might want to run this upgrade in a staged process - get yourself up to the last upgrade that succeeded by downloading that version first - you can swap out the version in the download link - then run another backup so you won't have as far to upgrade the next time.
Comment: Thanks Luke for detailed answer. I will follow those steps.
Answer: There were two discussions about problems 5.29 upgrade recently. Maybe some information in those threads may also help you...
Update to 5.29.0 get frozen
Upgrade db failed for 5:29


Could someone help me debug my app (not very big)?

Question: Not sure if this kind of help is accepted to ask for here, tell me if it isn't.
It has to get done before tomorrow, it's not entirerly finished but it should work somewhat ok by now. I'm trying to use the Eclipse debugger (not very used to it).
OK, I had an old class called "Debugging" in another project folder, which was a debugging-test. I didn't give it that name, it was an assignment. It seemed to cause some problems, removed it and now my stacktrace is much smaller.
I tried debugging the Board constructor, added the original code from the constructor into a method and tried running that method in the constructor. Which doesn't make any difference, but still.
Now the stacktrace looks like this:
Thread [main] (Suspended)
Board(Object).<init>() line: 20
Board.<init>() line: 9
Game.<init>() line: 15
Game.main(String[]) line: 11

The board constructor:
public class Board {
private int COLUMNS = 8;
private int ROWS = 8;
private Square[][] grid;

public Board(){
    addGrid();
}

public void addGrid(){
    grid = new Square[COLUMNS][ROWS];
    for(int row = 0; row < 8; row++){
        for(int col = 0; col < 8; col++){
            grid[col][row] = new Square(this);
        }
    }
}

The square constructor:
public class Square {

    private Piece piece;
    private Board board;

    public Square(Board b){
        board = b;
    }

Among my breakpoints I noticed this:
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: caught and uncaught

Tried again and got something similar as before:
Thread [main] (Suspended)
ClassNotFoundException(Throwable).<init>(String, Throwable) line: 217
ClassNotFoundException(Exception).<init>(String, Throwable) line: not available
ClassNotFoundException.<init>(String) line: not available
URLClassLoader$1.run() line: not available
AccessController.doPrivileged(PrivilegedExceptionAction<T>, AccessControlContext) line: not available [native method]
Launcher$ExtClassLoader(URLClassLoader).findClass(String) line: not available
Launcher$ExtClassLoader.findClass(String) line: not available
Launcher$ExtClassLoader(ClassLoader).loadClass(String, boolean) line: not available
Launcher$AppClassLoader(ClassLoader).loadClass(String, boolean) line: not available
Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(String, boolean) line: not available
Launcher$AppClassLoader(ClassLoader).loadClass(String) line: not available
Board.addGrid() line: 14
Board.<init>() line: 10
Game.<init>() line: 15
Game.main(String[]) line: 11

Comment: Sure, I added first part of the Board class. I tried starting at a breakpoint, right at the first line of the Board constructor. It gives me pretty much the same exception.
Answer: For whatever reason, your Game class cannot see the Board class.  If the code sections you posted are correct, it looks like it's because they don't have package declarations at the top of the code.  You need to put something along the lines of this as the first line of your code:
package boardGame;

public class Board {

etc. at the start of each class.  Also, the package name must be the same as the name of the folder containing the source files.
Comment: Hey, sorry about it. Some class made it seem like a bigger deal then it is, edited my post. Do I still need to put things into a new package?
Comment: Well if you have the correct package declaration at the top it will work, that's all I was saying.  Another question: which line is line 20 in the stacktrace you posted?  And what exception or error does it give you when you run the program?


Import/Remove Subtiles to Video no reencoding

Question: I'm running windows.
And I have a mp4 video, and subtiles .srt. can I import/remove the subtitles into the video.
Without rencoding if possible
Does such a tool exist?
Answer: If you mean using "soft subtitles" (viewing video from two separate files but files not modified), I would use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema MPC-HC.
Both video and subtitle files need to be in the same directory, and have the same file names.
If you mean "hard subtitles" (permanent placement of subtitles in the video), I would use Avidemux.
Hard subtitles always require re-encoding. The resulting subbed video file can be played with any video player that supports the video codec.
With soft subtitles you can turn the subtitles off. The easiest way to turn them off is just to rename one of the files so the filenames aren't the same, or move one to another directory. Then the video won't pick them up
Comment: But I want to have the subtitles in the video but the option to turn the on and off. I can do this with handbrake but I have to reencode
Comment: Please check my edit.
Comment: So I think I can't do without reencoding, thanks for the answer, I would give your answer a vote but I can't yet


What are some uses of a signed crytocurrency message in a product or service or some other useful use of this feature?

Question: A signed message is a way to prove a user owns an address. But what are some useful products or services that have been built around this feature with signing a bitcoin / altcoin message with their private key?
Answer: This isn't necessarily a product or service, but Gigabyte distribution (Stellar Lumens distribution was done similarly) was done by distributing the currency to those who owned Bitcoin, based on the amount they owned. Ownership of a Bitcoin address was proven by either sending a micropayment, or signing a message using the address.


Riak "error":"insufficient_vnodes_available"

Question: We have 4 nodes Riak installation. They are running on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise installed servers.
We have installed 1.1.4 at August 1st 2012 and upgraded 1.2.0 when its available.
Server names are:
f1 - 10.10.0.12 - This is the first installed server. We have joined other ones to this server. This also serves Riak control.
s2 - 10.10.0.22 -
s3 - 10.10.0.23 -
s4 - 10.10.0.24 - This server also serves Riak control.
This morning we've seen "insufficient nodes available" error at our applications log and restarted all nodes. 3 of them became available except "f1"

UPDATE : while I prepare this message live 3 nodes became unavailable
  and need restart Riak.

wolfiem@f01:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/riak start
Riak failed to start within 15 seconds,
see the output of 'riak console' for more information.
If you want to wait longer, set the environment variable
WAIT_FOR_ERLANG to the number of seconds to wait.

I've tried to set WAIT_FOR_ERLANG value to 60 seconds but I can't.
adding this line in vm.args didn't work:
-env WAIT_FOR_ERLANG 60

I also tried to set this from terminal but it didn't work either.
wolfiem@f01:~$ export WAIT_FOR_ERLANG=60

It still says "Riak failed to start within 15 seconds"
This is the console.log output:
2012-09-11 10:58:02.532 [info] <0.7.0> Application lager started on node 'firstname.lastname@example.com'
2012-09-11 10:58:02.560 [warning] <0.148.0>@riak_core_ring_manager:reload_ring:231 No ring file available.
2012-09-11 10:58:02.585 [error] <0.164.0> CRASH REPORT Process <0.164.0> with 0 neighbours exited with reason: eaddrnotavail in gen_server:init_it/6 line 320

This is the error.log output
2012-09-11 10:58:02.585 [error] <0.164.0> CRASH REPORT Process <0.164.0> with 0 neighbours exited with reason: eaddrnotavail in gen_server:init_it/6 line 320

This is the crash.log output:
2012-09-11 10:58:02 =CRASH REPORT====
  crasher:
    initial call: mochiweb_socket_server:init/1
    pid: <0.164.0>
    registered_name: []
    exception exit: {eaddrnotavail,[{gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,320}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,227}]}]}
    ancestors: [riak_core_sup,<0.135.0>]
    messages: []
    links: [<0.136.0>]
    dictionary: []
    trap_exit: true
    status: running
    heap_size: 377
    stack_size: 24
    reductions: 403
  neighbours:

You can find the riak console output below:
wolfiem@f01:~$ riak console
Attempting to restart script through sudo -H -u riak
Exec: /usr/lib/riak/erts-5.9.1/bin/erlexec -boot /usr/lib/riak/releases/1.2.0/riak             -embedded -config /etc/riak/app.config             -pa /usr/lib/riak/basho-patches             -args_file /etc/riak/vm.args -- console
Root: /usr/lib/riak
Erlang R15B01 (erts-5.9.1) [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [async-threads:64] [kernel-poll:true]

=INFO REPORT==== 11-Sep-2012::10:44:18 ===
    alarm_handler: {set,{system_memory_high_watermark,[]}}
** /usr/lib/riak/lib/observer-1.1/ebin/etop_txt.beam hides /usr/lib/riak/lib/basho-patches/etop_txt.beam
** Found 1 name clashes in code paths
10:44:19.099 [info] Application lager started on node 'email@example.com'
10:44:19.130 [warning] No ring file available.
10:44:19.158 [error] CRASH REPORT Process <0.164.0> with 0 neighbours exited with reason: eaddrnotavail in gen_server:init_it/6 line 320
/usr/lib/riak/lib/os_mon-2.2.9/priv/bin/memsup: Erlang has closed.

=INFO REPORT==== 11-Sep-2012::10:44:19 ===
    alarm_handler: {clear,system_memory_high_watermark}
Erlang has closed
                 {"Kernel pid terminated",application_controller,"{application_start_failure,riak_core,{shutdown,{riak_core_app,start,[normal,[]]}}}"}

Crash dump was written to: /var/log/riak/erl_crash.dump
Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ({application_start_failure,riak_core,{shutdown,{riak_core_app,start,[normal,[]]}}})

Answer: Here:
http://smartcloud.blogspot.hu/2013/01/setting-riak-cluster-in-amazon-ec2-just.html
it says that the with 0 neighbours exited with reason error is due to an (at least partially) running riak instance, that sits on some port or other resource.
For me, it was an epmd instance that ran, i found it with ps ax |grep riak. After killing it, the problem went away.


Energy conservation on expanding universe

Question: Due to the expansion of the universe, the photons emitted by the stars suffer redshift, Its mean that the energy is lowered a little bit. Does this mean that the energy is lost? Does the expansion of the universe violate some conservation principles according to Noether's theorem?
Comment: In GR in a curved spacetime energy is not conserved. Recall that energy conservation is, by Noether's theorem, a consequence of time translation invariance of Minkowski space. Just look at inflation to see an example where naive energy conservation is badly violated.
Comment: Related: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/2838/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/175186/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/218121/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/366745/2451  and links therein.
Answer: Actually it is possible to speak of energy conservation in curved spacetime in the presence of a timelike Killing vector $K$, since the contraction of it with the stress energy tensor is a conserved current from Killing equation and symmetry of $T^{ab}$:
$$\nabla_a (K_bT^{ab}) =(\nabla_a K_b) T^{ab} + K_b \nabla_aT^{ab}= \frac{1}{2}(\nabla_a K_b) T^{ab} + \frac{1}{2}(\nabla_a K_b) T^{ba} +0$$
$$= \frac{1}{2}(\nabla_a K_b + \nabla_bK_a) T^{ab} = 0\:.$$
In case of an expanding universe there is no timelike Killing vector, but there is a conformal timelike Killing vector  $K = \partial_\tau$ where $\tau$ conformal time. Conformal Killing equation reads
$$\nabla_a K_b + \nabla_bK_a = \phi g_{ab}\:.$$
 It gives a conservation law for systems with traceless stress energy tensor: $g_{ab}T^{ab}=0$, like the EM field with a procedure very close to that exploited above.
The problem is that this sort of energy cannot be added to the standard one associated to massive fields, so a common conservation  law (EM field + matter) does not exist, though EM waves conserve their energy if referring to the conformal time $\tau$.
Comment: *The problem is that this sort of energy cannot be added to the standard one associated to massive fields* Huh? Not sure what you mean by this. IMO this answer misses the point, which is addressed in Lubos Motl's answer to the question that this one duplicates.
Answer: Let us take the simple case, we see the iron spectrum of a star shifted, and we can use energy conservation to assign a velocity to the star that would assure the Doppler shift of the spectrum.
The expansion of space was deduced because a redshift was measured that can only be interpreted as "every cluster of galaxies  is moving away from every other cluster of galaxies ". This led to an image of an "explosion", i.e. the original Big Bang model. In an explosion energy conservation comes considering the whole system, original energy transferred to parts.  The complication comes from General Relativity which does not have energy conservation as part of its structure. It is only in flat spaces where Lorenz transformations can be effectively applied , as in the case of a receding star and the spectrum of iron, that one can talk of conservation of energy.
So,imo, qualitatively energy in all its forms comes from the original Big Bang, but one cannot write down general  conservation of energy equations, they have to be compatible with general relativity.
Comment: Actually it is possible to speak of energy conservation in the presence of a timelike Killing vector, since the contraction of it with the stress energy tensor is a conserved current from Killing equation...In case of an expanding universe there is no timelike Killing vector, but there is a conformal timelike Killing vector. It gives a conservation law for systems with traceless stress energy tensor, like EM field.
Comment: @ValterMoretti  thanks for the correction . I  do not know enough to develop it in my answer. If you will not write an answer maybe I will copy it with your name in the answer above, for completion.
Comment: Ok, I will write my own answer.
Answer: while photons appear red-shifted for a remote observer who is receding away due to the expansion of the universe, they still retain the same wavelength and energy relative to the frame they originate from, thus no energy has been lost
Answer: Redshift happens when the wavelength of the photon is increased, or shifted to to the red end of the spectrum. Energy is never lost but transferred.
So the answer to your question is NO - No energy is lost.
Comment: "transferred" to where?
Comment: Sorry i meant transformed not transferred, as in "law of conservation of energy"


Do only sentient being suffer

Question: All I can think of off the top of mind head is the zen claim that mountains are buddha nature. Do they suffer? They are composed of parts, and I believe that there is a type of suffering from "conditioned existence", in Pali.
Comment: i have no opinion on anything anymore... there's too manny, and too much weeirdness
Comment: i mean i don't think i could have been born as a rock. but i think i could die unonscious. just thinking out loud
Comment: Suffering is a kind of meaning-making. If there's semiosis - there can be suffering. Semiosis is not limited to sentient beings or even to living beings, but it does require some kind of functional ecosystem, I think. So the current destructive processes in the Earth's ecosystem are a kind of suffering inasmuch as they interfere with natural semiosis, IMO.
Answer:
Is a mountain heavy?
It may be heavy in and of itself, but as long as we don't try to lift it up, it won't be heavy for us. ... The Weight of Mountains

My person thinks that householder goes after every, even foolish thought and does not scare to even let it become speech. The serial of questions found is amazing... Don't he like to train a little of letting go of useless thoughts, don't giving them attention, otherwise they are just further nourished, wasting time and resources: causing suffering even not aware.
Better reflecting on mountains in this way: The Simile of the Mountains, for it helps not to wast hard gained human existence.
[note that this isn't giving for entertaining, stacks, exchange and other world-binding trades but for escape from this wheel]
Answer:
I believe that there is a type of suffering from "conditioned existence", in Pali

Assuming you're thinking of a phrase like sabbe sankhara dukkha, I think that's usually translated as, something like, "all conditioned things are unsatisfactory".
That's not saying that mountains feel dissatisfaction themselves -- I think it's saying that sentient beings (i.e. who have "feelings" and who perceive "mountains" etc.) can't find things such as mountains to be a permanent source of satisfaction.
See also topics like:

Why is 'dukkha' included in one of the three marks of existence?
Differences between the tilakkhana and the Dhamma seal
Comment: i'm not saying mountains have feelings. i mean, feeling is a specific thing, it's noty the same as suffering
Answer:
Do only sentient being suffer?

Not all sentient beings suffer.Those who have attained Nirvana do not suffer at all. They are freed from suffering.

All I can think of off the top of mind head is the zen claim that
mountains are buddha nature. Do they suffer? They are composed of
parts, and I believe that there is a type of suffering from
"conditioned existence", in Pali.

I have not read anything Zen but Buddha Nature is free of suffering. You asked Do mountains suffer ? That is not the right way to look at it. Suppose anyone believes I am mountains then he is bound to suffer. Ordinary person may even believe I am Earth but such a belief can not end suffering because sabbe Dhamma Anatta i.e Earth is not me , mine or myself.(Same applies to Water , Air , Fire etc)
Comment: does the buddha nature exist apart from phenomena, though?
Comment: @satirical_buddhist  Buddha nature is the nature of nirvana. It is the nature of unborn, uncreate ,unbecoming, unoriginated, unformed. Phenomenon and thoughts are Anatta...

Do only sentient being suffer


Need to get to fields from the Related To Object on both Tasks and Events

Question: I understand the polymorphic field issue around tasks and activities (sort of).  I've been able to get around what I need using a custom report type so far, however, I now have a new requirement.  I need to display a field that is on the Account record that the activity is related to and/or a checkbox field that is on the opportunity object that the task or event is related to. How can I do this?  Thank you in advance for any help! I've not written a trigger but would be willing to try if I have guidance.
Comment: I'm not sure what you're after. Do you need to display these fields on a report or do you need to access them in code? Or are you thinking about formula fields to show it on Event's detail page? Or ... do you think that some workaround to store values in helper field on Task/Event will be needed and that's why you've tagged the question as trigger-related?
Comment: Thanks for your reply. The business case is that activities are logged against opptys and accounts. Some of these acccounts and opptys have been marked as "priority". So the report is an activity report that needs to also display the fields from the acct or oppty object that tell them it is one of their priority accts or opptys.
Answer: I'm afraid I still don't understand what exactly gives you trouble :/

I need to display a field that is on the Account record that the
  activity is related to and/or a checkbox field that is on the
  opportunity object that the task or event is related to.

Task and Event objects have these weird polymorphic fields WhoId/WhatId. But if you'll read the Task spec you'll realize there's a hidden field AccountId:

ID of the related Account.
  This is the account of WhatId if it exists, otherwise it's the account of WhoId if it exists, otherwise it's set to null.

So - even though the formula editor doesn't indicate it's possible - you can create custom field on activity of type formula and have there Account.Priority__c for example. And creation of such fields usually is easier than making a trigger to fill them in.
You can also access it in queries:
SELECT AccountId, Account.Name
FROM Task
WHERE WhatId = '0067000000AH3ME'

And last but not least - the standard "Activities with Opportunities" report type should out-of-the-box allow you to use Activity, Opportunity and Account fields in the report?
Have you tried making a report with filters "(Opportunity) Priority = true OR (Account) Priority = true"? The "OR" can be set by using the dropdown next to "Filter: Add" in the report builder, you need to select "Filter logic".
Answer: Use Describe results to determine what the RelatedTo ID type is...
i.e.
if(t.WhatID != null){
   if( ( (String)t.whatID).startsWith(Account.sObjectType.getDescribe().getKeyPrefix()){
        //This is an account, process here
   }else if( ( (String)t.whatID).startsWith(Opportunity.sObjectType.getDescribe().getKeyPrefix()){
         //This is an Opportunity process here
   }
}


Changing gamma values in video settings screen?

Question: So I am trying to change the gamma values and brightness in my game. I think it has something to do with IDirect3DDevice9::SetGammaRamp function but I am not exactly sure how to use it. Anyone has any input on this?
Comment: Welcome to Game Development! You should try to use that function first, try at least to understand how it works, then show us your attempt if you still cannot figure out how to solve your problem with it.
Answer: In this answer is this link, but it work only in fullscreen mode. ( use IDirect3DDevice9::SetGammaRamp() )
Another approach is using HDR, you can found examples in Directx SDK Samples Directory + look at this example and this.
Answer: The Win32 SetDeviceGammaRamp and GetDeviceGammaRamp calls are also options for you; they will work in windowed modes (but will affect the entire screen rather than just the game window) and are somewhat better documented than the D3D versions.
You can also use render to texture and just brighten the texture while drawing.


My dough won't rise the second time

Question: I am trying to make dill rolls and I am following the recipe but cut it in half. Instead of margarine I used butter and vegetable oil. Those were the only changes I made. I also used the kitchen aide dough mixer and mixed it for about 3-5 minutes. I let it rise and it doubled in size, but for the second rise my dough went flat. It never rises again. It also would not brown and did not taste good at all. What am I doing wrong? I'm at normal altitude. I have included the link for the website.
http://monasterykitchen.org/savory-dill-rolls/
Comment: You've come to the right place! Welcome to Seasoned Advice :) How confident are you in your yeast?
Answer: I can't say what you did wrong or if it was the yeast at fault as suggested as we can only go by your results. I'm not so sure the yeast would be faulty though since you said it doubled in the first rising.
They look like they 'sort of' rose but more sideways since they're melded against one another. Or did you put them touching each other to begin with? The baked buns in the link have a wide spaces between them so if you spaced them that way, the did rise but not properly.
If you left spaces between them and they spread out when rising but didn't hold their shape, how soft was your dough? Softer dough with higher hydration don't rise high and keep their shape as well as lower hydration doughs.
If that doesn't fit your dough, is it possible that the temperature used in your first rising was too warm? A couple of times when I was trying to hurry the process (even though I know better), I've subjected the dough to too much heat. It rose quickly and doubled in bulk but most of the yeast was killed. The second rising didn't go well with most of the yeast dead. Is it possible you did something similar?
Sorry to ask questions instead of giving a concrete answer but all we can do, from our end, is guess and hope something fits. Looking carefully at your photo, there are air pockets like bread should have but with a mix of small and big spaces like dough with high hydration has. The surface of the buns are uneven too. When you shaped the buns for the second rising, we're they rounded and smooth like the unbaked buns in the link?
Hopefully if you provide more information, others may see other possible reasons.
Answer: It is hard to say based on your minimal description. Please give a detailed step by step description of your process.
Kitchenaid mixers are great all around machines but they are not great at bread mixing. I always finish my dough's by hand on the counter to avoid long mixing times overheating the dough. 3 to 5 minutes in a kitchenaid is not enough to get proper gluten development in my experience. Once you have finished  kneading the dough on the counter you then need to place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl for the the "first rise", you want it rise but not to much as you can exhaust the yeast ( it appears to me that you have a dough that was not fully developed AND you let it go to far on your "first rise".)
You let it rise in the bowl close to but not until doubled, you want to be able to poke your finger into the dough and have it spring back some but not to much or to fast and if it seams to collapse and not spring then it has gone to far. You then fold the dough ( punch down ) and turn it and let it rise to the same point again.
Now you are ready to turn it out onto your bench (counter) and  weight it ( divide it) into the loaves or roll sizes you need, cover it and let relax for about ten minutes and then form into loaves. You let it rise until it is ready to bake, again you use the finger test as you do not want to let it go to far. This is a slightly different feel then your first rise. testing the dough's spring is an acquired skill and you will get a feel for it ( pun intended ) the more you bake. I was baking bread as i wrote this, here is a photo.
Comment: Why the down vote? If you are gona give down vote at least state your opinion as to why.  There is nothing wrong in my answer. Share your own answer if you feel you know better.

My dough won't rise the second time


Why can I still run "vim" in cmd and powershell without put the directory of vim in the list of environment variables on windows 10?

Question: I installed gvim 8.0 on Windows 10. And I find that there's no item about vim in the list of environment variables. Look at the pictures below. But I can still run "vim" and "gvim" in cmd and powershell without entering the Fully Qualified Name of vim or gvim. Why can I do this? How does Windows know where to find vim.exe and launch it?
Answer: I get the answer! When I installed gvim80.exe, it created several *.bat files(such as vim.bat, gvim.bat ...) in C:\Windows. Since C:\Windows is in the list of PATH, I can run vim without its FQN.


How to create a task flow after scenario?

Question: I am trying to create a user experience design for ATM users. These users are semi-literate. I have created a Design strategy, Persona and Scenario. My next step is to create a Task flow and then wireframes. How do I create a task flow which matches the user's mental model?
Comment: Empathize. Put yourself in the users shoes and try to come up with the steps. Tell us more about waht you've tried?
Answer: This is a very broad question, but I will help guide you to an answer by providing some articles.
The first, is from UX Pin here. It's a decent overview on how to create user flows.
Next, you need a tool to create these flows and wireframes. You can sketch with pen and paper, use illustrator, omnigraffle, keynote, sketch, etc to create these flows and wireframes. Whatever works best for you. The goal here is not to learn a new piece of software but to use the tool you're most comfortable with so you can move fast and make mistakes/revisions.
I use Sketch. So here is a good article on how to produce flows in Sketch. This is centered around web design, but you can imagine how this would work for an ATM. You may need to build your own wireframe template.
How this helps. Cheers.
Answer: Well, I let me begin this by correcting this part "you construct a task-flow from the persona(s) in which you have already created."
Mental-models are what thoughts people form around an idea or activity and these vary from person to person. These information "Mental-models" are incorporated into a persona.
To make this ease, you have already conducted a proper research, you learned about your target-audience you have analyzed the data that you gathered. You have interviewed your user to learn all about their motivation, behavioral, technology expertise, personality, etc. Then the use-scenario was created. You may or may not have created an information architecture based on the title, I would say it's a big project and there are so many information that you have gathered that needed to be structured. Before undertaking conceptual and perceptual (visual) designs of your application, you may need to prepare the information architecture.
How to create a task-flow from persona?

Which users/personas you will be designing your flows for
What user and business objectives need to be accomplished
Prepare Application Map: The application map provides an overall
snapshot of the structure and navigation of the app. It served as a
reference point while creating various task flows and wireframes
You start with the building blocks – e.g. where this logo goes or
where those content would be moved to. Start with few easy flow like
"Onboarding Task-Flow" example "user lands on the system -> welcome
screen displayed -> etc. Below is an example of task-flow :

Good Sites to provide you with more information:

Information Architecture
Stop Designing pages and start designing flows
Build it with the user in mind: how to design user-flow

Hope these information help you :). Thank you.


Fastest way to get enchanted books?

Question: I play minecraft, and have been wondering: what is the fastest way to get enchanted books?  I have been trying fishing, enchanting, and dungeon looting.
Answer: The absolute fastest way to get a lot of enchanted books is to set up an AFK Fish Farm and leave it running overnight.
Comment: The other benefit to this is that once you start enchanting things with Mending, the experience from fishing will very quickly repair everything you own for free.
Comment: Fishing is great for getting "some" enchanted books, but if you want them in a more controlled fashion and need a lot of them (for example to get a perfectly enchanted set of gear) I'd go for villagers. Create a villager breeder and let it run for some time and then start to examine the villagers you get from it, killing all the non-librarion villagers and then trading with them.
Comment: @RimaNari In just a few days of running the afk fishing machine overnight, and while I was at work, I had enough books to max enchant two full sets of diamond armor, axe, sword, shovel, pick, and bow, with three double chests full of spare enchanted books left over.
Comment: I didn't calculate with overnight-AFKing as I have a very special and strong opinion toward that. Though I wouldn't have expected as many books as you said
Answer: I do not know if there is any set documentation on the various times/efficiency for getting enchanted books, but let's take a look from gameplay experience.

Fishing

This is not likely to be the fastest way, as fishing is meant for, well, fish. According to this, a vanilla Fishing Rod only has a 5% chance of catching a treasure, and from that 5% chance, there is only a 0.8% chance that it will be an Enchanted Book. So, your odds aren't so great.

Dungeon Looting

Dungeon chests have a 15.1% chance of spawning an Enchanted Book. As the frequency of dungeons is already limited, again, this method is not so great.

Enchanting

This could be the best way, although other auto-fishing methods could work. By setting up a mob farm to generate XP, you can easily enchant multiple books at the highest possible level to do so. There are various YouTube videos and guides on setting up efficient mob farms, so that may be beneficial to check out.
Comment: AFK fish farm for the books, fish, and XP, trade the raw fish with villagers, then use the XP from fishing and trading to make more enchanted books. Also, with the emeralds you got from fish trading, you can buy more enchanted books from librarian villagers, then use that trading XP to make more books.
Answer: See 2021-05-20 edit at end.
As of 1.16 on Bedrock, AFK fishing is the fastest, cheapest and safest way to get enchanting books early and mid-game.  And you have a chance to get 'Mending' enchantment.  Latter on when you develop your world, a trading post with villagers may be better suited for you if you like big projects.
It does the best with an 'autoclicker' app of some sort so its not the 'purest' form of Minecraft.  Otherwise you need to click the 'fish' button yourself.  But with an automatic fish farm setup you do not need to click 'fish' to reel in your catch, it does it automatically.  You can fish while watching a movie!!
My thoughts and suggestions on the matter:
At the very start of your fish farm (or fishing in general), the treasure drops are very low with a plain fishing rod.  But before long you will catch some junk rods that have 'Lure', 'Luck of the Sea' or 'Mending' (or combinations of).  It's as simple as combining one with a fresh rod or a rod with 'Mending' and it will snow-ball after that.  After an hour of fishing with a fully enchanted fishing rod I usually get a lot of enchanted bows and rods, as well as about 3–5 enchanted books.
It's safe because you can enclose your fishing spot.  Only the block above the bobber needs to be open to the sky.  But make sure that it is a chimney style opening so that creepers do not wander in and spoil the fun (learned that the hard way).
Don't forget that you get XP from fishing as well as lots of raw fish.  If you have an automatic smoker attached, you will get lots of food (cooked salmon fills 3 food icons) and even more XP.  You may waste more fuel with a smoker because you can't fish fast enough to keep up.  Either put on a switch to allow smoking fish in batches or use an oven.
I am talking about a fish farm setup that has a water logged chest against a body of water and below that a lava/hopper cart collection system (Google 'minecraft 1.16 bedrock afk fish farm').  My previous world my base was in a 'plains' biome so I needed to make a 5x5x5 fish tank.  My current world I constructed it beside an ocean--with a nice big glass wall facing west so that I can see a beautiful sunset;).
...And I haven't even made an enchanting table yet!!!  And all my equip/armour are fully buffed (a few times over because I died several times where I couldn't reclaim my stuff--poo!).
Somehow my 5x5x5 fish tank yielded a much faster enchanted book rate than the open ocean farm.  I don't know why yet but in the fish tank I added several tropical fish types that I got from traders.  I suspect that the fish are always in proximity in the fish tank whereas in the open ocean the local density of fish fluctuate all the time.  However, in the fish farm tutorials/wiki, there is no mention of fish density affecting the rates.  I am thinking of enclosing a 5x5x5 or larger space with glass at my ocean fish farm and keeping some fish in the space.  I'll let you know if the rates improves.
Edit:  It does increase the catch speed.  I added a 5x5x5 glass enclosure around my fishing area and put in some puffer fish I got from the wandering trader.  I believe that having the fish in close proximity decreased the wait times.  I was casting 8 sec. per cast before and felt that I would miss some catches.  Now I have it down to 6 sec. per cast and feel like I wasn't missing many catches.  5sec. per cast was too low.  Now only after 1hr of AFK I was getting around 8–10 books.
2021-05-20 Edit:  Still works in 1.17 Beta.  Current click duration is 6sec/cast.
I really want to help people out on this topic but I don't have enough reputation (yet;) to make comments.  And it doesn't produce 1 per hour as RudolfJelin describes below (there must be something wrong with that farm or its a troll).  You will get over 5 books an hour.  I think the best setup is not to make your AFK fish farm in an open ocean or lake, but make an enclosed tank with fish.  I made mine an enclosed tank with glass in an ocean only so it looks pretty for me.  Try to search YouTube for "1.16 AUTOMATIC FISH FARM" and look for JC Playz' video.  He does it in creative mode but its not hard to make while in creative with very cheap materials.  I use up-turned trap doors to prevent me from stepping into the hole but you can experiment yourselves.
By the time I started to hunt for blaze, arguably 'early to mid-game', I had about 3 double chests of extra enchanting books and all my equipment maxed out.  The hardest part was to get enough XP to combine books and equipment on the anvil.  I was still only developing my XP kelp farm at the time.  And I threw out any books that had curses and any that only enchanted bows and fishing rods (bows and rods come already enchanted as loot).  By the time I faced the Wither, I had sorted out enough books to enchant my equipment 5 times over and still have over 4 double chests of unsorted books.  I know because I died many times with that wither;)  Now I am pretty sick and tired of sorting out enchanting books. :P
So by at least mid-game you will have enough enchanting books, with Mending, to last you the rest the game.  Only Soul Speed is not available by fishing.
I admit I am not a 'large project' type of player so villager farms are to big for me to undertake.  We are all different in play style, so I can only speak to those that need simple early game solutions.
If you are willing to make a village farm, then the only advantage for fish farm is that many books will come with multiple combinable enchantments that may reduce the number of 'anvil uses' that the specific equipment receives.  But at late game, anvil uses becomes irrelevant.  (I don't mean anvil durability but increasing XP costs per anvil use for a piece of equipment--what's the right term?)
Answer: As I found out, chests in the librarys of Strongholds will mostly provide Enchanted Books. However, you'll need Eyes of Ender to locate one. You'll need Blaze Powder (crafted from a blaze rod from Blazes in the Nether), and Ender Pearls (from killing Endermen). Another way is to go fishing. Enchant your fishing rod for most likely a change for some loot.
You can also enchant books too. Just craft a book using 3 pieces of paper and a piece of leather, then go to a nearby enchanting table and put the book in the slot (lapis is now required for enchanting items). Chose an enchantment, now that you won't have to take a guess and which enchantment to use now that you can hover over an enchantment and it'll say the effect.
Comment: There are only 0-256 stronghold libraries per world, so there is a very limited supply.
Answer: If you are in version 1.14 or higher, find a village or cure a zombie villager. Use a lectern to make it a librarian and trap it. Then check the trades. It should have an enchanted book. Break the lectern, wait for the villager to become unemployed, and place it until you get the right books and trade. Be careful; it won't work once the villager levels up.
Answer: I tested the AFK fishing method over a 25-hour period and got 15 enchanted books and a ton of levels.
So, what you want to do is take a lure 3 and unbreaking 3 fishing rod and go AFK farming. Check the screen here and there, and when the rod has low durability, repair it and use the XP you got to enchant some more books in an enchntmemt table.
Villagers could help you too. Sell some items you got when fishing (I think you can sell fish) and get some more enchanted books.
So AFK fish farming (possibly with some luck potions) is the fastest way to get enchanted books. You get 0.5-1 books per hour while AFK fishing, and from the XP you get you can enchant more books. You can trade the stuff you fish with villagers for more books. Altogether it's (based on my experiment) like 1.5 enchanted books per hour
Answer: I have played Minecraft for 9 years, and if I was to say what is the best way to get enchantment books, these are the tips I use.

Go to the desert and find a temple for a chance to get a enchantment book
Go fishing for a chance for a enchantment book
Looking for dungeons at a certain level under ground
Go and find a village and find a librarian
Spend a total amount of 50 hours of grinding and being very overpowered.
Comment: Please Avoid This Capitalization
Answer: For 1.14+, AFK fishing isn't the fastest, at least late-game. Making a automatic villager breeder and then breaking and replacing lecterns of librarians to get the desired book is effective, and infecting villagers then curing them can get you prices as low as one emerald for your book. You can get a whole double chest of full god enchanted tools and armor in just a few hours :)

Fastest way to get enchanted books?


View last successful mail check/sync

Question: Is it possible to view the last successful sync of my IMAP and Exchange accounts in the Mail app of an HTC Evo 3D?
I just switched from an iPhone 4 and there it said in the bottom of the mail app when that account was last synchronized.
For me it is quite important, because at work the signal is so weak that the sync often fails. When I am waiting for an important mail it is good to know when the mail accounts were last updated.
Answer: I do not think you can view a log of some kind in the ui, however you can always manually sync and the icons show if it was successful.
<code>Settings > Accounts & sync > Manage accounts > your account > OPTION BUTTON > Sync Now
</code>

this is in android gingerbread version

You will see the spinning icons appear then disappear when synced, then you know :)
I think I remember seeing widgets that sync your accounts in one click so it may be worth exploring the app markets.
Comment: Most ROM's also display the date and time of the last sync for each selection in this menu. Also a sync icon with an exclamation mark if there was an error.

View last successful mail check/sync


Is the M81 group bound to the Local group?

Question: Andromeda and the Milky Way are set to collide in 4bn years. Will the Local Group collide with M81, and what about further away groups? if so, when?
Comment: M81 is bound in a group of galaxies, so you should be asking is the M81 group bound to the Local group.  I had a quick look at the numbers and it is a close call.  Depends on exact mass-to-light ratios and complex interactions with other nearby groups.  But most likely, if they are bound, they would go into orbit about each other or merge to form a bigger group.
Comment: @eshaya while the period technically doesn't matter, I have to wonder if there's been time for a single orbit since the galaxies have formed?   I'd also ask whether dark energy makes orbits on that scale impossible.   I (think) the only options are merge, closer flyby or drift apart.   A galaxy or two of M81 group hitting our local group and most of it flying past also seems somewhat possible.   But accurate predictions?  I have no idea.
Comment: While this question is related but different, I found the answer well worth reading and with sufficient overlap:   http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/6288/when-will-the-milky-way-arrive-at-the-great-attractor-and-what-all-happen-the?rq=1
Comment: @userLTK There has not been enough time yet for M31 to do one orbit around the MW, so I doubt M81 group has.  And, typically, on these scales  galaxies fall together into groups and groups fall into groups to form bigger groups.  How else do galaxy groups and clusters form?  Mergers mostly happened at an earlier time and from objects more closely spaced.  The M31/MW merger that is going to happen is a strange fluke due to the unusually low angular momentum of the pair.
Answer: Interestingly enough, although we tend to group galaxy clusters together into superclusters, superclusters are actually not gravitationally bound. This suggests that, due to Hubble flow, galaxies in separate clusters will never "collide". In fact, it may be impossible to ever leave one's galaxy cluster.
EDIT:
In a previous version of this post, I stated the the Great Attractor may be reason to suspect a gravitational binding of Laniakea. In reality, the Great Attractor only reduces the expected relative velocities of these galaxies away from one another by between $200-400$ $\mathrm{km}\cdot\mathrm{s}^{-1}$—I would like to thank eshaya for pointing out my error here. Due to the current expansion rate of the universe of $67.6^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ $\mathrm{km}\cdot\mathrm{s}^{-1}\cdot\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, some galaxies in Laniakea have recession velocities of up to $30000$ $\mathrm{km}\cdot\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, as given by Tully et al. (2014)—far greater than could ever hope to be counteracted by the Great Attractor.
The question now becomes one of whether the M81 Group is gravitationally bound to the Local Group. Given the M81 Group's status as being one of the closest to the Local Group, at only $3.6$ $\mathrm{Mpc}$ distant, I would not be entirely surprised if through some chance it managed to be. Given the current estimate for Hubble's constant, due to Hubble flow the M81 Group would be expected to recede at $\sim243.4$ $\mathrm{km}\cdot\mathrm{s}^{-1}$. This is what would need to be countered through gravitational effects for the two groups to be bound, and thus eventually coalesce.
Comment: In fact, no super clusters are gravitationally bound. A cluster of galaxies is the largest gravitationally bound system (by definition). A super cluster is nothing more than a group of clusters physically near one another in space (relatively)
Comment: I don't know where you got the idea that Laniakea is bound.  It is certainly not.   The Great Attractor has reduced our flow away from it by 200 - 400 km/s, but we are expanding from it at ~3500 km/s, way more than escape velocity.
Comment: Information came from unreliable source attempting to refute the expansion of the Universe--I have resolved the inaccuracy.


Will I return at the same time I am departing on a round trip airline ticket?

Question: If I buy a roundtrip ticket and I depart at 6:15 am, when I return, will I depart at the same time?
Comment: You can always try to book one and see what it tells you. You can typically get pretty far into the booking process without any obligation and before you need to give any personal or financial details.
Comment: the good news is if you're using (say) expedia, you can **literally choose** (look on the left) your preferred arrival, etc times.
Answer: No.
Departure and and arrival times are typically completely different for outbound and return time, but are clearly spelled out when you book.
Depending on the route you often have multiple choice for each.
Answer: As noted in another answer, the times are unrelated, particularly if an airline has multiple daily flights between two cities or if the flights have multiple legs through a hub. Common examples can include:

Out one morning and back at night the same day
Out one morning and back at night on a later day
Out one morning and back another morning
"Red eye" - common in the US - east-to-west in the morning (arrive on the west coast early enough to make use of a large part of the day) and west-to-east late at night (arrive on the east coast early the next morning, so you can make use of the whole day...if you managed to sleep on the plane)

The timing is often based on productive time (whether for business or pleasure) being during the day and minimizing hotel stays. For example, if you go out on a Monday morning and come back late Tuesday night, you get two days at your destination with only one night in a hotel.
Comment: Don't forget that planes often return to base, so fly A to B - B to A twice or more times per day. In which case the start of a return flight is shortly after landing of an arrival, but never the same time.
Comment: @Willeke True. But I think OP was referring more to a parallel - e.g., flight 101 from A to B at 6:15am, flight 102 from B to A at 6:15am, passing in the air at the midpoint (well not really, jet stream blah blah blah, but in a sense)
Answer: It is possible to return on about the same time as you started, but almost never to the minute.
Many planes fly from an airport which they use as a base. So they fly from there and return to that airport. If your starting airport is not that base, you may find that your plane has come from the base and will return with you in it, and on your return flight you then will start on that base and return to the airport you left from, that flight may well arrive a short time before your departure time back when you started your journey.
With an 6:15 AM flight that is less likely than with later flights but with short flights and time difference between airports it is possible.
I used to fly Netherlands to UK regularly and both airlines I used to use had several flights going back and forth between the airports. Between those flights there was usually about 30 minutes, turn around time they call that, which they used to get the people off the plane, do some cleaning, get new food and such in and off course, to get the luggage out and new luggage in.
With that kind of serial connections you can easily find a few each day where the arrival time on the return flight is almost the same as the departure time on the outgoing. But you are often free to select an other flight, if there are more flights on the day.
On the other hand, if there is only one set of flights, you may not have much choice and your return flight may arrive when you would have been waiting for boarding already. Not the same time but not far off.
Answer: Unlikely.
Of course, it depends on how far you're flying & how many simultaneous planes they have on that route, but for a short-haul...
You will either return after the arrival of the flight you departed on, so maybe an hour later than that - i.e. they need turnaround time to send it back out; or on a completely unrelated flight using a different plane, that will be part of a different turnaround, at a different time of day.
The only way you could return at the same time as your original departure would be if they run so many flights to that destination that there are two or more in the air simultaneously.
There may be a 6:15 return, but only if the airline ends their day with a plane at both ends. 6:15, depending on airport & local regulations, is likely to be the first flight that day for that aircraft - so if the carrier's normal policy is to get all craft 'home' at night then your first return flight will be after their craft gets to you from its home base.


Configure emacs to cut and copy text to Mac OS X clipboard

Question: Can I configure emacs, so that I could copy/cut text from emacs (default Terminal version) and paste it somewhere else (into X Window program)?
Comment: Nitpick: you say "default Terminal version", but the *default* mode of functioning for Emacs is to use the GUI rather than the text terminal.  Maybe you're referring to the ancient `/usr/bin/emacs` executable that's bundled by Apple with OSX and which is arbitrarily limited to the text terminal?
Answer: Add this to ~/.emacs:
(defun pbcopy ()
  (interactive)
  (call-process-region (point) (mark) "pbcopy")
  (setq deactivate-mark t))

(defun pbpaste ()
  (interactive)
  (call-process-region (point) (if mark-active (mark) (point)) "pbpaste" t t))

(defun pbcut ()
  (interactive)
  (pbcopy)
  (delete-region (region-beginning) (region-end)))

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c c") 'pbcopy)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c v") 'pbpaste)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c x") 'pbcut)

If you use Emacs in iTerm 2, you can also remap key combinations in the preferences:

Then add something like this to ~/.emacs:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f13> c") 'pbcopy)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f13> v") 'pbpaste)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f13> x") 'pbcut)

Comment: Still the best answer. Thanks! Note for iterm, to create these "Actions" choose "Send escape code," and you omit the leading "^[." (didn't work with "Send text" action type)
Answer: To copy the current region to the OS X clipboard, you can use
(shell-command-on-region (region-beginning) (region-end) "pbcopy")

The inverse, copying the OS X paste buffer to the Emacs kill ring, is not recommended. Kill rings and clipboards are very different structures and there's no good answer to what, exactly, pushing a clipboard into a kill ring should do. Still, you can run pbpaste manually to get the current clipboard contents.
Comment: This didn't work for me. The marked solution in this [Emacs post](http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/10900/copy-text-from-emacs-to-os-x-clipboard) does work however.
Answer: Here's a solution to integrate OS X Clipboard to Emacs' kill-ring by Daniel Nelson: https://github.com/wesen/emacs/blob/master/pbcopy.el
Author's comments:

Enables the kill-ring to interact with the clipboard when running Emacs from a Mac OSX terminal (without losing full kill-ring functionality). All I did was modify xclip.el to work with pbcopy and pbpaste. The real thanks go to Leo Shidai Liu, the author of xclip.el.
Answer: The following just works, got it from here :)
(defun copy-from-osx ()
  (shell-command-to-string "pbpaste"))

(defun paste-to-osx (text &optional push)
  (let ((process-connection-type nil))
    (let ((proc (start-process "pbcopy" "*Messages*" "pbcopy")))
      (process-send-string proc text)
      (process-send-eof proc))))

(setq interprogram-cut-function 'paste-to-osx)
(setq interprogram-paste-function 'copy-from-osx))

Comment: Could you add a link to the original post?
Answer: The version of emacs that is included with OS X is too old to provide this functionality.
Fortunately you can update emacs to a version that is integrated with your clipboard here: http://emacsformacosx.com
I believe that you use Ctrl+Y to paste in emacs, after the update.
Comment: `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` still exist and are not hacks.
Comment: Ah - I forgot to say - the version of emacs that you'll download from that site is graphical (i.e. it doesn't run in the Terminal). It's impossible for applications in the Terminal to access the clipboard without a hack, which I can't find anymore. :/
Comment: That is possible, however I assumed that the OP wants to use keyboard commands to copy and paste. What I meant to say was that Terminal applications can't use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste along with the OS X clipboard without hacks.
Comment: "Terminal applications can't use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste along with the OS X clipboard without hacks." This is obviously not true, since `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` are both terminal applications; any other terminal app could do what they do, or simply call them directly.
Comment: What I was looking for is hooking `pbcopy` to Emacs cut & copy. Is it possible?
Answer: I found this post really useful (defining 2 functions and assigning shortcuts to them in your ~/.emacs file).
After adding those lines to your .emacs file, you won't have access to those shortcuts until you open a new shell session (tab/window). Let the changes be applied.
Answer: You can get such interaction with the clipboard transparently while running Emacs in the text terminal by enabling the xclip-mode provided by the xclip package which you can install from GNU ELPA (i.e. via M-x package-list-packages RET).
See also https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/10900/ for a similar question&answers.