Fingers pain on my first day playing guitar

Question: My first day playing guitar ,it makes my fingers hurt so much
What should I do ?
It makes me feel like I'm not going to learn it anymore.
Comment: Hi - what kind of pain are you explaining, and what kind of guitar are you playing?
Answer: You're not the first, and won't be the last! Just about anything you do physically will produce some discomfort or pain as you're using body bits that aren't used to it.
Here, it's probably fingertips, and maybe the muscles in those fingers - particularly fretting hand (usually left).
For a start, you don't know how hard to press down, so it's likely you're pressing too hard. Next, you need to press as close to the fretwire as you can.
Of course, the guitar is also likely to blame. Beginner guitars aren't often set up well, with high action, meaning the strings are too far from the fingerboard, so the have to be pressed harder than they should. Depending on what sort of guitar will throw up all sorts of other problems/solutions - electric, acoustic, cambered boards, neck profiles, gauge and material of strings - the list goes on.
If it's a new guitar, a trip to the shop may alleviate some problems, which are difficult to remedy remotely as here.
Answer: this is entirely normal.

Your skin is a bit soft and will soon form slight callouses
Every string musician gets calloused fingertips.
You're probably pressing a bit too hard as all beginners do. Use only the very lightest pressure on the stings - almost none is needed.

What to do ?

Don't give up.
Use some moisturiser on your fingers tips after you finish playing.
I recommend Aveeno from amazon.
Comment: 2. Not every string player gets calloused fingertips! I haven't had them for 60 yrs! Play every day, had them on my first badly set up guitar. Most of my students don't have them either. 3. Very lightest pressure usually equals buzz.
Comment: lightest pressure means "...and still get a clear note" - you raise an interesting point though - the OP may have a badly set up instrument
Answer: First and foremost:  If possible, find yourself a good guitar teacher to learn proper technique and get established in a good, healthy routine. A teacher will also take a look at your instrument to make sure it is set up and adjusted properly. Problems with your instrument can cause unnecessary strain and pain, as @Tim has mentioned in his answer.
@Tim and several others on the site are experienced guitar teachers - listen to them.

Having said that:
Soreness and blistering on your fingertips from pressing the strings until you develop callouses is quite normal. See How to minimize the pain for a beginning guitar student so they won't give up before they develop callouses? for good information about dealing with your problem.
In general, pain in your hands, fingers, wrists and arm  are entirely normal and natural for anyone just starting guitar or bass. Playing these instruments (and most instruments) requires you to use various muscles, nerves and tendons in ways that are not required in ordinary activities.
Until you gain the new conditioning required, through regular disciplined  practice, you will invariably experience some pain, just as you would if you took up a new sport or exercise routine.
Still, although some pain is natural and inevitable, poor technique and an incorrect approach to playing your instrument can cause pain which is avoidable.

You have not gone into much detail about what sort of pain you are experiencing so it's hard to give specific advice, but some general good practices:

If using a teacher is not possible, learn about proper hand, wrist
and arm positions for playing from books and Internet resources. Bad
technique can cause you more pain and you can injure yourself. Do a
simple google search and a look at
What are the disadvantages of not warming up?
to get started.
Don't press too hard on the strings. Beginners tend to push down hard it's not necessary, causes unecessary soreness and more your playing for less efficient: Pushing down on the strings hard expends
time and energy better used for other things.
Don't try playing for too long at a stretch when you're first
starting out. Keep it to half an hour at a time, then take a good break of a few hours at least, before playing more.
You need to move gradually in terms of what you try to play. Don't
jump right away to difficult chord shapes and stretches - work your
way up slowly from the simple, easy to do shapes and positions until
you become more conditioned, then move on to more difficult
techniques, slowing building up your strength and stamina.
Learn about warm-up exercises, stretching techniques and ways of
"cooling down" after playing - these things will help minimize pain.
See this question and the answers there to get started on that road:
What are the disadvantages of not warming up?

Most importantly, always keep in mind No pain, no gain. If you are experiencing pain, that's a good sign: It means you're working - you're on the right track. View the pain you're experiencing as an initiation rite into that most august body, the International Fellowship of Musicians:
Welcome to the club, and good luck!
Comment: Nearly mentioned callouses in my answer, but I don't believe in them! Only time I ever had them was when I first started, with a rubbish guitar. I play several times a week, as ever, and ***don't*** have callouses. Do you?? And warm up *exercises*? Why not play stuff that needs playing, gently? An exercise won't be as useful, I feel. A bit of playing DA here!
Comment: @Tim - I play every day for at least 2 hours -  that pace for about 5 years now - before that, erratic. I have callouses but they are not particularly hard except for my index & middle fingers on my right hand from banging hard on the bass. The rest of my fingers have a layer of thick skin but it's not hard. (Not sure if bass is the same as guitar.) If I stop playing  for a couple of weeks that skin begins to soften and when I go back to playing, I  get some pain and blisters. When I had some hand and wrist problems stretching exercises helped but I discovered the source was in my technique...
Comment: @Tim - I'm talking about stretches/exercise before playing, like athletes do - check out that question about warming up. I always stretch my arms and fingers, etc before I play - I can play for a long time - hours - without pain or discomfort. I don't know if it's from stretching or not... probably not! (And yes - I believe in callouses, as mentioned.)
Comment: Reason I asked is I'll play for two or three hours without a break at gigs, but don't do warm ups - never have! Just play more gently for the first few numbers... If I developed callouses, it'd be almost certain I'd pack up!
Comment: When you play every day, you're always close to being warmed up. But I think you do have callouses. Not hard ones, but a layer of tough skin that goes down for about 1/16 inch - how mine are.
Comment: No, the tips of all fingers on both hands are lovely and soft ! I play bass with r.h. fingers, guitar with pick and/or fingers, and nothing there either. Maybe the actions on all my instruments is just right -- use .008" on my guitars making things easier.
Comment: @Tim - it could also be that your technique is very refined from so many years of playing. I know that I used to have much thicker callouses than I do now because my technique has improved - I don't have to hit as hard to get the sound I want, especially LH.


What kind of seeds are these?

Question: Somebody has picked some seeds growing on a 'tropical' looking tree in the south of England (Crawley) and given them to me. Does anybody know what they could be? This clump is about 3 cm long.
Comment: A photo of the tree it came from would be very helpful, but if not, a verbal description of its characteristics - the photo here is somewhat out of focus anyway, so a clearer shot would be good.
Comment: I've added a photo which hopefully is a little clearer. I will get my sister to take a photo of the tree and add it but not sure when that will be. The only description I have been told is that the tree was about 6 ft high and looked like a palm although they really can't be certain unfortunatly. Meanwhile how should I store them? Or should I just try to plant them straight away? Thank you
Comment: Yep much clearer but I still can't be sure what it is. If you think its a palm, some instructions here https://www.thespruce.com/sprout-palm-trees-from-seed-1902932 but 'palm' covers an awful lot of plants. In overall shape, it reminds me of Rhus typhina pods or possibly magnolia, but neither of those resembles a palm.
Comment: I think I've worked it out now but thank you anyway. My sister sent a photo which looked like a Windmill palm. I have a feeling these are not seeds but but the flower of one. Hopefully by August the tree will have fruit which is where the seeds will be
Comment: Windmill palm is Trachycarpus, and I checked what seedpods look like on that - seed pods form from the flowers, so just check whether there are any seeds in what you've got there - you'll need to remove the exterior of each to see.
Comment: You know, I think each individual nub is a seed - but many of them are immature, they should be dark grey, almost black, see here, scroll down to Trachycarpus http://www.flickriver.com/photos/xenoflor/sets/72157622247668789/
Comment: Rachel, if you end up learning what it is, it would be great if you posted it as an answer. That way when the question comes up, it will also have an accurate answer for all of us to see!
Answer: These turned out not to be seeds after all but part of the dead flower of a Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). Windmill Palms produce panicles of flowers in the spring and if they are pollinated will produce berries around August (with the seeds inside).
Comment: Hi Rach! I'm glad you found out what you have! Thanks for adding it as an answer. It will help others much more than just comments, or if you had just put it as an edit in your question. I didn't notice this until November, so I hope you got some flowers from them during the summer! If they did flower and you have a chance to add a picture of the flower here, that would be great!

What kind of seeds are these?


Hanging Drywall Against Finished Ceiling

Question: I removed the drywall on my walls as part of a bathroom renovation project and now I am at the stage where I put up new drywall on the walls. I did not remove the ceiling drywall so I am going to butt the new drywall on the walls up to the finished ceiling from before. Can I simply tape these joints against the ceiling without removing the previous tape and finish or should I scrape the portion of the ceiling that the new tape will be applied before I put on the new tape?
Answer: No need to completely scrape down but you will need to at least rough up the existing ceiling out to the distance of your final mud coat, to facilitate good adhesion of the new joint compound (assuming existing is painted plaster/drywall, if other then please state so).
Comment: By roughing up do you mean strip it down or do you mean just rough it up with some coarse sand paper or something similar?
Comment: Sandpaper or similar


Merge [tagging] to [tags]

Question: We have both tags and tagging here on Meta. Seems redundant. Can the smaller tag be synonymised?
Answer: tags refers to questions about the tag itself, whereas the one question (other than this one) labelled tagging talks about proper tagging itself. While the tagging tag is definitely uncommon, I don't think they're redundant to each other.

Merge [tagging] to [tags]


Specific Questions about Member Groups in ExpressoStore

Question: We have two products, and want people added to one member group or the other when purchasing.  If they purchase both products we want them added to a third member group.  Will this be possible with Store?
Answer: Sure - you would write an extension that uses the store_order_complete_end hook. You'd then loop through the items in the order and perform your logic as to what member group the customer should get added to in the end.
Comment: Derek and Justin are correct, this isn't built in. In general Store isn't designed for selling memberships to your site, although it is fairly easy to implement in a custom extension.
Comment: Wait.  So you're saying in order to do this I'd need to actually develop a separate extension?  That seems odd. Charge, which is a much less robust e-commerce system (hence why I'm looking into ExpressoStore) has a control panel action and tag that does this fairly automatically.  I am not a PHP coder.
Comment: As far as I know there is no non-programmatic way to add a member to a specific member group based on which product has been purchased in Store - though you may want to email them to be sure of this.
Comment: Thanks, Derek!  I have an email send to them asking about it.
Answer: Store:
As Derek mentioned you would need to create an extension to handle the logic of adding the user to a specific member group based upon their purchased items. Store does allow you to add a member to the default member group (per your membership settings) if they register a new account while they are completing checkout.

Registering Members
Member accounts will be created based on the order_email, and the
  email address must not already be used for a member account. After
  creating the member account, any existing orders tied to that email
  address will be assigned to the new member.
Docs Link

Charge:
From Docs about allowing member registration:

MEMBER FIELDS
If the create_member = 'yes' option is passed to the form, Charge can
  create a new member account during payment. The created member will
  only be created if the user isn't currently logged in. When created
  the member will be added to the default site member group and
  immediately logged in. This can be especially useful if you want to
  create + add a user to a subscription, as the member account will be
  created first, then immediately added to any subscription as defined
  in the Charge action settings

As for Charge it does allow you to specify a member group that successful subscriptions members are moved to when they have an active subscription and the member group that they are moved to for a failed subscription or when the subscription expires. Having said that, the last time I looked you would still need to write an extension to handle setting the base member group and then having an alternative member group based upon 2 items in the cart or if the user has purchased one item already then comes back a week later and buys an item that should have them in the other member group.
From the docs on specifying success member group:

Success Member Group The member group the user will be moved to after a successful purchase.
  Failure Member Group The member group the user will be moved to (if) their recurring payment fails. A failure can be caused by their
  payment being declined, their subscription ending (ie. if an Admin
  stops their plan from the Stripe dashboard), or other reasons.

If your site only had two items you could probably bypass the need for an extension by adding some additional template logic (I haven't tested and you might run into some parse order issues) and passing specific actions based upon the contents of the cart.
General Thoughts
Having the ability to assign a member to a member group based upon a subscription purchase is fairly common (Charge, Membrr, and CartThrob Subscriptions all offer the functionality) but in all of those add-ons you (or you can pay someone) have to write an extension to handle the logic of determining which member group to assign someone based upon products they purchased and possibly their past purchases.


Am I required to pay UK/ USA Visa fees if I have a German residence permit?

Question: Here is the situation. I am non-european but staying in Germany with a Residence permit. I can visit all Schengen listed countries with no issue. Assuming that I would want to travel to a non-Schengen country e.g. UK or USA, can I use my residence permit to travel there or am I required to apply as a citizen of my country? Assuming Germans are not required to pay Visa fees to that country, will I have to pay since I only have a residence permit? Third case, Europeans can fly directly to the airport of some countries and apply for a visa from there. In some other countries, you are required to book a Visa appointment at the embassy, which may be granted or not. Does that apply for one with a residence permit?
Comment: Countries that will honour a residence permit in lieu of a visa are sovereign states and not governed by a single rule, so your question can only be resolved on a country-by-country basis.  Overall based upon what  you wrote, applying for a visa-on-arrival depends upon the person's passport and not the presence or absence of a residence permit.  Good question at the root, but too broad in its current state. Close voting until your question is narrowed down to specifics.
Comment: I don't exactly get how the question is general when examples are stated. I guess a general answer would however also suffice, the goal was to know the benefits of a residence permit and if it comes into play in a situation where the citizens do not have to pay Visa to travel to a specific country.  I however changed the title, I hope that makes it a little bit more clear.
Comment: I can think of *several* cases where a person with a German residence permit would not need a visa to a locale outside of Schengen, or alternatively get a visa-on-arrival; but my comment is merely an advisory that your question could attract higher quality answers than those given so far if it focused on specifics.
Answer: A residence permit does not make you a citizen, and other countries visa requirements are almost universally based on the citizenship of the traveler. So you need to apply for the same visas that everyone else with your nationality do -- except for very few and unsystematic exceptions.
The Schengen rule that a residence permit from one member implicitly works like a short-stay visa for the others is one of these specific exceptions. Another exception is that having a residence permit from an EU country can under some conditions qualify you for visa-less transit through the UK even if your nationality is one that would otherwise need it.
But unless you know that a specific exception of that kind applies to you, the safe bet in general will be that there isn't one.
Answer: You asked a general question, and the very general answer is that you have to apply as a citizen of your nation, but you will mention the residency in Germany.
The German residence permit may help to get the visa, but you still need one.
There is a short list of countries that will allow entry to people with a Schengen visa without being part of the Schengen system, e.g. Macedonia.


Air vehicles for birds

Question: I want to make a race of sapient birds,they are starting their own industrial revolution. Is it possible for them to develop air vehicles even though they can fly without them??
Comment: Crippled birds.
Answer: Human can walk and run, and actually are probably the most optimized endurance runners among land animals. Despite that they have invented and used land transport from the very beginning of their technological development: beasts of burdens, carts, chariots, wheelbarrows and later on autos, trains and bikes, because they needed to transport more and/or further with less effort.
Same consideration will hold for your avian people. Keep in mind that a bird cannot carry much more load than its own weight, so I would say it's even a more urging matter for them to develop transportation, air transportation included.
Comment: And have you considered how much calories a long flight takes (birds that migrate have to eat much of the summer and winter to have enough reserves for the long flight.)
Comment: And most birds cannot hover. Those that can hover can do almost nothing else but feed since they will starve to death their metabolisms are so high. Quick takeoffs sure, but those are exhausting.
Answer: Birds not only fly, they also walk and hop and climb trees.
Thus, you could start with land vehicles and roads. Additionally, sapient birds could also have domestic animals, so you could start with donkeys... which would be preceded by domesticated dogs and goats or their equivalents. Domesticated birds could be expected too, chicken for food and pigeons for airmail, so why not larger birds for travel?
Our industrial revolution followed long period of nomadic and settled life, and most importantly agricultural revolution (you'd have to invent what that means for birds) with its wind- and watermills, social organisation, large population, currency, printing press, banking, science, colonialism, legal system, plague, art, navigation, timekeeping... Whatever you invent, it ought to be be built on top of this.
Perhaps you could start with hot air balloons, which are based on sky lanterns (ancient) and were almost ripe for manned flight at the start of our industrial revolution. Birds could use those to rest, eat, drink, spend leisure time, as well as travel and move produce around. Kites could be used as cheaper, stationary equivalent.

Air vehicles for birds


How to prioritize projects

Question: I'm just starting out with writing fiction seriously. I feel like this might be my "thing." Strangely enough, at the moment I find myself with a number of ideas, most in very early stages of development. As in notes, bare-bones plot outlines, rough character concepts, etc. A part of me is tempted to have them all active simultaneously, so that on any given day, depending on my mood and mindset, I have stuff to work on. Granted, with this approach I might not finish anything for centuries. Alternately, perhaps there's some method of prioritizing them, finishing them in an order of some sort. This way I might complete a project quickly, but in the meantime the other ideas might have floundered in my mind.
I could really use some guidance on this. Thanks.
Answer: What I would do in your situation is this:

Write them all in parallel for a fixed time, say a month, month and a half.
When that time is up, see which ones you're most excited about, and put the rest on hold. Write and develop your select few for another set time.
Repeat till you know which ONE is your focus for now, and go at that one 100%, until its done.

That way you get to explore all your stories and discover which one pulls you most right now, and then focus on that ONE story until its complete.
Why one? Because the only way to really do your best, is to focus. But for someone bursting with new-found creative energy, the only way to focus is to know that this is simply the one you're writing now, and that it doesn't mean that you won't get to the other ones later.
Answer: Maybe the solution would be to schedule time for writing your main project, and for a couple of those sessions to allow yourself to be diverted onto other projects.
Mostly though it is understanding what your best method of working is, this will probably take some trial and error, you might find that distracting yourself on multiple projects helps you stay objective about the story lines. Or you might realise that you simply can't juggle the multiple plots all at once.
Decide which one is your priority, and experiment with different ways of approaching it until you find the most productive
Answer: Different take: Personally I've always had grand 'ideas' floating around in my head for stories (and still do), but could never muster the motivation to see them to the end. I have begun writing my first novel but it turned out that a different strategy altogether seemed to work. One day and idea popped into my head and before trying to plan it all out I just started writing. Since then it has changed a lot, and I have found opportunities to incorporate my other ideas as I have progressed. Maybe instead of worrying about how to fit your ideas together, you can just start writing and see which ideas fall into the work naturally?

How to prioritize projects


Need material I can step on to remove dog hair from shoes (electrostatic?)

Question: Want material I can step on that will remove dog hair via static electricity or mild stickiness.
Comment: Hi Erik, Welcome to Lifehacks.StackExchange. A search using "cleaner," "step-on," and "shoe" produced hundreds of sources for your request. Please visit the Help Center (the ? icon in the upper-right corner of the menu bar) to find out what kinds of questions are on-topic here. https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask
Comment: Rub a balloon? That might work, or use regular scotch tape
Comment: Have you tried *welcome mats*? They are bristly mats often placed just outside the front door for people to clean the soles of their shoes. They don't rely on static electricity or stickiness, so aren't a good fit for your question. But they are pretty cheap and readily available.
Answer: How to make a shoe depilatory (hair remover).
Wrap adhesive tape around your hand a few times, sticky-side out.  You can use masking tape, rug tape, duct tape, gaffer's tape, Gorilla tape, packing tape, etc.
Make 4 of these wads of tape.
Put a couple of these wads of tape beside each other on the floor in-line for one shoe. Put another couple a few inches away parallel to the first two for the other shoe.
Step on them to transfer the unwanted hair from the bottom of your shoes to the tape. This should work one or two times. Flip the flat wads over and you're good for a couple of more depilatory applications before you discard them.
Tread and repeat as necessary.
Disclaimer. This is a hack for temporary mis-use. Clean rooms, and surgical areas cover your shoes before entry. You might try using disposable shoe booties, too. Stick pads are also provided also use stick mats for removing dust and dirt but to be successful the mats are long length and are followed by a shallow flowing water wash. Also be warned that to be effective, stick mats are to be used repeatedly. Research has shown that some particles remain after seven attempts at removal.
Comment: @BrettFromLA Fixed.
Comment: Stan since English is a funky language, I had to read your 2nd paragraph twice. That first word ("wind") also describes a breeze, as in the song "All the colors of the wind". I didn't know what "wind masking" was.  It sounded like a device for wind-powered turbines. That's why I edited this! I gave it an upvote too.


Is this site a forum? And if it is Can anyone tell me its Sponsor or sponsors?

Question: Is this site a forum and if it is can anyone tell me this sites sponsors?
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because of lack of research.
Comment: I don't think 'forum' and 'having sponsors' are connected concepts. Or rather, I would think a communication space that is sponsored would be less likely to be an open forum.
Comment: It would help to know why you want to know—for example, are you quoting a post, and trying to decide how to format the citation? Or were you hoping to talk to someone in charge about a complaint or request? Something else? Being more specific will help us give you a more specifically useful answer.
Answer: The question of how this site makes money was already answered here by me. In summary: English Language and Usage doesn't make money but it is instead supported by the sites elsewhere in the network that have ads, plus some things that are Stack Overflow specific.

Whether or not this site counts as a forum depends on how you look at it. The original idea for Stack Overflow (which is the oldest site in the Stack Exchange network of sites and shares the same format as this site) was that it is a hybrid of several things:

The big difference I see between this site and a forum is moderation. Questions must be on-topic and answers need to answer the question. There are even rules for comments. Users who gain enough reputation earn privileges which (among other things) enable them to moderate the site by doing things such as upvoting, downvoting, flagging, voting to (un)delete, voting to close/reopen, etc. There are also some moderators elected by the community (usually referred to as "diamond moderators" because they have a diamond next to their name) that have powers above and beyond what regular users get.
For example, just look at this question. Questions about the site don't belong on the main site, so a diamond moderator moved your question to the meta site.
If you have any questions about what I said, feel free to ask in the comments below this answer. Also, you may want to check out the tour, which explains the basics of how the site works.
Comment: Also, there's a bit more about the term forum often seen on SE. That is, people often state strongly, often in response to a positive claim, that SE is __not__ a forum, but rather a Q&A site. That is (that is), SE and its UI mechanisms are not considered a good medium for holding discussions .
Comment: You should point out the Q&A aspect more prominently, and that the goal is to provide a comprehensive FAQ.


Toilet Plumbing

Question: During toilet re-fill,  my bowl fills faster than the tank and sometimes the bowl overflows because I have a slow-draining sewer (partially clogged septic field lines).  The toilet keeps running and the float valve doesn't reach shut-off level.  The re-fill line is plumbed 100% into the overfill tube.  Should I divert some of the re-fill flow directly into the tank?  Septic field lines are pricey and I'm trying to limp along.  Thanks!!!
Comment: Fix the problem, not the symptom: get your septic lines cleaned out!
Comment: If your saying all the fill water goes into the overfill the yes,  the overflow lines should get a trickle, but not all the water... This is helping over flow the bowl because that's where the overfill tube empties.
Answer:
Are you sure that 100% of the fill water goes to the overfill tube? Look closely, most fill valves fill the tank through ports at the base of the fill valve which are not readily apparent to casual observation.
If your toilet keeps running and the "float valve doesn't reach shut-off level" don't blame the float valve (aka ballcock valve), it's doing what it is supposed to do. You should be looking at the flush valve.
Anyhoo, you need to find and fix the root cause and I suspect something other than your septic lines. A properly functioning toilet cannot overflow because the fill valve directs too much water into the bowl, it is simple physics. I suspect something else, such as a partially plugged toilet trap. It could be the septic lines, but the whole house would be backed up and you did not say that was the case.
Answer: If there is a float on the chain, raise it or remove it.
You could detach the fill tube and let it just discharge into the holding tank. But:
Be aware that if that line sits below the water level, you're likely violating code (there must be an air gap between the fill level and this tube, so that it can never let standing water siphon back into the water supply; like kitchen faucets).
Try one of these at a time and see where it gets you.

Another option is adding a tube clamp, to retard the flow of the fill tube. Good toilet repair kits come with one already attached. You need one large enough that it will still allow some water to pass through it when it's set at the first indent (there's 'teeth' on these that make them adjustable). The one pictured at the bottom looks good; can't go wrong with too big.

Available online or, if you're lucky, your local store might carry the kind specifically made for this (the part that comes with the kits).

(source)

Toilet Plumbing


My pressure barrel stopped pouring even though 3/4 full

Question: My pressure barrel stopped pouring even though it was 3/4 full, the only way to rectify was to release some gas from the top."Was I right to do this, if not what alternative do I have?
Comment: When you released the pressure did gas come out or did air get sucked in?  If the beer wasn't fully carbed or you weren't pushing with any CO2 it can stop flowing.  This is because as you pour beer a vacuum is created and beer won't flow out if there is no gas going in. If you don't use a CO2 injector then you need to vent the barrel as you pour. Here in the States these are though of as casks if I am not mistaken.
Comment: Can you give some information on this Pressure Barrel. A link would be great.
Comment: Did it start pouring after releasing some pressure?
Answer: There are two main types of pressure barrels, which are broadly described as top tap or bottom tap, depending where the tap is on the barrel.
If the tap is at the top of the barrel then pressure is required inside the keg to push the beer up a tube and out of the tap.
In the case of bottom taps, there is no need for pressure to dispense beer, but if there is no pressure at all then a vacuum will be created in the top of the barrel when you dispense beer and eventually it will reach a point where no beer will be dispensed until you allow some gas in to the barrel to fill that vacuum.
In both cases, pressure inside the barrel will aid dispense rather than prevent it, so what you heard was much more likely to be air getting into your barrel to replace that vacuum rather than letting gas out.
In order to keep pressure inside the kegs, it is important to ensure the beer is primed with some form of priming sugar so that secondary fermentation inside the barrel can carbonate the beer and pressurise the barrel, even then, you may find you need to top up the gas level on occasion as the beer level drops and to do this you can get barrel lids which allow you to add extra CO2 directly to the barrel either from sparklets like the old soda syphon, or from gas cylinders.


Proving that it is undecidable if a Turing machine accepts a language that is its own reverse

Question: I have a Turing machine M. How can I prove that $L(M) = (L(M))^R$ is decidable by constructing a Turing machine that can do this? I know how to figure out if two DFA's accept the same language (using the symmetric difference) however I don't believe it works for Turing machines. Now I am able to design a Turing machine where, for a string w, I can determine whether or not the reverse of w is also accepted by the language. The problem is that I'm having trouble determining if the set of all strings is the same as the set of all reverse strings. If I design another TM then I feel like it's just going to infinitely loop. So how can I prove that this is decidable?
Answer: The decision problem

Given Turing machine $M$, is $L(M) = (L(M))^R$?

is undecidable. This is a simple consequence of Rice's theorem.
The property (i.e. class of Turing-recognizable languages)
$$\mathcal{S}_{\mathrm{rev}} = \{ L \mid L \; \text{recognizable and } L = L^R \}$$
is non-trivial, since $\emptyset \in \mathcal{S}_{\mathrm{rev}}$ and $\{ ab \} \notin \mathcal{S}_{\mathrm{rev}}$.
Comment: fun fact: the problem $L=L^R$ is already undecidable for context-free grammars.
Comment: If you are unhappy with Rice's theorem, here is a reduction from the acceptance problem for Turing machines.

Given an instance $\langle M,w \rangle$, build a description of the
machine $M'$ whose behaviour is

On input $x$: "

1. If $x=ba$ then *accept*
2. If $x=ab$ then simulate $M$ on $w$ and if $M$ accepts, then
*accept*, else if $M$ rejects, then *reject*
3. Otherwise, *reject*"

We have that $L(M') = (L(M'))^R$ if and only if $M$ accepts $w$.
Comment: Just to be 100% clear so I'm given a Turing machine M and the question is does (L(M))^R = L(M) where (L(M))^R is the reverse of each string in the language. Is it undecidable because we're working with Turing machines?


Two modals one right after one - are correct?

Question: Two modals one right after one - are correct?  I heard yesterday someone who seems to be a native English speaker who said "I would wish..." (I didn't listened further) and It was weird to me since I learnt that modals considered  a sort of auxiliary verb, and since it doesn't make sense to say "I will will" or "I was was" the same it will not be correct to say "I would wish". So if it's not correct I can understand why, but if it's correct I don't understand why it's like that. Is there a way in which it's correct to say "I would wish..."?
Comment: Sorry, but I don't understand what you are asking. *Wish* is not a modal verb, and neither is *was*, and there are indeed circumstances where one would say *will will*, albeit using different senses of *will*.
Comment: Maybe it's a mistake but anyway this is what I learnt from my teacher or maybe I didn't understand him well. So it is considered OK to say I would wish?
Comment: See here for example: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/modals-140208112100-phpapp01/95/modals-14-638.jpg?cb=1409491852
Answer: Wish is not a modal verb, so can follow would or any other modal verb.
It is perhaps slightly awkward to say "I would wish ..." by itself, but if I asked you "If you could wish for anything in the world, what would you wish for?", you could reply "I would wish for ...".
You have misunderstood the website you linked to, which is about the modal verb may, not about the main verb wish. It uses the modal verb may to express a request, or permission, or prohibition, or possibility or a wish. The example is "May the New Year bring you joy".
Comment: Thank you for the answer. Could I say for example:"I would wish you to become a rich person" or "I would wish to visit you but I can't at the moment because I'm very busy". I left different kink by mistake. This is the correct one: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/modals-140208112100-phpapp01/95/modals-14-638.jpg?cb=1409491852
Comment: Good question. Probably the most natural sentences are 'I wish that the New Year brings you joy' or 'I wish for you to become a rich person'.
Comment: The second website you linked to is wrong. Hope, wish and am to are not modal verbs. There are various tests we can use to decide that. However, they do have a 'modal-ish' meaning to them. The modal verbs of English are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. A few others are sometimes called 'semi-modals', but 'wish' is never listed as either a modal or semi-modal.


Is it appropriate to ask an employee for a favor?

Question: I have a small team that reports to me, and we're all very casual and friendly (at least in my opinion/perspective). I need a personal favor (help moving a bookshelf at my home) and I wanted to ask one of my team members to help me move it, and offered to buy them lunch as a thank you. Would it be inappropriate to ask one of them for help moving the shelf, since they report to me?
Comment: why don't you ask a friend instead of a subordinate who is friendly?
Comment: Why don't you ask one of your superiors to help you move the bookshelf?
Comment: Do you have a personal relationship with them separately from work?
Comment: I suspect that if you have to ask on here, the answer is probably 'No', ie the relationship isn't such that it would be appropriate. (To be clear, this doesn't mean it's always out of the question - in my time time, I've been both the asker and askee.)
Comment: Would this be on or off the clock? During or before/after normal work hours?
Answer: It can be done, but probably shouldn't.
You'd be putting the team member in a tough spot - (the boss asked me to do a personal favor - what will happen at review time if I refuse?).
Of course YOU wouldn't let this affect the reviews one way or another, but other people may wonder and you have no control over what they think.
On the flip side, if everyone on your team and your boss knows about this and is OK with it, then it's truly not a big deal.
In the end, it's your call.  Personally, I wouldn't do it.  There are temp agencies who can provide one or two Really Big people who can Lift Things for not much more than the price of a nice lunch if you only need them for an hour.
Comment: This is a good answer, but here's what I decided: We do have a very relaxed, very peer-based company environment, so I asked in our team standup if anyone wouldn't mind sparing an hour to help me after lunch, and someone volunteered.
Comment: @xdumaine: That wasn't obvious at all but okay...
Comment: @xdumaine: I don't know about that person but personally I wouldn't expect "help me" to involve going to their home and moving bookshelves...
Comment: @Mehrdad I obviously didn't just say "help me"... I explained what I needed.
Comment: @T.E.D.: I think you're reaching a bit. Yes, personal interactions color our judgments of our coworkers; but that doesn't mean we should abort all personal interactions for fear of putting each other in a tough spot. Taken to an extreme, even "Hi, how are you?" (or lack thereof) colors judgment. So long as the favor isn't a massive one, I don't think this is a problem.
Comment: Honestly, you're putting **yourself** in a tough spot too. If you're the kind of person that can have someone do you a favor without it coloring your judgment of that person, I'm not sure I want to know you. Unless you are a sociopath, there's no way that happens.
Comment: @ruakh - If you are in a position of power over those people at work, yes you should not be *actively courting* non-work related social connections that would be only be appropriate with equals.
Comment: Depending on the size of your company, you could bypass putting your team on the spot by asking for help in a wider scope.
Comment: @T.E.D.: Some people actually can keep their professional and personal judgment coloring books separate.
Answer: Without knowing the personal circumstances of how close everyone is I would suggest the following:
(I assume its a bookcase in your home or some other personal setting)
Dropping an email with the request and see if anyone replies. Asking face to face may cause people to say 'yes' even if they wouldn't want to as they report to you. This could lead them to feel inclined to help you, despite not actually wanting to.
A friendly email would be the best bet
Comment: We do have a very relaxed, very peer-based company environment, so I asked after our team standup if anyone wouldn't mind sparing an hour to help me after lunch, and someone volunteered. That meant it was face to face, but was not directed toward any one individual.
Comment: This is especially good advice if you can send the email to multiple people, asking if any one of them can help.  This makes it clear that there's no obligation or expectation for any individual person to help you, which in turn makes it clear it's not going to hurt anyone professionally if they don't volunteer.
Comment: You may want to generalise "asking face to face" to "asking someone directly" (i.e. in person, via directed email or using any other method) and specify the email you're talking about is a non-directed one asking if *anyone* would be willing to help, assuming that's what you meant.
Comment: @xdumaine that was the best decision. IMHO, an email sounds kind of... formalish
Comment: alternative to email: post a message in the "water cooler" (or similar) Slack or group messaging channel with "hey I'm needing to move a bookshelf this weekend and it's a 2 person job, if anybody is free to lend a hand I'll buy lunch" or something to that effect.
Comment: @Sebastianb depends on company culture.  At all my desk jobs there has been an email distribution group dedicated to -very- informal messaging, from "I need some moving boxes please" to "enjoy this cat meme".  But I agree that during standup was a good choice.
Comment: All this sounds like it worked out well, but what if no one volunteered?  What if no one answered that group email?  That uncomfortable situation might make people volunteer because of the boss/subordinate relationship that might not otherwise.  (Although same could be said of peer-to-peer--people might respond to the social awkwardness there, too).  I do like the idea of offering to buy lunch so there is a clear "I'm offering to 'pay' you to do this" rather than "I expect you to".  But I don't think this is good *general* advice, because in some companies it could be viewed very negatively.
Comment: No, ask a close friend, a neighbor, a family member, or hire someone from https://www.taskrabbit.com/ but do not send out that email. If you ever need to fire someone, this may come back to haunt you. The fired individual will just say that you expected them to do non-work related errands for you. If you don't have any friends, organize a potluck dinner, a game of thrones watching party, give some cookies to your neighbors, or join a meetup of like-minded people. In the meantime, just hire someone to do it. You shouldn't develop friendships just for the express purpose of getting help either.
Comment: Using company email for private purposes? That's making a potentially bad thing into 100% bad thing. Not even talking about leaving papertrail .
Comment: And don't forget the mandatory pizza & beers for the ones who helped
Answer: No.
If it is a personal bookcase (at your home): Just no. This would be highly inappropriate. Unless you hang out with some of your team-members in private (like, really private, not just after-work events), in which case you could ask them in said private setting, when they are visiting you at home anyways. Ask them at work? Never.
The reason is very simply that there is a non-equal relationship here. You are higher up in the hierarchy with them. There are many things that can go wrong, and you really cannot know before, no matter how well you know them:

They do not want to, but are afraid to say no.
They don't care, and say yes to curry a favour.
They don't care, but think it would be appropriate, so they do just because you're in power.
They want to, but don't dare due to image within the team.
They are not sure and answered either yes or no, and lose three nights of sleep because they cannot stop thinking about whether it was the correct answer.

And so on and so forth. In short, your higher-up role complicates the issue, and you absolutely don't want this kind of complication.
Finally, what if they get hurt in some way...
If it is a bookcase at work, you surely have someone who does all this stuff (move furniture, fix broken lamps and such). Rather ask them. If your colleagues actually do regularly do these kinds of things at work because you have no dedicated guy, then go ahead with your bookcase as well, but be very conscious about safety. But in this case you probably would not have asked us...
Comment: I've definitely had co-workers put in this situation.  It was a restaurant, so we were fairly laid back.  One of the managers had a tendancy to ask employees for help with personal things; putting them in very awkward spots (especially since the manager in question was somewhat prone to preferential treatment and definitely had "favourites", it was pretty poorly managed).  I knew people who had helped her; but they were in bad positions; they didn't want to do it, but they also suspected the manager would treat them worse if they refused.  Better left avoided unless you hang out privately.
Comment: +1.  This is a very balanced answer.  Furthermore, I've seen the inappropriateness of the request, in a scenario admittedly somewhat more extended than a single bookshelf, resulting in the boss ending up fired by their boss on the spot when they found out.  (It was in a country where you can't fire anyone without a cause.  The court upheld the termination.)
Answer: If the bookshelf-moving happens at work, it is a reasonable favor to ask: the task is probably not in his job description, but neither too complicated or time consuming.
The rest is assuming that it is a personal favor (outside of work in terms of place and hours).
Simple question to ask yourself: do you have this type of personal relationship with your colleague, on occasions where you don't need a favor? The real question behind that is, do you have a relationship where you are not his boss?

If you can answer Yes to that question,
in my opinion it is okay to ask. ("Would you mind helping me move a
bookshelf before lunch on saturday? I'll buy lunch, as a thank you.")
If the relationship is strictly work-limited until now, however friendly it
is, as his boss you shouldn't ask this kind of favors. It would be
too awkward for him to refuse, and leaves him no choice.

For most work-based relationships (and even more if you have to ask the question), the answer is probably no.
Comment: Careful: what happens if the bookshelf falls down and injures or hurts your employee? If it is not in the work description it may not be insured. So, tread carefully. Of course, in a 3-person company, you may not have an option, but there should be a general coverage in place, in any case. But in a larger company, you probably have people dedicated to that and if you do not use their service, you put yourself up for liability.
Answer: I didn't see this answer, but found this extremely useful for me and worked well in the past with a sudden move situation.
Select everyone in the company that you feel ok with helping out with this task on a personal level (that is also physically able) and send out a broadcast email indicating you have this situation and didn't know if anyone at work might potentially have the availability/desire to help out moving the bookcase at some point.  The email would be generic and leave plenty of room for all to ignore/delete and not respond without feeling any pressure.
Something like:

Co-workers,
I have a bookcase that I can't move on my own and was wondering if perhaps anyone would have the time and desire to help me move it.  I don't want anyone to feel obligated, but thought I would ask at work to see if anyone would mind helping before looking into hiring someone to help me.  If you wouldn't mind helping me please respond, otherwise no worries and have a great day.

Leaving it open ended like that allows everyone to ignore you and no one ever brings it up again.  However, I found in my case, about 10 people volunteered to help me move out with just genuine kindness towards their co-worker which allowed me to move.  Each one volunteered differently, some and hour, some a whole day.  Something as simple as a bookshelf move I'd expect someone to say...sure I'll help after work for 30 min. or something.  You might also be surprised who says they will help and who doesn't.  Either way you haven't put anyone on the spot which keeps the professional relationship just that.
Answer: This is potentially dodgy ground - especially if you're asking for it to be done outside of working hours. And no lunch time doesn't count as working hours. Most of my bosses over the years have asked me for similar favours now and again - I helped one boss with recovering his girlfriend's broken down car once! Generally speaking I've not minded doing so, but then again I'm helpful almost to a fault and add in the potential for some unofficial brownie points with the boss and I generally never seriously considered saying "No" unless I had highly time-critical work that would be adversely impacted.
Out of hours is a very different story - I don't really mind if we get on really well as people but I've requests from others that I didn't really have that "friend" context with. And at times it's made me feel uncomfortable, even when I'm being paid (in cash or meals or whatever) you can't entirely silence that little voice in your head that says that you'll have negative consequences in work if you say no. I'd only really ask them to do it out of hours if you already spend time together outside of work (and I'd use that time to ask them to make it clear it's not a "work" request)
Answer: They are some details in the question that is missing to accurately answer. Sure, it depend of the company culture.  My answer is based about asking to move a bookshelf at home.
Do not ask directly personal favor at work. A second option is that you can hint in a neutral zone/time like the lunch table: "I wish to move that bookshelf at home, I will try to call my brother in law but he usually away, so I am stuck alone". If nobody step in, leave it like that.
If you are asking the question, it means you are not sure. I think it is the kind of grey zone question. So some people may state it is appropriate while others may see it bad. So some player in your team may see it ok while other will see as bad leadership.
So by just asking a question that may lead out without gaining anything because let say everyone answer is they are busy, back hurts, etc. you may degrade your leadership with a part of your team. Also your boss or one subordinate may seem inappropriate to ask a personal favor to one of your employee and worst case, an employee come at home and get hurt while moving the shelf, this may even put the company in a bad spot. And it can become a running joke that will stay forever "a boss asking to move a bookshelf at home, what next? You become team leader because you are doing personal work at boss house? ha! ha! ha!".
So, hint but do not ask.
Comment: After thought, the worst of worst case scenario may be the house get on fire while you and the employee are moving that bookshelf that block the only one exit and everybody die :)
Answer: If this is happening in the workplace during work hours, then there is no reason for it to be deemed inappropriate. If this occurs outside work hours, then maybe not as much; but if you offered to buy them lunch for doing it, again, shouldn't be a problem.
I highly doubt your team members will even think about it; when their manager asks them to do something, they should do it. (within reason of course)
Answer: Offer to buy them lunch? I agree that thank you gestures are appropriate for favors, but if you're apprehensive about someone wanting to help you anyway, then throwing in token compensation for people whose time is surely more valuable than the favor is a big step in the wrong direction. It can say "thank you" or it can say "I'd like to create a sense of obligation for your labor." People might even say no because they would help you but don't want to get lunch with you.
In short this really depends on relationships and, bluntly, general social aptitude that we cannot see at all. I agree with sending a semi-personal email, though.
Answer: No. Mixing work and home in this way is inappropriate and unprofessional.
Even making a request like this could be construed as patronizing. Do you want employees to be gossiping behind your back, "Oh, and last week he had Fred move furniture around his house." Seriously, do not even go there.
If I was a VP or director in a company and found out something like that was happening I would put a stop to it at once. Office politics are complicated enough without people leaning on their employees to do personal favors.
Answer: The answer depends on your mindset.
No – if you prefer to separate work from friendships, if people who are friends for your free time activities are different group than your colleagues. If you like to leave the office at 5 PM and leave everything and everyone there. Get a professional service for moving.
Yes – if you believe in community building around your workplace. If you sometimes have a beer or have a squash match together. After moving the bookcase, arrange a pizza with beer for everyone who came. Build up their minds that mutual help in practical things like this should be vital part of your common experience and encourage them not to hesitate to ask for similar help if they will need it.
What of the above is your mindset? There is your answer. I realize people have different personalities and there might not be 'one-fits-all' answer. (You can see other answers here, suggesting you both yes and no.) Someone might be scared of community building. Someone can love it. So think about yourself which approach makes you feel more comfortable and follow your authentic way. It is part of your leadership of your team.


How to calculate Moreau-Broto autocorrelation, Moran autocorrelation, Geary autocorrelation from protein (amino acid) sequences?

Question: I want to code Moreau-Broto autocorrelation, Moran autocorrelation, Geary autocorrelation in Python 3.6 from the scratch for amino acid sequences without using any package. Unfortunately, I have not been able to come across a proper literature which shows how these autocorrelation indices have to be calculated. Can anyone give a clear explanation as to how to calculate it or at least give a link which has got a clear description of how to calculate these?
Answer: Rajarshi Guha describes the formulas to calculate Moreau Broto autocorrelation, Moran coefficient and Geary coefficient and has a bibliography.
But why reinvent the wheel? It seems that the Autocorrelation module of the PyBioMed package does already what you want: it is a pure Python implementation without any external dependencies.
Comment: its for python 2.7, not 3.6


Need help to identify this circa WW1, American uniform

Question: My great grandfather disappeared in 1930 and the only record I have of him is these photos. He fathered my grandmother in 1914 in Australia and had a second family in the late 1920's. I have only just discovered his second family via ancestry DNA testing. His grand daughter provided me with the photos. I can tell that he's a musician but I don't know what branch of the services he was in. I can only assume that it's a US uniform as it appears to resemble a First World War uniform.
Comment: Based on the lyre arm band and `US` on the collar, he was a bandsman in the Regular Army..
Comment: Any idea of what period this might be? Particularly if it's pre or post 1930?
Comment: If I read the collar device right, between 1910 and 1937. After 1937 it became `U.S.`, I believe.
Comment: what are the wraps called that are on the soldiers legs
Comment: @peggymiller See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttee
Answer: There's not much that can be said that hasn't already.
That's the uniform of a enlisted United States Army "doughboy". The uniform dates from between the first and second world wars.

The insignia is that of the US Army Band.

Note: The above insignia is "band leader". I assume the star above is the reserved for band leader.

That's as much as I can get without more details. I recommend you make a request to the US National Archives, you should be able to get details about your great grandfather.
Comment: Thanks very much for all of your help. I have discovered that he had another family in the US which means I now have more cousins. I'll try through army records to see what info they have on him, assuming he didn't change his name.


Disable mysql_tzinfo_to_sql during MariaDB/MySQL installation

Question: MariaDB run in docker container hangs during initial startup while mysql_tzinfo_to_sql running because of the issue.
I've disabled mysql_tzinfo_to_sql by setting MYSQL_INITDB_SKIP_TZINFO env. var to 1.
Afterwards i manually ran:
mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | sed 's/Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page/FCTY/' | mysql -uuser -ppass --database=mysql
It takes ~12 minutes and script causes errors in MariaDB error log if MariaDB cluster is set.
I'm wondering what's the purpose of running mysql_tzinfo_to_sql during MariaDB installation and consequences of disabling it.
Found this link:

MySQL provides developers with a rich set of Date and Time functions.
  One of the functions is CONVERT_TZ which converts a datetime value
  from one time zone to another. This function can use named time zones
  such as 'MET' or 'Europe/Moscow' from the time zone information tables
  in system database called mysql.
Named time zones can be used only if the time zone information tables
  in the mysql system database have been created and populated. The
  MySQL installation procedure creates the time zone tables in the mysql
  database, but does not load them with data. You need to load data
  manually for these time zone tables.

It does answer the question.
However, i still don't fully understand practical implications of disabling populating mysql timezone system tables.
Why does timezone system tables population may take so long during initial MariaDB startup ?
Answer: Manual is pretty clear: loaded TZs enables a TZ-related functions. Say, with TZs loaded you can transform result's datetimes due to the client's TZ automatically, or calculate FROM_UNIXTIME() with respect to the leap seconds or daysaving times etc.
Comment: and without loaded TZs, application has to do what you mentioned in its code?
Comment: @rok Yep, otherwise you have to do all the calculations on the app's side.


2nd edition AD&D monster stats specifically the Atomie

Question: So I am wanting to play an Atomie they are a very small fey less than 1 foot.  My DMG wants to give me like a -6 str and con or something and while I understand it is up to the DM I feel that is pretty harsh.  By comparison the Pixie which is 2.5 foot tall are only given a -1 str and con per the complete book of humanoids.  Is there somewhere I can find stats for creatures based on size for 2nd edition or would it be based on something else.  Any help is greatly appreciated.
Answer: The Dungeon Master's Guide (1993) on Creating New Player Character Races says

Creatures of tiny (T) size have a −3 modifier to Strength. Creatures of small (S) size have a −1 modifier to Strength.… All other ability modifiers are assigned by the DM. Likely candidates include minuses to Charisma and Wisdom and plus or minus adjustments to Dexterity. In all cases, bonuses and penalties should balance out. If a creature has a +1 bonus to Strength, it should have a −1 penalty to another ability. With the exception of Strength, no creature can have a modifier greater than +2 or −2 to any score. (15)

(Note that Constitution is unmentioned.) So, while Complete Book of Humanoids does, indeed, give the pixie only a −1 to Strength, that's because of the pixie's small size. The tiny atomie, on the other hand, according to the DMG, warrants a −3 to Strength (not a −6), but keep in mind that pretty much everything's at the DM's discretion when using such a race.
Humanoids, by the way, also lists maximum pixie Strength as 14. Since the typical pixie is well over twice the height of a typical atomie, a DM that rules maximum atomie Strength is 12 isn't really being unreasonable by comparison. Were a player in one of my campaigns to've insisted upon an atomie PC, a −3 to Strength but a maximum Strength of 12 seems like an acceptable compromise over a potentially crippling flat −6 to Strength, especially if ability scores were rolled in the traditional fashion.
Comment: Thank you very much for the information, sadly I found in the monsterous manual that they only have an 8-12 int.... wanted to play a wizard Atomie also they are night creatures... hadn't noticed that either.
Comment: @Jonathan  I wouldn't worry about an atomie not being bright enough to be a wizard: The *DMG* goes on to say, "Those with penalties to Intelligence cannot be wizards. If the description in the *Monstrous Manual* implies that a creature is stupid, dull-witted, or in any way averse to magic and spell casting, it cannot be a priest or wizard" (16), and nothing like that's there. Likewise, orcs have an activity cycle of night, too, but adventurers seem to encounter them out and about during the day. Maybe your atomie wizard was kicked out of his tribe for his weird circadian rhythms?
Comment: Thanks for all the help.  Got it all sorted, going to have the -6 to str and all other issues were resolved
Answer: Based not on rules, but on physics, a humanoid a foot tall would be expected to have about 1/36 the strength of a full size person -- so instead of being able to carry a 50 lb backpack, they'd be capable of packing a pound and a half, near enough.
Compare that to D&D Strength stat, and a -6 doesn't seem unreasonable.  A two and a half foot pixie would be expected, on average, to be a little more than six times as strong as your Atomie character.
Now, that said, D&D isn't very strict on physics; otherwise giants even 12 feet tall would be built more like dwarves (if they could exist at all -- a 12 foot human would weigh something like 3/4 of a ton).  The best I can suggest is to work with your DM, and possibly consider playing a race for which there are available stats.


How to solve glitch in GTA Online Prison Break set up

Question: The third set up in the prison break heist is where one team steals a police schedule and the other steals a vehicle. I've been on the police team every attempt so far. Every time I get the schedule, burn the car, etc. you have to bring the schedule back to the leaders heist room. So I've done that then the other team dies. But for once the other team didn't die. But this time when you burn the car it didn't show a yellow waypoint back to the planning room. It said however to take the schedule to the planning room. So we drove there without the waypoint but when I got into the circle it wouldn't let me go into my apartment when the mission objective was active. This has happened twice now. How do I stop this?
Comment: Iirc you have to wait for the other team to get there, so you can all go in together.
Comment: @Chippies I didn't need to wait when I had done it before
Answer: Unfortunately there's no real way to fix this unless one of you leave the heist. It has happened to me too on a couple of occasions and each time we grew tired of waiting and had to leave the heist.


Why can't you just set the altimeter to field elevation?

Question: Why do you have to put the current altimeter setting in the kollsman window? Why can't you just set it to field elevation when you're on the ground? I understand why you would have to do it in the air.
Comment: I have flown into places where there were no altimeter settings or weather for that matter.  If there are a lot of traffic in the area, the pilots would agree on a altimeter setting to use to help separate traffic.  Pressure constantly changes at an airport.  It is conceivable, a plane practicing landings in the pattern may have a different altimeter setting (based on field elevation) than another plane taking off an hour later (based on field elevation).  This could cause conflicts in the air if the same altimeter setting is not used.
Answer: Good question. The reason is things fail.
If you set the altimeter to show field elevation, but the altimeter is faulty, you could end up flying differently from the rest, leading to loss of separation or worse.
But if you set the QNH, and then the reading is within 75 feet of the field elevation, you're good to go.

3. Altimeter Setting Procedures
3.1.3 If the difference from the known field elevation and the altitude read from the altimeter is plus or minus 75 feet or greater, the accuracy of the altimeter is questionable and the problem should be referred to an appropriately rated repair station for evaluation and possible correction. (USA AIP ENR 1.7)
Comment: @user2070305: Transponder response can be wrong. Some commercial pilot got "terrain terrain pull up", "stall", and "overspeed" over the ocean, called ATC to verify altitude, and they read his transponder back. He was at 50 feet at the time but that's not what the transponder said ...
Comment: Unless you are at a flight level, if a controller gives you an altitude assignment it will be local baro alt and will expect to see the equivalent pressure alt on his radar.  If your altimeter is way off, when you fly a the assigned baro alt the encoder will be broadcasting the correct pressure alt, which will be off.  Has to be significant, because the controller only sees nearest 100 ft.
Comment: Besides the obvious IFR issues, I think the main reason that's so important is that if you are in controlled airspace flying an assigned alt and your altimeter is off, your xponder's encoder will be reporting your real alt and oops... busted!
Comment: @JohnK - for clarification, a transponder reports _pressure_ altitude (based on 29.92 and does not depend on local altimeter/barometric setting) so the transponder response will always be correct. The important point about the correct barometric setting is so the pilot's altimeter will be accurate so he or she can fly the assigned altitude.
Answer: Because air pressure is not constant over wide areas.  Weather provides us with high and low pressure areas, and you may not know the pressure at your destination when departing.  Indeed, it may have changed en route.  OTOH, barring a major earthquake, the field elevation is not going to change significantly.
In point of fact, I DO almost always set the altimiter to field elevation when departing, mainly because a lot of my flying is from smaller fields that don't even have Unicom.  If I'm at a larger field, I might cross-check with the reported pressure, just to make sure things are working correctly.


Ringtone setting in Lumia 525

Question: In Lumia 525 I am unable to set MP3 ringtone. I connected my cell with my laptop by it did not shown any ringtone+sound folder. It shows only ringtone folder which is created in my music library.
Answer: From Nokia's faqs
On the start screen, swipe left, tap Settings > ringtones+sounds, select the type of ringtone or alert you want to change, and select the sound.
If you have an mp3 file of a song on your PC, you can make it your ringtone.

Connect your phone to your PC, and use the file manager of your PC
to move the song you want to use as a ringtone to the ringtone
folder in your phone.
To set the song as your ringtone, in the ringtones+sounds view, tap
Ringtone, and under Custom, tap the song.
You can use a song as your ringtone if it's not protected with
digital rights management (DRM), and it's smaller than 30 MB.

Your PC must have Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8.

Also you can watch this video.

Ringtone setting in Lumia 525


Where can I get a tourist visa for Chile and also for French Polynesia in Australia?

Question: Where can I get a tourist visa for Chile and also for French Polynesia in Australia? (This question is from an Australian resident with a non-Australian passport)
Comment: what is that nonAustralian country?
Answer: The Embassy of Chile in Australia has an online Consular Services System through which you can apply for a visa.
The Islands of Tahiti extend visa free entry to many nationalities. Check whether yours is among them before applying for a visa through a French Embassy or Consulate in Australia.

Nationals from the following countries are entitled to a three-month stay without a visa:
European Union : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland Republic of (EIRE), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
Other countries : Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, South Korea , El Salvador, Ecuador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Macedonia (former Yugoslav Republic of), Malaysia, Northern Mariana Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia , Monaco, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, New Zealand, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Holy See, Salvador, Samoa, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Switzerland, Tonga, Tuvalu , Uruguay and Venezuela
Nationals from other countries are submitted to the obtaining of a visa with the embassy of France or the French consulate of their place of residence, including the foreigners holders of a temporary resident's permit (on 1 year in metropolitan France). This visa has to wear the compulsory mention:  "valid for the French Polynesia".
Foreigners who have a permanent residence permit for continental France do not have to secure a visa. With the exception of citizens of the European Union and foreigners holding a permanent residence permit for continental France with 10-year validity, foreigners arriving in French Polynesia must be able to show proof a return ticket or, upon arrival, pay a repatriation deposit. For more information, visit the website: www.polynesie-francaise.gouv.fr


Is it possible to infer that a hidden truecrypt partition is likely to be present

Question: Truecrypt contains a feature that let's you create a hidden volume.  It's said that it can't be proven if a hidden volume exists.  However, is it possible to infer from the state of the data on the disk that a hidden volume is very likely to exist?  Firstly, if the non-hidden partition didn't take up the whole disk, that's a pretty good clue right there.  Also, the non-used portion likely wouldn't contain random (random looking because it's encrypted) but rather bits and pieces of old files (because the OS doesn't really overwrite data when deleting).  Doesn't the existence of a bunch of random empty space in your drive infer that there is likely a hidden partition, similar to how they state that when using file hosted partitions, there is no plausible deniability because there is no reason, other than an encrypted file, to have file full of random data on your disk.
Comment: I wonder how a frequency distribution of the "random" data in the "empty space" on this volume would look compared to the frequency distribution of the random data in the actual empty space of a volume.  Makes me think of [Benford's law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law).
Answer: Plausible deniability in the context of hidden encrypted volumes is a bit of a misnomer. "Possible deniability" would be a better name. There is no way to confirm the existence of such volumes without knowing the passphrase, but there are certainly ways to infer their existence.
If the hidden volume is not inside a plain volume, the presence of completely random unoccupied space will be a red flag. If the hidden volume is inside a plain volume, less so; since TrueCrypt volumes can't be resized, it's perfectly plausible that you created a 20GB volume just for future-proofing even if you're now only using 2GB.
A simple active action to infer the existence of a hidden volume is to attempt to fill that empty-looking space. If you object or twitch, if you show any attachment to that empty-looking space, you've confirmed the suspicion that there is indeed a hidden volume. So if you have a hidden volume, you'd better be comfortable with the idea that it can be deleted at any time.
A general technique to infer the existence of an empty volume is to look for traces of access to an absent drive. Your recent document history, your command line history, your system logs might contain references to that volume, possibly (especially with respect to the system logs, or inconsistencies between the system logs and application logs) in a way that shows that the volume was not a removable drive that you don't happen to have on your person. So you'd better not access that hidden volume with your regular operating system.
You can hide a whole operating system on the hidden volume. Then what might be suspicious is when you did not use your normal operating system. So you took a computer into the country and never booted it? Suspicious! A good cover story for that would be to make your apparent operating system execute only in RAM and save nothing to disk ("it's just for web and mail, and my mail is stored on the server, this way I'm not worried about viruses").
The very existence of hidden volumes is in fact a bit of a disservice, because you cannot easily refute their presence. The best you can do is be willing to fill your empty-looking space on demand, which may not completely alleviate any suspicion that you did have a hidden volume.
If you want to hide some data, the empty space of an apparent encrypted volume is ideal from the pure cryptography point of view, but not so much when you look at the bigger security picture. There's too much discrepancy between the apparent emptiness and the actual valuable content stored there. I would suggest hiding data inside naturally-occurring large files, such as videos; that at least gives you a reason for the space to be occupied by data that you might plausibly consider valuable.
Answer: You can only have a hidden volume in an existing volume. It can be possible to detect a truecrypt volume, but to infer if there is a hidden volume or not?
If you don't make the contents of the outer volume believable, then people may well infer there is a hidden volume that actually contains valuable stuff. There is no way to prove that, however your question is about inferring.
If someone manages to find a truecrypt container, guesses the password for the outervolume and finds a bunch of easily replaceable not at all valuable files then they would probably infer that there is a hidden volume. The idea of a hidden volume only works if you can convince people that the outer volume is the only volume, which means it would need to contain stuff worth encrypting.
Answer: Your answer is on the page you linked to.

The principle is that a TrueCrypt volume is created within another TrueCrypt volume (within the free space on the volume).

and

..free space on any TrueCrypt volume is always filled with random data when the volume is created** and no part of the (dismounted) hidden volume can be distinguished from random data.
Comment: For a regular hidden volume, perhaps no.  And, when the hidden volume contains an OS, there is no maintenance to be done on the *hidden* volume, true.  But, if the hidden volume *does* contain an OS you need to make sure that you use the host volume's OS at least as often as you use the hidden volume.  Otherwise, the data on the host volume may appear "stale" which could lead one to infer that the host volume isn't the real prize -thereby prompting them to dig deeper.  See here:  http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/hidden-operating-system
Comment: ...so, with proper maintenance (i.e.; Using a "non-hidden" OS regularly, if you have a hidden OS.) the answer should be "no"?
Comment: @Iszi, with the hidden volume, there should be no maintenance required.
Comment: @Iszi, That's cool I didn't know about hidden oses! I do see what you mean now. I suppose that could be use to infer a hidden OS. There are things you could do though to cast doubt on using a "stale" OS to infer a hidden OS (e.g., disable automatic updates)
Comment: But, even with automatic updates disabled, why would a security-conscious individual (i.e: One who would bother encrypting their drive at all in the first place.) allow a system that presumably holds sensitive data to become outdated?  Also, there are plenty of other indicators which can tell an investigator that the system actually hasn't been *used* (updated or not) in awhile.


Are all "market beating" investment strategies/products scams?

Question: There are many newsletters, advisors, and other providers of financial/investment information or services that claim (usually backed up by back-testing results) that they provide a way to beat/outperform the overall market. Are these all scams? Is it true that it's virtually impossible to beat the market with any reasonable amount of consistently over time?
Comment: @DumbCoder Well, this isn't quite the same as "why doesn't the person who wrote a get rich quick book follow his own advice and become a billionaire?" If someone has a good investment strategy, one way to make money from it is to start a mutual fund, sell shares in that fund, deliver on his promises, and then collect his percentage from all the investors. If he doesn't start out with a lot to invest personally, this good be the most effective way for him to make money.
Comment: `provide a way to beat/outperform the overall market` You need to ask yourself why these providers don't do it themselves and make a killing.
Comment: Pretty much, read The Warren Buffet Way as evidence.
Answer:
Is it true that it's virtually impossible to beat the market with any reasonable amount of consistently over time?

Yes and No. Warren Buffet has a excellent track record. Some of this is self fulfilling prophecy. Given his stature, if he buys any stock, everyone believes it is a good pick and start buying, demand supply results in price going up in turn reinforcing the belief that stocks picked by Warren Buffet go up ...
There are quite a few studies that indicate that only 1% of actively managed fund perform better than Index / market. The funds that perform better for a given year, under perform the next year and some other fund performs better. So on a 5 year basis, one would find very few funds that bet markets consistently and given that there are tons of funds in market, picking one that would beet the market in advance is difficult.

Are these all scams?

To a large extent these are mis-sold / quoted. Often the fees are not included in the comparison giving the false impression of the funds doing better.
Comment: But again, thats on an annual basis. Warren Buffets first funds were up thousands up percentages in the late 60s. They would still be beating the market if that money was parked in a checking account ever since. Someone can have a strategy, just like someone can buy a house in the right neighborhood at the right time and flip it in less than a year. They beat the marke and dont care what you think theyll do next year, or the next 20. Theyll be on to the next strategy with all that money they have.
Comment: @CQM Agreed. Very valid point.
Comment: @Dheer Can you provide a link to one or two of the studies you mentioned?
Comment: Warren Buffet probably takes the Warren Buffet Effect into account when evaluating a stock for purchase.
Comment: A lot of the back tested investments benefit from survivor bias. At any one time many investment vehicles are created and the ones that underperform lie fallow while the ones that overperformed get touted. Future returns thus tend to underperform historicals for any investment touted.
Answer:
Are these all scams? Is it true that it's virtually impossible to beat
  the market with any reasonable amount of consistently over time?

While most of those that try to sell you their strategy might be, there are some funds who really do consistently beat the market. Look at e.g. Renaissance Technologies.

"From 2001 through 2013, the fund's worst year was a 21 percent gain,
  after subtracting fees. Medallion reaped a 98.2 percent gain in 2008,
  the year the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 38.5 percent."
"The Medallion fund is considered to be one of the most successful
  hedge funds ever. It has averaged a 71.8% annual return, before fees,
  from 1994 through mid-2014."

However, looking at how they operate, you might as well say it is "virtually impossible", at least for anyone not having that level of concentrated brain and processing power.


How do I use driftnet without hacking?

Question: I want to see which images are being sent through the air using my wifi and foreign wifi. How do I do that without cracking WPA(2) but just filtering out the unencrypted packages using windows or kali linux in a vm on windows?
Comment: It's either using WPA or it's unencrypted, not a mix. Either way, sniffing data on 'foreign wifi' is illegal in most countries.
Answer: You can not do that. In a WPA(2) wireless network it is not possible to send something which is not protected by the WPA(2) encryption. Indeed you can for example send a image unencrypted via HTTP (OSI-Model Layer 7) but the WPA(2) encryption is on a lower level (OSI-Model Layer 2). Therefore it is not possible to just filtering out unencrypted packages.
Answer: That is not possible, if you don't have the key of the client-AP connection, there's no way to decrypt it, let alone reassembling the (decrypted) TCP packages of the file/image.
In WPA2 all connections have their own key, not even just by knowing the "Passphrase" (The word-text you input to connect to the Wi-Fi) you can see the traffic.
In order to accomplish this, you would have to capture the four-way handshake, together with the passphrase (Which can be brute-forced with the 4WHS), and only then you would be able to decrpyt the packages.
PS: There's a technique in WEP called Chop-chop in which you can decrpyt a single packet, by exploiting a CRC-32 weakness, but even this way you would have to manually pick which packets to decrpyt and then reassemble them to "see" the file/image.
Comment: This was bumped to the homepage today so I'll add my input. Your statements about WPA only apply to WPA2-Enterprise, as you can see from the following answer, WPA2-Personal encrypts all data on the wireless network with the same key. https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/35780/why-is-wpa-enterprise-more-secure-than-wpa2 so regarding the original question, the user could see all images being transmitted on his/her wi-fi so long as they are not encrypted in the application layer... assuming the OP controls the network and can choose to use WPA2-Personal.
Comment: @Owen Nope, they key to encrypt data (The image) is generated Dynamically on all WPA/2 - Personal/Enterprise, the PSK (Generated with the passphrase by the PBKDF2) it's the same, but the PTK (Used to encrypt data - images) it's different for each client and even connection session (If you disconnect and reconnect, you will get a different PTK)
Comment: @Owen Not sure whose answer you're talking about, but I'll guess it's [Rod MacPherson](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/35855/70301). And he means the PSK it's the same, and that's true, It's easy to "crack" the passphrase, but it doesn't mean you can see plain text traffic (the image) from another user, since this is encrypted per-user key, again, the PTK (Sometimes called PMK also). So thanks for your input, but it's not relevant to the original question/answer.
Comment: @Owen [Here](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/158671/70301) I tried to explain it to the best of my knowledge, and also [here](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/157745/70301) I talk about it.

How do I use driftnet without hacking?


2019 Chevrolet Tahoe back wheel came off driving driving on interstate shattering back windshield

Question: Friday, I was traveling home with my two year and we had been gone all day. We got off a ramp onto the interstate and made it about half a mile before I switched lanes to pass a trailer in tow and I heard my back windshield shatter and my 2019 Tahoe Z71 dropped and I lost control and had a hard time steering and realized I had lost a tire and saw it jump the median into oncoming back. I was going maybe 45 mph when this occurred. ( first picture is off where the tire came off and the back right tire was bent inward towards the inside of the car) (second picture is where the tire came off and somehow hitting the lift gate and shattering the back window before running over the median.)
This car has been in the shop twice for a stabilitrak problem and 4 weeks ago I had a flat on the tire that came off and I got it fixed and never had a problem or I thought other than the tire monitoring systems reverse reading after the tire got fixed.
The Chevrolet dealership is trying to tell me a wallowed out single lug nut caused this accident and my insurance company is wanting to investigate what caused the accident because they said they had been getting other calls of this problem happening to others.
The dealership then tried to start replacing parts without the approval from the insurance company and was got very hostile. I do not believe that a wallowed out lug nut caused this accident. But I am not a mechanic and I am in the process of getting my car towed to a non affiliated Chevrolet body shop to get a second opinion. I have tried to add pictures of the damage.
Is there anything else other than a loose/wallowed out lug nut that could have caused this accident?
Comment: For what good it can do you ; whoever fixed your flat ,left the nuts loose . In the 4 weeks the wallowing has been occurring but more importantly ,fatigue cracks have been growing in the studs. In my case , I drove 1000 miles before I found the damage , when I looked at the right front wheel , there were nothing but empty holed, no nuts, no studs.  Yes, I know it is hard to believe.
Comment: Does this answer your question? [What can cause a wheel to fall off/hub to break?](https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/57574/what-can-cause-a-wheel-to-fall-off-hub-to-break)
Comment: There are no pictures attached.  What is "wallowed out"?
Comment: The lug nuts were loose.  When loose the small movement causes the "wallowing". Looseness can also cause the studs to fail by fatigue ; Fatigue fracture will be mostly smooth and flat . A close photo of wheel studs would show fatigue . I nearly had the same accident . Miraculously , I found the broken studs before the wheel came off ( my fault).
Comment: Welcome to the site @SarahPilgrim. It sounds like you've had a tough time, it's not completely clear what your question is. If you are asking whether a single bad lug nut can cause a wheel to come off then that's already been answered in this question: https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/57574/what-can-cause-a-wheel-to-fall-off-hub-to-break
Comment: The pictures should be attached now. I don't know why they didn't link last night.
I'm not sure what wallowed out means. That is the terminology the lady who was does the estimate referred to when I ask what caused the tire to come off.
Comment: The wallowing is not a cause, it is the result of the loose nuts. My wheel did not wallow because Nissan put a steel collars in the aluminum wheels in each stud hole. to protect them from fools ( me ). Someone is going to be covering their butt  so it be difficult for you to get a straight story.  PS - I was a metallurgical failure analyst before retirement.
Answer: To specifically answer your questions: yes, there could be other factors that could have caused the wheel to come off like this. Judging by what I can see the in the picture the brake rotor is still there, and likely the studs are also still present.
Two most likely reason why the wheel came off are related to how the lug nuts were installed, so:

Lug nuts were not tightened and/or torqued
Lug nuts were not re-torqued within 30 - 50 mile distance after the lug nuts were reinstalled for any reason.


By what mechanism can two chromosomes fuse?

Question: What condition(s) would likely exist which could cause 2 chromosomes in the newly fertilized egg of a placental mammal to fuse? Assume this is more likely than having the same chromosome pair fuse in an individual egg, as well as an individual sperm.
Answer: Chromosome fusions (as well as fissions and other changes) usually take place during cell division or pairing, therefore, it's very unlikely that two chromosomes will fuse in an already fertilized egg. If they do such, this egg would probably be aborted.
One factor that may lead to chromosome fusion is loss of thelomeric sequences (telomere = chromosome extremity) (O'Sullivan and Karsleder, 2010) - but probably not in an fertilized egg.
Comment: As I trashed a recent answer of yours, I felt like I had to show myself nice by adding a reference to this answer! +1


How to run Monero-wallet-rpc on windows?

Question: I downloaded monero-cli for windows, I double clicked monerod, when its synchronised I double clicked monero-wallet-cli, I created wallet, then I clicked monero-wallet-rpc, it gets closed within a second, I tried to use wallet rpc methods using postman but could not get any response, but when I use daemon rpc methods which are on 18081 as per official documentation, it gave me
a response. What am I doing wrong while accessing wallet-rpc methods?
Comment: You could start with opening a cmd window and than starting the monero-wallet-rpc from there. Than you will se the error message.
Post it here please.
Answer: When starting your monero-wallet-rpc you need to specify which wallet file to use along with a password and a port.
run monero-wallet-rpc -h to see arguments to start the wallet rpc server.
Answer: If you click on an icon, it's likely not set up to pass a port (-p XXXX), which is a required argument. Additionally, either a wallet (--wallet-file XXXX) or wallet directory (--wallet-dir XXXX) is needed. As far as I know, Windows does not need any special things done for just running it, so any Linux based example should work the same on Windows.


Where is the "download mode" code stored?

Question: At least Samsung Galaxy series devices support download mode(also known as Odin mode or flash mode) which usually can be accessed by pressing down specific buttons while powering on the phone. Is this download mode on a small separate partition on internal-storage like recovery mode? Or is it device-dependent?
Comment: not sure but ,I think it's part of the boot loader it self ,I recall I lost download mode and any other mode when I played with the GANG partition (emmc.img) ,I will come back with a reference
Answer: Depends on how corporate paranoia is going at the time or their design tactics.  A lot of Samsung's download mode is coded within the secondary bootloader. I'm not seeing a non .pdf that I'm happy with but Many references are easily found around the worldwide web. Keywords: secondary bootloader. (edit added detail below)
First attempt to add more details was too long. incase you want more details about the process involved some links at the. Bottom to give a base for research.
Per Samsung knox website refer to PG. 7 under Boot Loader/ Primary Boot Loader/ Secondary Boot Loader: glossary of terms

The SBL adds functions for erase and programming of flash memory and EEPROM; it also handles the actual download of new or updated software. This allows a minimum ROM utilization by the PBL.

Now compare it to what Odin mode does and You will notice similarities. That fact that the bootloader itself can be used as a gateway to obtain sensitive corporate documents. Including the fact that both Qualcomm and Samsung Knox have multiple defense contracts. Makes it tough to find officially supported documentation such as spec sheets or R&D documentation but not impossible.
IBM Linux boot
Android bit fastboot protocols
The new android book process..
stack exchange boot and aboot
Google fastboot protocol
Comment: Alright I will go into more detail
Answer: Alright.  From what I gather,  it is in either a separate partition "SBL1" and/or it is in a file called sbl.bin.  See here for the partition  names/ locations. And, yes, it is chain fire's triangle away which is featured in the post,  but it seems that the flash counter is stored there,  among other things. So I downloaded a partition viewer,  looked for, and found the two partitions he mentions:


Browning of potted Tomato plants?

Question: I have some Roma Tomatoes that I have just brought outside the last few days now that we have some warmer nights (50s) and hotter days (70s and 80s) to harden off.  I noticed this morning some light browning on the leaves and was wondering if this was anything I needed to worry about and/or if there was anything I could do about it.
Comment: I think it's just stress from the change. I've never seen it on direct seeded tomatoes. The leaves won't heal(which is why I don't think it's nutrient related - the white spots are dead) but the plant will grow fine.
Comment: I observed sth similar when pruning the growing tip. In my case, i think oedema caused this. The plant was pumping water up, but half of the plant was missing, therefore some of the cells popped. Don't worry, the new growth will be fine.
Answer: I had similar problem with my Roma tomato plant. The yellow, uncurled leaves  can signal a nitrogen deficiency or it could also be a fungal infection.
You may wanna apply a nitrogen-rich organic vegetable fertilizer or a fungicide to see if this solves the problem. In my case, the fertilizer and regular watering did the trick. Btw, I use this fungicide on my other plants that were infected by either fungus or insects and it has worked great so far.
Comment: Thanks! Any suggestions on a good organic fertilizer?
Answer: Those look pretty similar to spider mite damage.  Which I am currently battling (successfully) in Texas.  They bite individual cells and suck out the juices, leaving that stippling pattern.  I think a fungus would have larger diameter circles, and thrip damage is usually in squiggly lines, not dots.
Look very closely at 10-15 leaves undersides.  If there are very small bumps moving around slowly (mine look dark red but there are many different varieties), those are probably spider mites.  I squished many with my fingers.  Also I use the 3-in-1 Organicide concentrate spray during the early morning and wash it off before the sun hits the plants to prevent burning.  The mites thrive in very hot, dry weather.  Sometimes reproducing once every 3 days (the hotter the faster).

Browning of potted Tomato plants?