How is Cycles different from V-Ray?

Question: From what I know, V-Ray is the most realistic render engine out there. But, I also know that Cycles is physically accurate. How is Cycles different from V-Ray and what are the major differences when it comes to shadows and lighting?
Comment: Not many that I know of. The reason V-ray holds that title is because it is the most Popular realistic renderer. It was also one of the earlier ones. V-ray is by no means necessary to get better/more professional results.
Answer: V-Ray and Cycles use similar methods to light a scene (path tracing, global illumination). The differences is in their implementation and ease of use.
In cycles we define materials using "nodes". V-ray seems to take a more traditional approach in just having a giant material with lots of settings. Example would be to do a normal looking material in cycles, you have to mix diffuse with "glossy" shader. In Vray, glossiness is just a parameter for the material.
This allows cycles to have unique optimization strategies for rending, but it costs in its ease of use in my opinion.
Also cycles seems to be built for use on the GPU. It looks like V-ray has slightly more restrictions as to what is supported on the GPU compared to cycles (currently the only thing not supported on cycles GPU to my knowledge is subsurface scattering, which is on its way).
In the grand scheme of things, I think you could get 2 renders looking similar using both cycles and V-ray. V-ray has the advantage of money behind it, and I believe is more polished at the moment.

How is Cycles different from V-Ray?


Old house, no Neutral coming from APS pole. Neutral vs Ground

Question: I'm installing some 110v Mini Split Air conditioners and want them on a separate breaker. The Main Panel only has 2 HOT wires coming in from the Mail Pole. The neutral wire is connected to the Ground Rod. My question is, "the Ac unit has three wires, Hot, neutral and ground. when installing the breaker, i know where the Hot wire goes but do i connect both neutral and ground to the Grounding rod or do just connect the white wire but then where do i connect the green one"? As mentioned, it's an older home but i just want to do this correctly. thanks
Answer: What comes down from the pole is actually 2 hots and a neutral. The power company does not deliver ground; you are expected to supply that yourself from your own ground rods.
We don't want neutral flying up to wild voltages (say: due to a transformer leak or something), so we clamp neutral's voltage to near ground voltage.  We do that with a neutral-ground equipotential bond in the main service panel, and ONLY there.  Everywhere else, neutral needs to be separate from ground or else bad things will happen.
So, your main panels intakes: Hot1, hot2 and neutral from the power company, plus ground from your Grounding Electrode System.   You bond the last two.  Then to your appliances you output hot, neutral, and safety ground.
Answer: At the main panel only, neutral and ground are terminated at the same point or can be on the same bus. It may seem funny, but this is how to do it in a main. In a sub panel, the ground is isolated from the neutral to prevent a parallel path and or a path for objectionable current in code words.
So with only 1 bus in the panel for ground / neutral take them both to that since it is the main. Never put more than 1 white neutral under a screw, but most panels will be listed for 2-3 ground wires under 1 screw, this makes sense as the ground is only designed to protect for faults, which is rare. But the neutral is the return path so it normally carries current and should not share a screw.


Does DTLS support SNI?

Question: The client hello record format in DTLS RFC at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4347#section-4 does not mention this. However, since SNI is mentioned in TLS extensions RFC at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6066 and DTLS RFC seems to be  silent on how to handle TLS extensions, I am not sure what is the official word on this. Any inputs appreciated
Comment: SNI is for HTTPS. But HTTPS (v1.1 at least) only runs on top of TCP. And not UDP, right? So I don't see how you'd use it. (Except with HTTP/2, SPDY, etc. on top of UDP maybe.)
Comment: SNI is not only for HTTPS. Though it is use as such. From https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3546.txt ..."[TLS] does not provide a mechanism for a client to tell a server the
   name of the server it is contacting.  It may be desirable for clients
   to provide this information to facilitate secure connections to
   servers that host multiple 'virtual' servers at a single underlying
   network address." Any application protocol on top of DTLS/UDP can still use SNI if it chooses as far as I understand.
Answer: Applies, but was forgotten in spec.
Judging from the IETF mailing list it was forgotten inside the RFC document.
Relevant mail is the second in the thread:

Good point.
DTLS is intended to support extensions--and OpenSSL, at least,
  supports them in the same way as it does for TLS.
There probably should be a definition of ExtendedClientHello
  in 4346 and 6347, but it's exactly the PDU you would expect.
  I.e., the extensions come after the CompressionMethod.
-Ekr

Full thread
There is a nicely rendered thread on GMANE. And the individual posts are as follows:
[TLS] DTLS lacking TLS extensions ?, Martin Rex (Archived here.)
  Re: [TLS] DTLS lacking TLS extensions ?, Eric Rescorla (Archived here.)
    Re: [TLS] DTLS lacking TLS extensions ?, Martin Rex (Archived here.)
      Re: [TLS] DTLS lacking TLS extensions ?, Marsh Ray (Archived here.)

Does DTLS support SNI?


A/C kicking on and off, not putting out cold air

Question: The A/C on my 2004 Ford Freestar is not putting out cold air. The compressor is kicking on and off.
What could be the problem?
Comment: Have you checked the refrigerant levels?  Is it cold outside?
Answer: The compressor turning off immediately is usually a sign of a safety mechanism kicking in. A sensor is most likely causing the compressor to disengage. It's probably due to one of two conditions:

An over-pressurized line. It would be dangerous to compress liquid where the system is already in an overpressurized state. The sensor prevents this from happening and the compressors cuts out.
An under-pressurized -- or empty -- line (a far more likely scenario). In addition to refrigerant, there's also another important component present in the refrigerant line: oil. This flows with the refrigerant, lubricating the compressor. Without lubricant, the compressor could seize up and destroy itself. The A/C system will not allow the compressor to run when it is not pressurized, assuming that the lack of refrigerant could mean a lack of lubrication flow. So, it cuts the compressor off to prevent damage.

The low-pressure situation is the most common. Your system has lost refrigerant and the compressor cycles on and off, trying to detect pressure each time. It's possible that you need to simply add more refrigerant, but it's more likely that your system has a hole somewhere in the closed loop system. A/C systems are not meant to be "topped off" from time-to-time. They are closed, with the intention of none of the refrigerant escaping.
A low pressure situation likely means that some component in your loop is leaking. That could be the a/c lines, the compressor, the evaporator, the filter dryer, or the radiator (a/c radiator, different from the engine radiator). UV dye and a black light are usually used to detect leaks in the loop. You can even buy refrigerant with UV dye already added.
Repair
1) Fix the failed component. Once you identify the component, you'll need to replace it. If it's the evaporator, you need to rip the entire dash apart in order to get at the heater box, then take it apart. Just getting the dash apart can take an entire day, and there are a ton of electrical connections that you'll need to take notes for. If the issue is in the engine compartment, you have a much easier chore ahead, but you'll need the correct tool to disconnect A/C lines.
2) Pull down a vacuum. Before you can recharge the system with refrigerant, you need a vacuum pump in order to vacuum out the a/c lines. The lines must be completely empty before filling, including air. A set of gauges and 30 minutes should prove to you that the vacuum is holding and that the hole is fixed.
3) Recharge lines. Only once is the system is repaired, closed, and holding a vacuum for an extended time should you attempt to recharge it. Refill the refrigerant lines up to the correct pressure using the gauges; refer to service manuals for the correct pressure or the correct output temperature at the vent that you should be targeting. It's very important to not overfill the system.
EDIT
As a side note, my answer about how the entire a/c loop works can be found here.
Answer: Like JPhi1618 mentioned, check if it's cold outside. Your A/C won't work below certain temperatures.
The A/C system contains refrigerant which will be 'exhausted'(correct me pls) or leaked out.
When there is not enough pressure, the A/C keeps turning on/off in the beginning. After some time it won't go on then.
Bring your car to a A/C mechanic who can connect a machine to it and run some tests to determine if there is a leak. This machine also fills the system with new refrigerant fluid. It takes around 1 hour to complete this process.
Don't try to fill the system without doing a leak test. It is very harmful to your health when you inhale it.
Comment: What do you mean by "Your A/C won't work below certain temperatures."? You realize the A/C functions (on most vehicles) when the HVAC is set to defrost mode? This is there to clear the air of moisture from your breath so the windshield doesn't freeze up during cold winter times.
Comment: Well I don't know about that but the compressor is having a hard time to compress the liquid at that temperature and could easily break down.
Comment: But, R134a is a gas? You can turn on the air conditioning in low temperature. Other than to dehumidify there's no point though.
Answer: The first place I would check is the thermal expansion valve just before the evaporator core in the passenger compartment.  If it is clogged with debris it would prevent the AC from cooling as it prevents the evaporator unit from functioning properly. This in turn prevents the compressor from receiving both refrigerant and oil which will overheat the compressor and destroy it.
If the plenum temperature is below 20 C and or if the air flow is restricted the evaporator core will freeze up. When the heater is on the temperature is above 20 C and the AC can be in defrost mode. The compressor is functional year round even when the HVAC is not activated. This is to maintain system pressure and keep the seals from drying out.
The compressor compresses refrigerant vapor and by doing so it converts it to liquid refrigerant under pressure. This is similar in a way to when you pump up a bicycle tire and the pump becomes hot. This is why the condenser coil is hot because of the absorbed heat. The AC fans then cool the coil.
The next process is leaving the condenser and to the dryer to remove any water that could freeze and  block the TX valve. The TX(thermal expansion) valve gradually releases the pressure into the evaporator coil. When the refrigerant pressure is reduced it releases heat and becomes cold.
If the AC button light is flashing it indicates a system problem. If not check any codes as the problem may be elsewhere.
Refrigerant poisoning is extremely serious. Consult with a trained professional. Safety first.


Hide reviews from google search

Question: Some times i am looking for a game to play and the google search result give me the reviews, but I would like to play  without being biased by the reviews.
Answer: Well..that's not possible. Google search engine displays reviews automatically and there is no way "disabling" or "hiding" them. You can remove bad reviews by reporting them, but there is no possibility of hiding them altogether.
Answer: I don't think you can hide that with Google. But you can use another search engine. On Duckduckgo for example when you search for "Battle princess madelyn", there is no score of this sort beeing displayed.

Hide reviews from google search


Derivative of Stochastic Integral

Question: I am trying to take the derivative of the following stochastic integral,
$$d\left(\int g(S_t) dS_t \right),$$
where $dS(t) = \sigma S(t) dW_t$ and $g(.)$ is some (smooth) deterministic function. My understanding is that we can't just apply the fundamental theorem of calculus, but instead need to account for QV. My attempt:
$$d\left(\int g(S_t) dS_t \right)=g(S_t)dS_t+\frac{1}{2}g'(S_t)(dS_t)^2=g(S_t)S_t\sigma dW_t+g'(S_t)S_t^2\sigma^2dt$$
Is that right?
Answer: No. Itō's formula helps you derive the dynamics of $f (S_\cdot )$ given the SDE followed by $S$. Here this is not the case. You simply have:
$$
\mathrm{d} \left[\int{g(S_t)\mathrm{d}S_t}\right] = g(S_t) dS_t
$$
Comment: @chester What you are missing is that $\frac{dS}{S} \neq d \log S$. In fact by Ito's lemma $\frac{dS_t}{S_t} = d\log S_t + \frac{1}{2} \sigma^2 dt$, and if you substitute the right hand side in the integral and do things the 'long way', you'll just end up with what siou0107 gave as answer.
Comment: Consider $g(S_t)=\frac{1}{S_t}$. Then $\int \frac{1}{S_t} dS_t =\ln{S_t} + C$ so $d \left( \int \frac{1}{S_t} dS_t  \right)=d \ln{S_t}$. The formula above would give $d \left( \int \frac{1}{S_t} dS_t  \right)=\frac{1}{S_t}dS_t \neq d \ln{S_t}$. What am I missing?

Derivative of Stochastic Integral


Need to increase buffer for IPC message queue in OpenWRT

Question: I'm just learning how to use message queues, and I am having a little difficulty with them.  I am using two completely separate applications to do the testing -- one is the "sender", and the other is the "receiver".
When I run the sender, it sends 15 strings to the pipe, but then afterward fails with a "Resource temporarily unavailable" error.  I just need to consume the messages on the receiver side, but why only 15 messages?  I might be sending lots of messages, so I'd like to increase this to a much larger number, like 1000 or so.
I tried to set the message queue size to 32767, so I was expecting 31 at least, but apparently msg_qbytes is not related to the number of messages that can be buffered.
The sender code looks like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/msg.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MESSAGE_SIZE 1024

typedef struct msgbuf
{
    long mtype;
    char mtext[MESSAGE_SIZE];
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    int msgid;
    int ret;
    struct msqid_ds msg_settings;
    long key;
        struct msgbuf msg;

    key = strtol(argv[1], NULL, 10);
    // print the message queue ID for reading via msgrcv
    printf( "Getting message queue with key = %ld\n", key);
    usleep( 1000000);

    msgid = msgget( (key_t)key, 0666 | IPC_CREAT);

    if (msgid == -1) {
        perror("msgget failed with error");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    // read in current queue settings and then set the new
    // queue size.
    ret = msgctl(msgid, IPC_STAT, &msg_settings);
    msg_settings.msg_qbytes = 32767;
    msgctl( msgid, IPC_SET, &msg_settings);

    while( 1) {
        msg.mtype = 1; // we'll always leave this as 1
        memset( &(msg.mtext), 0, MESSAGE_SIZE);
        sprintf( msg.mtext, "hi");
        printf( "Sending data: %s\n", msg.mtext);
        ret = msgsnd( 1, &msg, MESSAGE_SIZE, IPC_NOWAIT);
        usleep( 500000);
        if( ret == -1) {
            perror( "msgsnd failed\n");
    }

    printf( "leaving...\n");

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

The receiver code looks like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/msg.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>

#define MESSAGE_SIZE 1024

typedef struct msgbuf
{
    long mtype;
    char mtext[MESSAGE_SIZE];
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    long int msgtyp = 1;
    int ret;
    size_t msgsz;
    struct msgbuf mymsg;

    int msgid;
    msgid = strtol(argv[1], NULL, 10);
    printf( "Reading message queue with ID = %d\n", msgid);
    usleep( 1000000);
    while( 1) {
        msgsz = (size_t)MESSAGE_SIZE;
        ret = msgrcv( msgid, &mymsg, msgsz, msgtyp, IPC_NOWAIT);
        if( ret == ENOMSG) {
            usleep( 100000);
            continue;
        }

        if( ret == -1) {
            perror( "msgrcv failed");
        } else {
            printf( "Read data: %s", mymsg.mtext);
            }

        usleep( 100000);
    }
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer: I finally found the information: http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/system
You just have to modify /etc/config/system and add `option buffersize 65535'.  Unfortunately, you can't go higher than 64k.
I made the change and it's definitely better, but not perfect.  I'm going to pare down my message size to try to accommodate more messages.
Answer: Part of the original problem that I already solved:
On the receiver side, I always get a "Argument list too long" error.
I changed my code to just use a #define so that I'm (hopefully) not
making any errors when passing the size as an argument.  But when I
looked online for solutions to the E2BIG error, it says that the
size of the message is too large.  How can that be?

Ok, I failed to interpret this information correctly:
From http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/topic/apis/ipcmsgrc.htm:
[E2BIG]

Argument list too long.

The size in bytes of the message is greater than msgsz and the MSG_NOERROR flag is not set in the msgflg parameter.

I thought that MSG_NOERROR was optional.  Guess it isn't.  Problem #2 solved!  Just need to increase the number of messages in the queue somehow... and then I'll probably hit another snag.  :)
Answer: See
 http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cicsts/v3r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.cics.uc.doc%2Fcucunx%2Fmqlinux.html
This describes the file sysctl.conf on linux, other O/Ss will have other mechanisms for the same thing.
Comment: I saw similar information before and tried to query the current values from OpenWRT, but it seems that it isn't configured in this manner.


Should I supply a motor with the same current of its stall speed?

Question: I have a DC motor that has a stall speed current of 6 amps. Does that mean I should be supplying a constant current of 6 amps even when the motor is not experiencing a need for that much current?
Answer: Power supplies do not "push" current; components (like motors) "draw" current from the voltage source.
For ohmic (resistive) loads, the current drawn equals voltage divided by resistance.
Voltage sources (power supplies, batteries, etc) do not have the ability to provide an infinite current. Internal resistance in the source will make the voltage "sag" as the current goes up, because voltage loss over any resistance (including internal resistance, wiring, etc) equals current times resistance.
For example, a small 9V battery has a very high internal resistance. (Another related term is voltage source impedance.) Draw 100 mA, and it may lose 2V. This means we can calculate the internal impedance to about 20 Ohms.
A LiPo battery intended for high current discharge has a much lower internal resistance. Let's say you get a 1V drop when you draw 25 Amps. This means we can calculate the source impedance to 40 milli-Ohms.
A bench power supply may be capable of increasing its internal source voltage to compensate for sag, until you reach the maximum current. Thus, a 12V supply may supply an even 12V all the way up to a rated max current -- let's call that 5A. After that point is reached, the supply will lower its voltage until the current draw is no more than 5A. (This is a "constant current" supply.) This typically works because the current draw of most loads is proportional to the voltage. However, for a "true" short, the supply needs to lower the voltage all the way to 0, because even at very low voltages (0.1V, say) more than 5A may be drawn by the "load" that's the short.
So, if you want the motor to be able to provide all the torque it is rated for, to the point where it stalls, at the voltage that the motor is rated for, then you have to use a power supply that is capable of supplying the rated voltage, at the rated stall current. However, you don't want to do that for any real time, as the motor will quickly overheat and damage itself.
Answer: No, you should be supplying the DC motor with a voltage that is sufficient for your requirements but the supply voltage should be capable of dispensing a current of 6A.
However, if you have a supply that is self-protecting by some kind of current limit circuit to (say) 4A, that is OK providing you realize that when starting a motor it is in a "stalled" condition and with current limited to 4A it may not turn the load you have attached due to stiction.


What is an "anecdote" as opposed to a "joke"?

Question: I've always thought that an anecdote was a short funny story that had actually never happened, but was rather created by common people in order to satirize, ridicule or to laugh at someone. But recently I noticed that native English speakers usually call it simply "joke". For example "Let me tell you a joke. One day a French, an American and an Italian meet at one restaurant..." If it's really the case, then what is an anecdote then? Would the word "anecdote" mean something else or, perhaps, something more specific for native English speakers? How often they use this word?
Answer: Anecdote is a very common false friend for native speakers of Russian (and other Slavic languages, I believe). In Russian, анекдот means exactly what you describe: "a short fictitious funny story, a joke". In English, it does not. Here's the Merriam-Webster definition:

a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident

And here's what Wiktionary has to say:

A short account of an incident, often humorous.
An account which supports an argument, but which is not supported by scientific or statistical analysis.
A previously untold secret account of an incident
Comment: Thank You for this input. "In Russian, анекдот means exactly what you describe: "a short fictitious funny story, a joke" - as far as I know, Russian word for anecdote also means a true, yet an unusual story: "What an anecdote happened to us yesterday!!!" - a common phrase in Russian.
Comment: In Russia, you don't tell joke, joke tells you!
Comment: @brilliant in this phrase "анекдот" is figurative — some event was so unusual and funny that it is more expected to be found in "анекдот", but not IRL
Answer: An anecdote is a short story that actually happened, traditionally (but not necessarily) one that happened to the speaker.
On the other hand, a joke is an amusing story1,  traditionally (but not necessarily) one that is made up.
Quick chart:
            Humourous   | Not Humorous
Real     | Either word2 |   Anecdote
Made Up  |    Joke      |   Fiction

1 Since you mentioned satire and ridicule, that would typically be a joke, but a joke may simply be funny without being satirical or ridiculous.
2 Typically, though, this would be an anecdote.
Comment: As far as I know, a story that actually happened is never a joke, even if humorous; it's just a funny story. Unless it's a *practical joke*, but that's something else altogether.
Comment: @Rahul Thinking it through, I think while "joke" wouldn't be wrong, "anecdote" is definitely the better word. I've edited to reflect that.
Comment: WOW!!! Waiwai933, thank You so much for this chart!!!
Comment: I think it's important to emphasize that in English, an anecdote need not be funny or even amusing (e.g. anecdotal evidence).


When did the Taxi become associated with the checkered pattern?

Question: Taxi cabs tend to be linked to various colors or symbols, one I have noticed repeated over and over is the checkered pattern of alternating white and black.  Is there an origin of this and how it became linked to taxi cabs or services?  While it seems to be used in some countries, not all, and in some companies, not all, there has to be some kind of association between the two for it be a sort of global symbol (as much as many things are) for taxi services.
Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Taxi ?
Comment: @DVK yeah I looked through there but there wasn't anything that said why the pattern was chosen and how its become so iconic, that's the relation I am looking for
Comment: "how its become so iconic" - a near-monopoly would do that for you. It's sort of like "xerox" and "kleenex".
Answer: I wasn't able to find a definitive proof yet, but most likely it was because of the largest taxicab company (associated with both livery service AND manufacturing of taxicabs) that was called "Checker Taxi".

The 'Checker', particularly the 1956-82 A8/Marathon, remains the most famous taxi cab vehicle in the United States. The vehicle is comparable to the London Taxi in its nationally renowned styling, which went unchanged throughout its use, and also for its iconic status.
In 1940, Parmalee (including Yellow and Checker Cab) became the largest cab company in the United States.

The cars themselves had distinctive checker-marks on the sides, matching the company logo:

I have read unsubstantiated rumors as to the origin of the company's logo to be:

Under Markin, Checker became the first cab company to hire African - American drivers and the first to require that drivers pick up all fares, not just white ones. Some speculate this is why & where the B&W checker stripe originated (src)
Answer: In the United State, the Checker Taxi company of Chicago was established in 1917.  The company used Commonwealth Mogul purpose built taxicabs built by Commonwealth Motors of Chicago.  Markin Auto Body was the body supplier for the Mogul taxicabs. By 1922 Markin took over Commonwealth Motor, and changed the name to Checker Cab Manufacturing company. Markin also started to buy up taxicab operations across the country. He ultimately became one of the largest US taxicab operators.
His main competition was Yellow Cab operated by John Hertz also out of Chicago.  Via trademark litigation in 1924 Markin was able to secure the use of Checkerboard decals and the Checker name for his manufacturing business and taxicab operations.  Additionally he franchised the right to use Checkerboards and the Checker name to independent operators. Markin eventually took over Yellow Cab taxicab operations, and Hertz retired. By the late sixties Markin, under court order had to dissolve his taxicab empire. Checker Motors would spin off its various operations and the trademarks were not renewed. Today the use of Checkerboards is wildly used by independent cab operators. The Checker car was discontinued in 1982.
Comment: Sources would improve this answer.


Projected coordinate system for South America

Question: Does anybody have any suggestions for a projected coordinate system for the Northern part of South America?  I have a data set that reaches from Venezuela to Southern Peru and I'd like to do some spatial autocorrelation on it.  However, the current WGS84 is obviously a geographic coordinate system and not suitable for this type of analysis.  I could just stick it in UTM 19 or 20 (north or south I guess given it spans the Equator) but I just wanted to know if anyone had any better suggestions.
Comment: Thanks guys.  I'm going to play around with a few of these suggestions and see what we get.  Does anyone know where we can find a map of suitable Transformations?  ESRI suggests WGS84 to SAD69 1 but there are other options in the transformation list.  The first suggestion is not always the best in my experience.
Answer: You first need to decide what distortion properties would you like to control for.  That is to say, are you interested in preserving area, distance or shape?  There is a decision support tool for selecting projections that is quite user friendly and available for free from Oregon State University (Map Projection Selection Tool).  Note that you can select the distortion property and a specific area of interest.  The tool yields a recommended projection, a central meridian and PROJ.4 code.
Answer: You can use some projections that are provided by ESRI, depending on whether distance or area is important for you. They look very similar:
ESRI:102032 South_America_Equidistant_Conic
<code>+proj=eqdc +lat_0=-32 +lon_0=-60 +lat_1=-5 +lat_2=-42 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=aust_SA +units=m +no_defs
</code>

ESRI:102033 South_America_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic
<code>+proj=aea +lat_1=-5 +lat_2=-42 +lat_0=-32 +lon_0=-60 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=aust_SA +units=m +no_defs
</code>

Both projections are included in newer GDAL and QGIS versions as EPSG:102032 and EPSG:102033
A third choice can be EPSG:2317 PSAD56 / ICN Regional using Lambert Conformal Conical:
<code>+proj=lcc +lat_1=9 +lat_2=3 +lat_0=6 +lon_0=-66 +x_0=1000000 +y_0=1000000 +ellps=intl +towgs84=-288,175,-376,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs
</code>


Answer to Question

Question: Looking for a system which can generate answers to questions. Most systems and blogs posted on internet are on Question to answer but not on answer to question or paraphrasing or keyword to questions.
Seq2Seq I tried and even after training for many hours the results were not making sense.
Rule bases and template based systems like add What, who where etc to keywords have so many pitfalls. But if any system known giving decent outputs may also work. Kindly let me know if there is any such system known.
Or if there is any other idea someone has then please suggest. I had above two ideas.
Answer: Question answering (QA) is a complex problem and an active field of research. There are probably some academic prototypes around, but I doubt there's any general-purpose ready-to-use QA library. However there are probably state of the art implementations for closed QA, i.e. QA restricted to a specific domain (I'm not aware of any specific library though).
Paraphrasing is a related but different problem, and also an active research question.
Extracting keywords is a much more standard task and is an important part of traditional Information Retrieval methods.
Comment: What's wrong with my answer?
Comment: Hi. You implied that it is not possible or you dont know. Now I doubt people who may know the answer may even answer this as my question has got one answer, but the answerer says he does not know.
Comment: @SandeepBhutani your question is very general and mentions several very different NLP problems. You also seem to assume that the general problem of QA is easy to solve. So the point of my answer was: (1) to explain to you the differences between these problems and give you directions to each of them (the wikipedia pages give you links to the main papers or books about these topics). (2) to let you know that some of these problems are very complex, so they are not solved yet (and may never be solved). Of course NLP research evolves every day so I might not know the most recent...
Comment: ... developments, but I've been in this field for the past 15 years and my guess is that it's not going to be solved anytime soon. If anybody has better information they can easily write an answer, but it might be useful to you or anybody else to understand what is feasible nowadays and what is not.

Answer to Question


On-premise package repository software for Debian

Question: I'm need to set up an internal debian package repository, and thought I'd see if there are any free, open source alternatives out there. I've used Red Hat Satellite Server (i.e. Spacewalk) in the past, which did a great job of managing packages within different channels (dev, prod, etc). Which products do other Debian user's use for managing internal repos?
Comment: As you still got no answers: did you take a look at the [corresponding Debian document](https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository/Setup), which lists a couple of candidates (assuming your question is about a repo for Debian packages)?
Comment: Thanks for the link. I've decided to give Aptly a try. Seems to work pretty well, but I haven't decided on whether to keep it or replace it with another tool .
Comment: As you've tried it and not been disappointed straight away, maybe you want to [answer your own question](/help/self-answer) meanwhile? Might prove helpful to others. If you later decide to try another tool, just make that another answer then – and when satisfied, decide which answer to [accept](/help/accepted-answer) :)
Answer: I've decided to give Aplty a try, and it is pretty easy to use once you get a hang of the workflow. My first impression is that it's good tool for more complex setups. As far as I can tell, it's not very suited for simple setups in which on would like local mirrors to be continiously filled with updates from internet repos.


Who should we regard as role models?

Question: When practicing the Dhamma there are many exemplary characters found in Buddhist texts who are worthy of emulation,I want to know whether it would be right for a layman to regard an Arahant Bhikkuni as his role model. Is it suitable?
Comment: Sure, why not. The Buddha or any of His noble disciples would be good role models. After all, isn't a role model someone you're looking up to and wanting to become one yourself one day, but as of the moment, you have not quite attained to the same level as theirs just yet?
Answer: In my opinion, keep only Buddha as your role model otherwise you will be in for a dissapontmemt. The next option is to keep any other teacher who is passed away without any known bad publicity. It is not advisable to keep any other living teacher as your role model. However, you can keep any living Kalyanamitta (spiritual friend) as your role model. The reason being you can accept any drawbacks of your spiritual friend as you know they are not perfect.
Comment: From where does a not noble one know that another isn't perfect? Such is impossible, as the Buddha taught, good householder. May he be carefull since defilements know the way back and forward to use for their blossom.
Answer: Honored Buddhaparisada,
Good Householder Isira Ratnayake, interested,
Those wishing to follow the path of liberation, the path of the Noble One, seek for Arahats as there foremost refuge, headed by the Sublime Buddha.

'Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy & rightly self-awakened, consummate in knowledge & conduct, well-gone, an expert with regard to the world, unexcelled as a trainer for those people fit to be tamed, the Teacher of divine & human beings, awakened, blessed.'

The Savaka Sangha consits as the living refuge, those who have followed straight.

'The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced straight-forwardly... who have practiced methodically... who have practiced masterfully — in other words, the four types of noble disciples when taken as pairs, the eight when taken as individual types — they are the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, the unexcelled field of merit for the world.'

Usually people took and take Refuge in the Community of Monks, after their master himself.
If it is proper to take a certain person or a Bhikkhuni, or a woman as a men, as near model?
Some points to consider:

Seeking Refuge in Individuals as perceived as perfect, bears the danger of missperception and so it's especially for those not having joined the Sainthood better to stay at the Sangha as field of merits, seeing ones chosen particular guide in times of sacrifices within or after them.
Refuge in woman might be often accompanied with defiled thought, yet not necessary so. How ever, good if always seeking for the foremost.
Turning toward another gender bears a lot of danger and so was even at the Buddhas time the the very near guidiance total unusual and seperated. Althought the female Sangha was bound after the male, they had to look after the refined under their "own kind".
A mixed gender relation for a intensive student and teacher relation is even not something praised for children and parent, the lesser free of many dangers for a spiritual, yet there might be seldom exceptions where all works out benefical and of course a wise and decerning person can benefit from all.

If a woman seeks for intensive training she does good and is encouraged to seek after a female near teacher, one who has the higher and foremost as refuge herself, and guides on also to the monks. What isn't good is to seek after a group or person who stands in conflict and opposition of formal hierarchies and is better to be avoided for the most cases. People with problems with hierarchies, even with gender respect problems are heavy ensnared in Sakayaditthi, pride "better am I, worst am I, equal am I"
While Vinaya, conduct, way of life, as foundation of Dhamma, should be seeks to gain under same kind, in regard of teachings of mind-matters, Dhamma, one does good to seek out for Arahats, at least Noble ones, regardless of Gender.
So since the "relation" between layperson and Monastics focuses most more on Dhamma, there is really problem to take a good Bhikkhuni as foremost model in regard of taught as long as living in proper dependency and still in different modes of live.
The have been even ex-husbands seeking for Dhamma, to gain path, from their former wives and Bhikkhunis appear often as great advicers in the texts for (mostly singe) lay people.
May it be of help to straighten the importand things out.
Possible extended answer and given space for discussion and deeper investigation can be found here.
(Note that this isn't given for trade, exchange, stacks and what binds here, but for escape from this wheel)
Answer: Role models exist for when we reach their level.
Otherwise, for example, if you use an Arahant as a role model, you may end up disparaging & reviling stream-enterers, once-returners & non-returners, which will lead to your rebirth in hell and particularly rebirth in the animal kingdom of dumb beasts.
Answer: The key advantage in making the Buddha your role model is that although the Buddha is not living amongst us, his Radiance is present in the Cosmos, in the form of Cosmic Energy. When we pay homage through Buddhanusati, we're linking up with that Cosmic Energy. It is extremely powerful. Many faith based religions survive purely on such devotion. The Buddha however stressed the need to couple Faith or Shraddha, with the rest of the 5 x faculties i.e Shraddha, Veeriya, Sati, Samadhi, Panna.
Answer: From AN 4.159

This body comes into being through conceit. And yet it is by relying on conceit that conceit is to be abandoned.' Thus was it said. And in reference to what was it said? There is the case, sister, where a monk hears, 'The monk named such-and-such, they say, through the ending of the fermentations, has entered & remains in the fermentation-free awareness-release & discernment-release, having known & realized them for himself in the here & now.' The thought occurs to him, 'The monk named such-and-such, they say, through the ending of the fermentations, has entered & remains in the fermentation-free awareness-release & discernment-release, having known & realized them for himself in the here & now. Then why not me?' Then he eventually abandons conceit, having relied on conceit. 'This body comes into being through conceit. And yet it is by relying on conceit that conceit is to be abandoned.' Thus was it said, and in reference to this was it said.

I think that "conceit" includes comparing oneself to someone else -- I am worse, I am equal, I am better, I could be equal, and so on, see for example How are 'conceit' and 'identity-view' not the same?
But the quote above suggests that maybe it is not a "who" (a role model, a person) but is a "what", to be regarded as exemplary -- i.e. it's the practice ("the ending of fermentations").
See also SN 6.2 -- not because one is "more consummate than others", but because the dhamma is "to be known individually / by oneself".

I think this is only a partial answer to your question, a half an answer, see also SN 45.2 -- see also AN 8.54:

And what is meant by admirable friendship? There is the case where a lay person, in whatever town or village he may dwell, spends time with householders or householders' sons, young or old, who are advanced in virtue. He talks with them, engages them in discussions. He emulates consummate conviction in those who are consummate in conviction, consummate virtue in those who are consummate in virtue, consummate generosity in those who are consummate in generosity, and consummate discernment in those who are consummate in discernment. This is called admirable friendship.
Comment: See also [Ud 4.1](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.4.01.than.html) on the effect of a monk having admirable people as friends, companions and colleagues.
Comment: It answer "that" one should, but not "whom" or "what", right Nyom? Maybe just a reaction on an useless account by someone else here, so far, worthy to better focus on the original Question, or?
Comment: @SamanaJohann I think it's the admirable *practices* which are to be emulated, even more than the admirable *people* -- one thing to admire people, better to admire the admirable virtues or practices which they embody. Doing so, making that distinction, might help to avoid some of the dangers (e.g. missperception or dissapointmemt ... or misplaced guru-worship) identified in your and SarathW's answers.

Who should we regard as role models?


Why is my question not submissible?

Question: I've written a question for Chemistry SE but get "Your question couldn't be submitted Resolve 1 issue before posting". This is the title which I've reworded a number of times without meeting tje hidden/unknowable requirements and is currently "What might stop bismuth crystals from being iridescent?" which seems like a perfectly valid question to me.
What am I, or SE, doing wrong?
Comment: From what I see, you don't have any blocks or limitations on Chemistry.SE. Could you please provide us with more info? A full-screen screenshot may be helpful; also, feel free to add the new question body to this question alongside with the exact set of chosen tags and the title. There is a small chance it might be caused by software issues, so feel free to add some info about your OS and browser (have you tried submission with all addons disabled/cookies cleaned?) as well.
Comment: @user3418765 Before posting your question, please go through [this question](https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/32484/what-causes-the-iridescent-colour-in-laboratory-grown-bismuth). Tl:DR: scraping of the bismuth(III) oxide layer or contamination might prevent bismuth from getting iridescent.
Comment: I've somehow managed to remove the block, but now can't post it as I posted here and I have to wait 40 minutes. I find SE so frustrating for many reasons and avoid coming here or the trauma of the previous visit has faded.  I *think* it didn't like my tag "bismuth" even though that's not obviously the title - the tag input field being after the content doesn't intuitively suggest it's part of the title.  I did a number of things so can't be certain what it was that made it ok.
Answer: To wrap the comments up, you commented

I think it didn't like my tag "bismuth"

and this tag issue was the reason.
The system were declining your question because you were trying to create a new tag without having 300 rep points.
In the future, please refrain from creating tags for the chemical elements: these are useless because you can find all relevant posts simply by searching for this element's name.
Introducing new tag also should ideally begin from asking whether it is reasonable on this Meta, and if you don't have enough reputation, proposing a new tag by creating a request by starting a new discussion on Meta is the only way.
A well-written summary can be found on SO: When is it appropriate to create a tag, and how does it work?
Comment: Honourable mention of our guide: [What do I need to know about tagging?](https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2967/4945)

Why is my question not submissible?


Brake fluid change - gravity vs hold/pump vs vacuum vs pressure

Question: I am trying to find the optimal method for brake fluid replacement, so I want to weight all possible methods (the reverse method don't consider) and use the best suited. I always used the hold/pump method, but today have read, that it can be harmful for master cylinder (I will give a link to the source, further).
So, my questions:

Which method should I use, if I want to get the best result - the maximum old fluid replacement, the minimum of potential harm for the brake system, the minimum contents of air in it, etc?

Is the preferred method different for different cars? For example, for Opel Astra H 2011, I should use pump/hold, but for Volkswagen Jetta 2011, I should use another? Both have ABS.

Сons of different methods, that I found:
Hold/Pump:

During this method, the brake pedal and master cylinder piston will travel beyond their normal range which can cause wear on seals or incorporate corroded metal into the brake fluid. Wikipedia. Pros and cons of different methods

Subquestion: How high the probability of this damage? Is it the real thing or just the theory?
Pressure:
If I will build up excessive pressure in the brake fluid reservoir accidentally (more then 1 atm, for example), it can explode. Also, it is hard to control the level of fluid in the system, because of cap, that covers the reservoir.
Vacuum:

Vacuum bleeding may work well if the calipers all have o-ring-type piston seals but it should not be used with caliper having OE-type lip seals because it's too easy to apply too much vacuum such that you suck air past the piston seals...which, of course, defeats the purpose of bleeding. Source

Gravity:
May be, air bubbles wouldn't expelled well, without forcing the fluid flow. Also, can air get into the calipers through the screw hole or the thread, when I will loose screw for bleeding?
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
Answer: If you use the « pump the pedal » method, then put a block under the pedal to limit its travel - this stops or reduces the chances of damaging the seals. This is golden advice on my model of car as the seals can get turned over...
A better system is to pressurise the system and push new fluid all the way through, but systems with abs can cause issues if one is not careful, and sometimes even if one is careful...


Optimal moka pot size for flavor extraction?

Question: My hunch is the smaller the moka pot, the higher the pressure buildup, resulting in higher extraction.  Is this true and are there any other variables that may negate this theory?
Answer: I would assume that size doesn't matter - if the amount of water is proportionally the same then the steam pressure should also be the same, regardless of the size.
But it seems to be much more complicated than that, and part of your answer probably lies in the research paper entitled "Experimental investigation of steam pressure coffee extraction in a stove-top coffee maker" published in volume 29 of Applied Thermal Engineering, which states:

Despite its well-established usage, the moka has never been the
  subject of detailed analysis, which led to a series of unclear
  descriptions or misinterpretations concerning its functioning...

That is if you can understand the thermodynamics, though the study itself seems to be a bit inconclusive. One of the closing statements is interesting:

The quantity of dry air can influence both temperature and flow rate,
  thus affecting final extract quality, and it is meant to be the
  subject of further studies

In the end, though, even the researchers decided that the moka is a bit of an enigma ("...a popular, yet mysterious, device, which so much diverges from other coffee-brewing methods"), so I don't know that you'll find any better answers outside of your own stove-top trials...
Comment: Good point about the amount of water being proportionate.  However, the aluminum thickness seems to be about the same (I have a 3-cup and 6-cup), which should mean there's a disproportionate rate of heat retention.  A study in in moka pot thermodynamics would definitely be interesting or something simple to measure the bars of pressure for each moka pot size.


Wiping data during full disk encryption on an SSD

Question: When installing Linux, most distros offer or force full disk encryption with LUKS. Some distros, such as Debian, by default wipe data before conducting the encryption. Is this effective on SSDs, and if not, what are the alternatives?
Answer: It may not be fully effective due to the disk levelling that takes place. This distributes writes across the whole address space of the disk to reduce wear.
However, there is a standard process called "ATA Secure Erase". I also think that SSD's with NVMe interfaces have a command to securely wipe as well. Microsoft have a tool for their Surface Pro devices that use this. I don't know whether those are good enough for really sensitive data though.
But, you should note that the US DoD do not accept any methods for secure erasure other than physical destruction of the drive I think. Though Blancco offer a product that suggests otherwise so I may be mistaken. If the SSD contains sensitive information, you should look for a certified product. Check the DoD and NIST web sites for the latest information.
Comment: The DoD has several standards for erasure. The most aggressive is degaussing and physical destruction, but less aggressive standards such as the 3 pass and 7 pass wipe also exist. The "Blancco" product you are talking about is snake oil marketing, basically saying it does a 3 or 7 pass overwrite. You can do the same thing with `dd` trivially. It's the equivalent of calling a product that uses HTTPS to connect "military secure" because AES is standardized for military use.
Comment: Thanks for the info - we tend to destroy SSD's that have had sensitive data. I did make something of an assumption in my answer and only referred to US standards. While many countries follow these for this issue, some will have their own standards and you should always check your local government and legal information.
Answer: There are two scenarios when you wipe the disk:

Get rid of old data. Here its important to consider wear leveling.
Wipe a fresh disk to hide how much space is used

The second part is why installers offer a wipe even for new disks. The advantage depends on your threat model, usually it has little advantage but does little damage (except for a long waiting time). When a fresh disk is filled with random data, it hides how much disk space is used even with a SSD.
Keep in mind, that the spare blocks still contain zeros, so somebody could notice that you did not use the disk very much. But they won't see if you used 50% or 80% of the disk, they only see that you did not yet write more than 100% (after which the first spare block should be used).


What math courses should I take to prepare for a CS masters or PhD?

Question: I'm a self-taught professional programmer. I am pretty good at it (Ruby, Unix, Clojure, Java, Objective-C), but now I'm thinking of taking it to the next level by maybe applying for a masters or PhD program in CS. What topics in math should I study to prepare for this goal?
Comment: related: [How do I get started in theoretical CS?](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/3881/how-do-i-get-started-in-theoretical-cs), [Book recommendations for CompSci related math](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/4546/book-recommendations-for-compsci-related-math)
Comment: See: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/2571/1621
Comment: If you're going in cold, with little or no academics behind it, my advice would be to select a program that provides an entry path for non-CS people.  It's not uncommon for people with EE, physics, mathematics, or other similar BS degrees to want to make a career change.  Some universities have programs designed to help facilitate that in their course structures.
Answer: A generally high degree of mathematical maturity makes a lot of the formal aspects of (not necessarily theoretical) computer science much easier to understand. So doing a minor in mathematics along with your major in computer science would do more good than harm.
Answer: Linear algebra, probability theory, some graph theory/combinatorics at a bare minimum.
Answer: There is a course at MIT OCW called Mathematics for Computer Science, it lists some topics you MUST cover.
Learning some Abstract algebra will be a big plus. Because I see too many references to group theory in literature.
Comment: dang. forgot abstract algebra in my answer - good call.
Comment: The Fall 2005 version linked above is missing about 1/3 of the lecture notes. The [Spring 2005](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-042j-mathematics-for-computer-science-spring-2005/lecture-notes/) and [Spring 2010](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-042j-mathematics-for-computer-science-spring-2010/lecture-notes/) versions have more complete notes.
Answer: Some things you may need, some more, some less:

Mathematical Logic
Probability Theory / Combinatorics / Statistics
Linear Algebra
Calculus
Graph Theory
Set Theory
Number Theory
Maybe some optimization theory

Of course (almost) anything will be useful, especially if you are going into theoretical computer science fields.
Answer: All of the other answers +...
Arguably the most useful thing for you to try and do is engage in research. Following stackexchange, reading some background material/papers and figuring out what you might find interesting might be the most effective  way to prepare yourself to grad school.
Answer: excellent/wide responses so far. I suggest some classes not mentioned so far. esp classes that lean toward application of the theory & require the student to write/debug code & visualize [graph results] as part of assignments. or build/debug working systems. etc.

differential equations. esp the relationship between it & discrete differential equations eg generating functions.
numerical methods. optimization. Runge Kutta diffeq solver etc. a neat/highly educational exercise is to solve/graph the Lorentz weather equation. concepts about precision/accuracy in software arithmetic etc.
there is an MIT class "modelling and simulation of dynamical systems". something similar would not be available at all universities but maybe some will have it.
some universities will have principles/dynamics of complex systems or complex adaptive systems etc
anything related to modelling or simulation of systems using software with a mathematical focus
fractal systems & mathematics
machine learning (esp with gradient descent techniques)
quantum computing (some classes in this are highly or mostly mathematical)
Answer: i really support the answers above. I can add the following that may be useful for the big picture of math in CS:
Math can be part of the goal itself; algorithm analysis, complexity bounds, deterministic or probabilistic proofs, parallel algorithms and many more research areas related to time and space of computation.
On the other side, math can be the actual path for a higher level goal; PDEs, light equations for computer graphics, the whole research area of computational physics (dynamical systems, statistical mechanics, galaxy formation) to name some of them.
Under the right circumstances, both forms of math could live together.
Answer: Great question. I just recently passed the PhD qualifying exam that was in part an entrance exam - mix of undergraduate and graduate topics.
To be practical - it depends on the school you are planning to attend, type of entrance exam they might require and type of the program they offer.
Some require GRE, so preparing to enroll is not CS specific. Some require GRE subject, which is equivalent to 5-6 core CS undergraduate courses and theory will be covered (automata theory, discrete math, etc)
To get the most fundamental background I would take Discrete Math, Algorithms and Theory of Computation from Ad Uni.
There are other fantastic sources from MIT and Stanford but these three courses, presented by great Shai Simonson are excellent foundation.
Hope this helps.
Comment: One of these courses are mirrored on YouTube:  [Theory of Computation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUK5RAJg1c).  Unfortunately, the mirrors for [Algorithms](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwlevtaC-u0) and [Discrete Math](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FG9hhiZipo) are incomplete.


Why is my regex expression failing?

Question: Thanks for taking the time to read this.
I'm using Python pandas to merge two datasets on a column named 'title'. Some of the data, in one dataset has additional characters in the title cells surrounded by parentheses which causes the merge to fail on these cells. I'm trying to remove the parentheses and the values they contain using the following however, the merge still misses the updated data.
Data sample, code and regex are below.
I'm assuming that the regex is incorrect - any thoughts?
import pandas as pd

data1 = pd.DataFrame({'id': ['a12bcde0'], 'title': ['company_a']})

data2 = pd.DataFrame({'serial_number': ['01a2b345','10ab2030'],'title':['company_a','company_a (123)']})

data2['title'].replace(regex=True,inplace=True,to_replace=r"\(.*\)",value=r'')

pd.merge(data1, data2, on='title')

Comment: You're forgetting the whitespace before the opening parentheses: `to_replace=r"\s\(.*\)"`
Comment: So simple and so true! Thank you @StevenRumbalski
Answer: You're forgetting the whitespace before the opening parentheses in your pattern: to_replace=r"\s\(.*\)"

Why is my regex expression failing?


Is there any real downside to recasting my US mortgage?

Question: I have been paying additional principal every month on my 30 year fixed mortgage. As a result, I have paid more principal than expected, and can recast my mortgage to lower the monthly payments (and my lender does not charge any fees for this). Is there any downside to doing this? Of course, if the mortgage is recast and I adhere strictly to this new schedule and cease the additional payments, I will pay the mortgage off slower and therefore incur more interest. However, since I can still elect to pay additional principal each month if I decide to (which I would), it seems there isn't really any negative to the recast. Only the benefit that if I am, for whatever reason, tighter for cash one month I can elect to pay only this lower monthly charge? Am I missing anything? Why would anyone not recast their mortgage?
Comment: I don't know how mortgage works in the US in regard to ealy repayment but mine in Canada limit my  early payment to 25% of my regular monthly payment. So it could lower the maximum you can prepay
Answer: There's really no downside. For the mere mortal who spends their money on toys and alcohol, sticking to the original payment requirement is advised. But, you've proven that you're disciplined.
You ask why would one not do this? Because very few people pay ahead, and for those that do, very few banks make such an offer.
Say rates go back to 'normal' and your savings account yields 6%. Wouldn't it be nice to just deposit that extra money and get 6% vs the 4% or less that you pay on your mortgage?
It's always interesting to answer a question with no other details. I trust you have no other debt, no cards you pay high interest on. No car loan, etc. Personally, I'd pay the minimum on the mortgage and invest, long term. If paying off the mortgage helps you sleep better at night, recast, and keep making the extra payments.
Comment: I recognize the tradeoff between paying down the mortgage faster vs utilizing those funds for investment. I have no credit card debt, a low rate auto loan that has no payments due for a year (paid a lot extra on there as well), and invest a much larger sum into the market than I do in paying ahead my mortgage (say additional mortgage principal is X, market investment is 5X, monthly). It is essentially an attempt at slight diversification. Also, my goodness what tf kind of savings account are you talking about? 6% is huge.
Comment: You seem to know what you're doing. Good work
Comment: @Runeaway3: What kind of savings account pays 6% or more?  The ones in the late 1970s and 1980s.  Here's rates for a 6 month CD in the 1980s:  https://www.depositaccounts.com/blog/h istorical-cd-rates.html#CDRatesinthe1980s  Anywhere from 5.7% to over 17%.  How soon we forget...


How to do barbell overhead press such that kinetic chain stays activated throughout the set?

Question: Can anyone please suggest how to do barbell overhead press such that kinetic chain stays activated throughout the set? I also need clarification on inhalation and exhalation pattern.
Comment: Keep your glutes and abs rock hard during the exercise.
Answer: In any exercise performed while standing, the kinetic chain just means the bones, joints and muscles between and external resistance and the floor. If you are standing up, then your kinetic chain is activated. With any part of the chain not activated, you either would not be able to stand, or would not be able to lift the weight. So if you can lift the weight above your head, your kinetic chain is activated. So it isn't really a useful concept. You should probably just ignore anyone that tells you that you need to worry about kinetic chain activation.
As for breathing, holding your breath allows you to brace and keep your torso rigid, which is important when moving the bar. The most common breathing pattern is to breathe when holding the bar at shoulder height, taking a big breath, and then holding it in while raising and lowering the bar. An alternative approach is to breathe at the top of the lift, hold your breathe while lowering the bar, and se a bounce at the bottom of the lift to make the next rep easier.


DTD factory class org.apache.xerces.impl.dv.dtd.DTDDVFactoryImpl does not extend from DTDDVFactory when use XOM xml library

Question: When Deploy the war application in the jboss wildfly getting the following error.
DTD factory class org.apache.xerces.impl.dv.dtd.DTDDVFactoryImpl does not extend from DTDDVFactory

When I comment the XOM artifact in the pom I can deploy the war without any errors.
How can I fix the deployment error?
Answer: Try checking this answer. It will give you the details, but if you provide your own xerces.jar, you have to specify it doing: java -Djava.endorsed.dirs=/path/to/xerces.jar.


counting number of gaps in python

Question: how can I calculate the number of gaps in sequences:
for example:
s1='G _ A A T T C A G T T A'
s2='G G _ A _ T C _ G _ _ A'
s3='G A A T T C A G T _ T _'

her the number of '_' is 8
I try the following:
def count():
    gap=0
    for i in range(0, len(s1), 3):
        for x,y,z in zip(s1,s2,s3):
            if (x=='_') or (y=='_')or (z=='_') :
                gap=gap+1
        return gap

it gives 6 not 8
Answer: Strings have a count() method:
s1.count('_') + s2.count('_') + s3.count('_')

Answer: Your code returns 7 which is the total count of all the underscores minus the extra underscore in the third to last position.  You can fix that by removing the or-test (which short-circuits the tests when a match is found).
Also note there is no need to triple-zip the code or to loop with a stride-of-three.
Here is a cleaned-up version of your original code:
def count():
    gap=0
    for x,y,z in zip(s1,s2,s3):
        if (x == '_'):               # these if-stmts don't short-circuit
            gap += 1
        if (y == '_'):
            gap += 1
        if (z == '_'):
            gap += 1
    return gap

There are other ways to do this faster (i.e. the str.count method) but I wanted to show you how to repair and clean-up your original logic.  That ought to put you on the right track when you do other analytics.
Answer: The two _'s in the 10th position only get counted twice. You should get 7, rather than 6.
The simple solution is sum([item.count('_') for item in [s1,s2,s3]])

counting number of gaps in python


How does a FICO score start out?

Question: Right now I have 0 credit since I've never had a credit card before, I recently applied for a credit card and got approved so I can start building my credit.  I hear that 500-600 is considered very bad credit.  Since right now I have a credit score of 0, does it slowly build up, does it go to 100 then 200 then 300, or does it jump to an average of around 600 then go from there?
Comment: Not having a score is different than a score of 0. When there's enough information about you to generate a score, assuming there are no bad items, I'd guess you'd have a 6xx
Answer: The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, and as a practical matter it's rare to be at the extreme low end of the range.
You may jump in with a decent credit score before long, as you accumulate a little credit.  However, significant factors in credit scoring are the length, depth, and breadth of your credit history and recently opening credit accounts - so it takes time to build up a durable credit rating.
Answer: The credit score algorithms are proprietary, so no one can tell you for sure what your score will be. However, if you look at a distribution of credit score, the median score is roughly 710-730. You will likely be below this due to a short credit history etc., but are unlikely to be at the extreme low end as well as you don't have any "strikes" against you such as late payments etc.
Also, some utilities as well as student loan companies will report payment or non-payment of bills, so if you have any of these you may have a credit score even if you don't have a credit card.
As long as you pay on time and keep your level of installment debt low, you should be ok. See the following link for more information about how your FICO is calculated here.
Also, most lenders look at additional factors besides your credit score, so don't assume you can't get credit without a FICO score (or with lower than average credit) if you work with someone who will manually underwrite you for a loan.

How does a FICO score start out?


Do I need a visa for the UK with a visa type D from Spain?

Question: I am Peruvian but have a permanent residence in Mexico. I'm going to study abroad in Spain so I have a Type D visa. I want to visit the UK but don't know if i need to apply for the standard visa. Mexicans don't need the visa and I don't know if same thing applies to me if I have a permanent residency.
Answer:
I am a Peruvian living in Mexico with Mexican Permanent Residency and I want to visit the UK - Mexican nationals do not need a visa, do I need a visa?

Yes, you do - you hold Mexican residency but only your nationality counts in this case, so you would apply to the UK for a Standard Visitor Visa (or whichever visa you need) under your Peruvian nationality.
https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/peru/tourism
Under UK requirements, you are still a Peruvian national, you just happen to be living in a different country.
While some countries accept permanent residence status as enough for you to apply under the requirements from those countries rather than your country of nationality, the UK does not - you are considered based on the nationality as depicted on your travel document.
If you had a Mexican travel document which stated your nationality as Mexican, then you could visit the UK under the visa rules for Mexicans.
Comment: +1, you got me by 22 seconds. Copy anything helpful from my answer into yours and ping me so I can delete my answer. Nice FGITW!
Comment: @GayotFow thanks :) And to think I actually procrastinated about that too!
Comment: OK, deleted, enjoy!


Selecting bars vertically in Sibelius

Question: I have made a layout of auto system breaks in Sibelius by every 7 bars (layout-> breaks-> auto breaks). Now I want to select bars vertically, but if I press shift key and select bars by column, it overlaps by both rows and columns. How could I make a selection of bars vertically down?
Answer: The System Passage Select command in Sibelius selects a group of bars in a score that play simultaneously, e.g. every bar 6 in every instrument in the score.
The sample you supplied shows either a single part or a score containing just one instrument. You're trying to use the System Passage Select tool to create a group of bars containing bars 6 and 13 and 20, etc., which is not a System Passage, i.e. not a vertical selection.
I think the best you can do is copy the bars individually.
Comment: The above answer seems to have been misunderstood as suggesting a method of making the sort of multiple selection asked for.  I'm afraid it doesn't.  I trust this comment is helpful!

Selecting bars vertically in Sibelius


How do I make adjustment layers work without a background layer in photoshop cc?

Question: As it is, I can't get my adjustment layer to apply to the layers I want because when I get them to clip for one layer, they stop working (they no longer change anything for any layer). If I hide the background layer, they stop working. This has been incredibly frustrating. I recently set my backgrounds layers as gray in my document presets for figuring out colours and I have a hunch that might have something to do with it.
Comment: I have no idea what you are asking. [Adjustment layers work with or without a background layer](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AkhUt.png), provided there are actual pixels to adjust somewhere. If you are expecting adjustment layers to work on *transparent* areas, they won't. There's nothing in transparency to "adjust".
Comment: https://imgur.com/a/AOnnbOU Here's three screen shots to show you what I mean.
Comment: I can't replicate the problem either. Perhaps provide some screenshots to show what is wrong, and what you are trying to achieve.
Comment: Your Adjustment Layer is **not clipped** in the first and third image. It is only clipped in the one image which is reported to be working "as expected". Which is, well, as expected `:)`
Comment: In the second image, it is clipped to layer 2 and the curves do nothing to the layer, the strokes do not tint red, they stay grey, while in the third image it should still turn everything visible red, should it not (as I remember it used to)
Answer: It appears to have something to do with layer opacity. If opacity is too low the adjustment doesn't seem to alter anything. In other words, it seems if there isn't enough of a histogram to read, there's not enough histogram to apply an adjustment to. At least that's how it appears to me.
Low opacity layer....

Same adjustment, higher opacity layer (all I did was toggle layer visibility):

Side by side under the same adjustment layer:

The only difference is I boosted how opaque one layer was (via copies and merging).

And clipping works as expected with the higher opacity layer:

Note this low opacity seems to limit several adjustment layer types, not merely the curves.
I, personally, would use a Color Overlay Layer Style rather than an adjustment layer here, but that's merely my preference - and I realize your posted images may not be the actual files you are working with. The Layer Style doesn't appear to suffer from this limitation at all.
Comment: So I was just working on another project where I instead opened an image, making it the background. That, actually seemed to do it and adjustments worked as normal. I've yet to try it on a non neutral toned background (white), since I'd been doing a little research of my own and it seems like adjustment layers factor the background colour into their calculations and things get weird if the background is set to gray by default. Anyway, I'll try to change around my document presets and take your advice on using an overlay layer instead in the meantime. Thanks for all your help Scott.
Comment: I was using the same brush, low opacity strokes, a different background, and it worked. I'm now using a color overlay fx for the prior document, it definitely saves a lot of the fuss, again, thanks for the advice Scott.


Delay shooting till player has reached the correct rotation - Twin Stick

Question: Like most Twin Stick shooters, my player both turns and shoots with the right stick. I use a Quaternion.Slerp() to smoothly rotate the player from the current rotation to the new rotation, however the player starts firing before reaching the new rotation. My question is what is the most optimal way to delay my player from shooting until they've reached the desired new rotation?
Comment: Be very careful when delaying player action, as it has a tendency to make your game feel sluggish and unresponsive, but in a way that's hard for a player to pin down — they just feel their frustration or boredom rising instead of getting sucked into the immediacy of your gameplay. Unless your rotation is very slow, you may want to allow the player to fire instantly *as though they were already in the new orientation* and let the visual rotation of their avatar catch up when it can. This will tend to feel snappier.
Comment: In a fast-paced twin stick shooter, having the bullets fire when & how the player wants them to is likely to be more precious to their experience than the integrity of your barrel animations. If something's gotta give, in my own work I'd change the way I rotate my barrels before adding any frames of latency to the player's shots. It is of course your game and you can set priorities differently, just be very conscious of the impacts this will have on the player's experience of the game feel.
Comment: Either way, I need a solution. Not the lesser of two evils.
Comment: Yes it is snappy but the projectiles are then noticeably flying out at awkward angles. The turn rotation isn't slow by any means but I can have them getting frustrated at wasted bullets or confused as to why the bullets are shooting 90 degrees out of the barrel.
Comment: Use coroutines. Just rotate inside coroutine, stop coroutine before starting a new one. Shoot after loop is done inside coroutine.
Answer: I think getting rid of Slerp or using a high t so that it's fast enough would be the best as far as gameplay goes.
However, I think this gets close to what you want: find the difference in rotation between the stick and the character and shoot only if the two are close enough. I think this is the closest thing to what you actually want.
Here are two ways you can do this:
If you have vectors for stick direction and character front, probably most efficient:
Vector3 stickDirection;
Vector3 characterFront;
float maxShootingAngleDifference = 10;
if (Vector3.Angle(stickDirection, characterFront) < maxShootingAngleDifference) {
    Debug.Log("Shoot!");
}

If you have rotations for stick and character:
Quaternion stickOrientation;
Quaternion characterOrientation;
float maxShootingAngleDifference = 10;
// documentation does not say, but if this can return negative, put it in Mathf.Abs()
if (Quaternion.Angle(stickOrientation, characterOrientation) < maxShootingAngleDifference) {
    Debug.Log("Shoot!");
}

This would make it fire after the character gets closer than 10 degrees to the stick direction.


When was Ramayan written before or after it happened?

Question: I think Ramayan is written after it happened. but i also listen that it was written before it happened.
Answer: As per the conversations of Narada & Valmiki and Lord Brahma and Valmiki in Sarga1-2, Balkand, Valmiki Ramayana:
Till Yudhakand and few stories of Uttarakand:

After they happened as narrated by Narada to Valmiki

Later stories of Uttarakand:

Before they happened as per the divine powers given by Lord Brahma to Valmiki
Note: few scholars say that Uttarakand and Balkand were not part of original Valmiki Ramayana and were added later.

This is confirmed by Lord Brahma in Uttarakand too:

O hero, Valmiki has described herein all miseries and joys thee hasexperienced since thy birth and what shall happen in future.

Which stories in Uttarakhand are written before they happened:
Narada to Valmiki (Valmiki Ramayana 1.1.94 to 1.1.97)

अश्वमेधशतैरिष्ट्वा तथा बहुसुवर्णकै: ।।।।
गवां कोट्ययुतं दत्वा ब्रह्मलोकं प्रयास्यति ।
असंख्येयं धनं दत्वा ब्राह्मणेभ्यो महायशा: ।।
Highly renowned Rama, having satisfied the gods with the performance of a hundred of aswamedhas and many suvarnakas bestowing hundreds of thousands of cows and immense wealth on the brahmins, will return to his heavenly abode.
राजवंशान्शतगुणान्स्थापयिष्यति राघव: ।
चातुर्वर्ण्यं च लोकेऽस्मिन् स्वे स्वे धर्मे नियोक्ष्यति ।।
Rama will establish hundredfold royal dynasties and employ the four castes to do their respective duties, in this world.
दशवर्षसहस्राणि दशवर्षशतानि च ।
रामो राज्यमुपासित्वा ब्रह्मलोकं प्रयास्यति ।।
Rama, reigning the kingdom for eleven thousand years, will attain to his heavenly abode.
Answer:
मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः।
  यत् क्रौंचमिथुनादेकमवधीः काममोहितम् ।।

अयं श्लोकः एव रामायणस्य मूलप्रेरकः अपि चाभवत् ।
This curse was given to a Nishad after he had killed the male Kronch bird from a couple of two birds. The rishi was Valmiki... It was the first shlok of Ramayana.

After this incident, Saint Narada visits hermitage of Valmiki. Rishi Valmiki queries about a single perfect individual bestowed with all good qualities enumerated by him. Devrishi Narada, knower of past, present and future, identifies such a man, describes virtues, qualities of Sri Rama , narrates briefly the story of his life.
Shlokas can be found here : https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&language=dv&field_sarga_value=1

If you read any one of the shloka in conversation :

न पुत्रमरणं किञ्चिद्द्रक्ष्यन्ति पुरुषा: क्वचित् ।
  नार्यश्चाविधवा नित्यं भविष्यन्ति पतिव्रता: ।।1.1.91।।

During the period of Rama's rule, nowhere would men witness the death of their sons or women widowed. They would ever remain chaste and devoted to their husbands.
Here, भविष्यन्ति is the First person(प्रथम  पुरुष) plural(बहुवचन )  future tense(लृट्लकार भ्वादिगण परस्मैपदी) ofverb  be(भू ).

This ensures that everything that happened was before or contemporary to Rama and certainly not after it.
Comment: ohhhh..i understand that Valmiki was contemporary to Lord Shri Ram and he wrote the stories till Yudhakand and few stories from Uttarakand after they happened as narrated by Narada. But few stories of Uttarakand were written before they happened bcz Lord Brahma gave him some divine powers.
Comment: Why u r not reading the complete Sarga. Please visit the link that you have given in your answer and read the complete page.
Comment: I don't understand why we r being interpreter here, and why not compiler. Atleast can we bother to read the complete page which we are giving in answer as a proof.
Comment: I read that whole page. What are you trying to say?
Comment: Pls read 1.1.94 to 1.1.97 again and read Sarga 2 as well where Lord Brahma says to Valmiki that u ll come to know future events.
Comment: So? What does this mean? What are you trying to imply by this? Does this change the order of the events?
Comment: That means few stories of Uttarakand were written before they happened like Rama's ashwamedh yagh. If u believe in fact that Balkand and Uttarakhand are added later then don't give Ur answer from them. If u believe in Balkand as well as Uttarakand then accept the fact.
Comment: Okay, please read my answer again  and look for word contemporary.


On export Managed_files With Features No UUID Added

Question: I have a custom field  of type 'managed_file' along another field of type - 'file'. This node is exported into feature. The field with 'file' type gets UUID attached while it does not for 'managed_file' field. In the database table 'file_managed', there are UUIDs for all the files included ones uploaded with 'manged_file'. Why is it not including the UUID for managed_file custom fields in the feature? Is there a separate module for this? Any suggestions how to best export/import files? Your help is much appreciated
uuid 7.x-1.0-alpha5+17-dev, uuid_feature 7.x-1.0-alpha3+15-dev, strongarm - 7.x-2.0, Drupal 7.26
Answer: I end up creating module for handling assets exporting via Features either as custom field or not. Here is write up
http://margotskapacs.com/2014/04/handling-artifacts-for-custom-module-in-drupal/


Measuring non-linear dependence

Question: Covariance between two random variables defines a measure of how closely are they linearly related to each other. But what if the joint distribution is circlular? Surely there is structure in the distribution. How is this structure extracted?
Answer: By "circular" I understand that the distribution is concentrated on a circular region, as in this contour plot of a pdf.

If such a structure exists, even partially, a natural way to identify and measure it is to average the distribution circularly around its center.  (Intuitively, this means that for each possible radius $r$ we should spread the probability of being at distance $r$ from the center equally around in all directions.)  Denoting the variables as $(X,Y)$, the center must be located at the point of first moments $(\mu_X, \mu_Y)$.  To do the averaging it is convenient to define the radial distribution function
$$F(\rho) = \Pr[(X-\mu_X)^2 + (Y-\mu_Y)^2 \le \rho^2], \rho \ge 0;$$
$$F(\rho) = 0, \rho \lt 0.$$
This captures the total probability of lying between distance $0$ and $\rho$ of the center.  To spread it out in all directions, let $R$ be a random variable with cdf $F$ and $\Theta$ be a uniform random variable on $[0, 2\pi]$ independent of $R$.  The bivariate random variable $(\Xi, H) = (R\cos(\Theta) + \mu_X, R\sin(\Theta)+\mu_Y)$ is the circular average of $(X,Y)$.  (This does the job our intuition demands of a "circular average" because (a) it has the correct radial distribution, namely $F$, by construction, and (b) all directions from the center ($\Theta$) are equally probable.)
At this point you have many choices: all that remains is to compare the distribution of $(X,Y)$ to that of $(\Xi, H)$.  Possibilities include an $L^p$ distance and the Kullback-Leibler divergence (along with myriad related distance measures: symmetrized divergence, Hellinger distance, mutual information, etc.).  The comparison suggests $(X,Y)$ may have a circular structure when it is "close" to $(\Xi, H)$.  In this case the structure can be "extracted" from properties of $F$.  For instance, a measure of central location of $F$, such as its mean or median, identifies the "radius" of the distribution of $(X,Y)$, and the standard deviation (or other measure of scale) of $F$ expresses how "spread out" $(X,Y)$ are in the radial directions about their central location $(\mu_X, \mu_Y)$.
When sampling from a distribution, with data $(x_i,y_i), 1 \le i \le n$, a reasonable test of circularity is to estimate the central location as usual (with means or medians) and thence convert each value $(x_i,y_i)$ into polar coordinates $(r_i, \theta_i)$ relative to that estimated center.  Compare the standard deviation (or IQR) of the radii to their mean (or median).  For non-circular distributions the ratio will be large; for circular distributions it should be relatively small.  (If you have a specific model in mind for the underlying distribution, you can work out the sampling distribution of the radial statistic and construct a significance test with it.)  Separately, test the angular coordinate for uniformity in the interval $[0, 2\pi)$.  It will be approximately uniform for circular distributions (and for some other distributions, too); non-uniformity indicates a departure from circularity.
Comment: Thank you! Although not entirely clear, this does give me some idea. Could you please recommend some reading where these kind of distributions are tackled? I have been only exposed to Gaussians and the other standard distributions. Another question, does this have something to do with the radial distribution functions of the atoms etc?
Comment: @Infinity Let me know what part is not clear so I can try to fix it up.  I don't know where such distributions are discussed, but related analysis can be found in the literature on "circular distributions."  The underlying mathematical ideas are indeed somewhat tenuously related to atomic orbital theory.  The relevant concepts include separability of the Schrodinger Equation in spherical coordinates, constructing Haar measure of a compact Lie group by averaging, and comparing orbitals by means of overlap integrals.
Comment: @Infinity I added some clarifying remarks.  You don't average out circles; rather, you average out (or "smear") all the probability *across* each circle so that no matter what you started with, it ends up looking like my picture (with circular contours).  If the original distribution was truly circular, this averaging doesn't change it.  Thus, comparing the distribution to its averaged version tells you how far it is from being circular in the first place.
Comment: Thanks. I am very new to probability and stats so it was probably because of that. I don't really understand what you mean by "average the distribution circularly around its center", I think it means to average out all the circles so that there is only one circle left with center at $(\mu_X, \mu_Y)$ and radius $\rho$ kinda like a linear regression line fit. Is that correct?
Comment: The other doubt I have is that the distribution function $F(\rho)$ seems to describe a disc but the figure (and what I had in mind)  is a ring. The random variable  $(\Xi, H)$ describes the average circle in polar form. I am sorry I do not clearly get what happens next. I understand we compare the two distributions using some distance metric, but why is the $(\Xi, H)$ special and how it helps I am unable to reason. I am sorry if the questions seem too stupid.
Answer: Mutual information has properties somewhat analogous to covariance. Covariance is a number which is 0 for independent variables and nonzero for variables which are linearly dependent. In particular, if two variables are the same, then the covariance is equal to variance (which is usually a positive number). One issue with covariance is that it may be zero even if two variables are not independent, provided the dependence is nonlinear.
Mutual information (MI) is a non-negative number. It is zero if and only if the two variables are statistically independent. This property is more general than that of covariance and covers any dependencies, including nonlinear ones.
If the two variable are the same, MI is equal to the variable's entropy (again, usually a positive number). If the variables are different and not deterministically related, then MI is smaller than the entropy. In this sense, MI of two variables goes between 0 and H (the entropy), with 0 only if independent and H only if deterministically dependent.
One difference from covariance is that the "sign" of dependency is ignored. E.g. $Cov(X, -X) = -Cov(X, X) = -Var(X)$, but $MI(X, -X) = MI(X, X) = H(X)$.
Comment: Could you expand on how this concept provides an answer to the question?
Answer: Please have a look at the following article from science - it addresses your point exactly:
Detecting Novel Associations in Large Data Sets by David N. Reshef et al.
From the abstract:

Identifying interesting relationships between pairs of variables in
  large data sets is increasingly important. Here, we present a measure
  of dependence for two-variable  relationships: the maximal information
  coefficient (MIC). MIC captures a wide range of associations both
  functional and not, and for functional relationships provides a score
  that roughly equals the coefficient of determination (R^2) of the data
  relative to the regression function. MIC belongs to a larger class of
  maximal information-based nonparametric exploration (MINE) statistics
  for identifying and classifying relationships. We apply MIC and MINE
  to data sets in global health, gene expression, major-league baseball,
  and the human gut microbiota and identify known and novel
  relationships.

You find supplemental material here:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2011/12/14/334.6062.1518.DC1
The authors even provide a free tool incorporating the novel method which can be used with R and Python: http://www.exploredata.net/

Measuring non-linear dependence


Traveling with an upright bass

Question: This is mostly hypothetical but I was wondering what the safest way to travel with a 3/4 size upright acoustic bass from Minnesota to New York? And what considerations are there
Answer: A hard case is essential. If it is impractical to buy a seat for the instrument, the best way to ensure its survival is to take it to a Fedex company-owned facility, not a franchise, and have them pack the interior of the case. I have had to ship an irreplaceable instrument, and chose them to do the packing. It is worth the expense. De-tune the instrument by turning the pegs back a half-turn.  Also, make sure the airline knows that the instrument must be stored in a pressurized, climate controlled part of the baggage compartment. The low pressure and sub-zero temperatures in regular baggage can wreak havoc on the wood panels, veneers, neck, and frame components of the instrument.
Please post follow up on your experience.
Comment: My son plays double bass. He has not yet flown (up to know it has been better to drive than do all it takes to fly.)  I will pass this information along to him.
Answer: If you are flying then you need a hard case.  You obviously can't take it on board with you so it needs protecting when being handled by the luggage crew.
Comment: Would it be any better if I road tripped instead carrying my bass in the car
Comment: You certainly can take it in the car in a soft case.  The way I do it is to flatten back the front passenger seat, and put the bass in endpin end first, to the back, so the head end is to the front of the seat.  You might have a different way of doing it, depending on your car.

Traveling with an upright bass


Do sign languages have "accents" like verbal languages?

Question: Do sign languages have "accents" like verbal languages? If so, what would be some examples of those?
Comment: @mobileink - To be more clear, can a London signer, just by following another signer, conclude something like, "this guy is from Sussex", or "this lady is German", just like a London speaker could do just by hearing a person from those places?
Comment: Do you mean accents as a foreign sounding speech by someone who speaks a non-native language?
Comment: @lemontree - That, or regional variances, such as Ned Stark saying "joostice" instead of "justice".
Comment: i.e. by analogy is there a "Southern" (or whatever) accent in American Sign Language?  Interesting question!  I think there must be, but don't know.
Comment: apparently, yes. Google "asl accents".
Comment: There are a number of assumptions that are questionable -- for instance, English Sign Language is completely different from American Sign Language (ASL). They are not mutually comprehensible. However, French Sign Language is very close to ASL. In addition, deaf signers sign within their own speech community, which is subject to a great deal of variation, simply because it's small and it's isolated (and a large number of deaf people are poor). For a couple of examples. For more you need an expert on deaf sign, which I'm not.
Answer: If we define 'accent' to mean a distinctive manner of expressing language characteristic of a particular group(s) then I would say that the answer to your question is yes. All that would be required for such a notion to be possible is a group of people stressing certain modes of their language in certain idiosyncratic ways.
This much has been shown to actually exist within sign language communities. Linguists researching the Philadelphia area have observed that a single meaning is represented by different mannerisms in Philadelphia compared to the rest of the United States. It is believed that the cause of this deviance is due to many deaf students in Philadelphia attending 'mainstream' schools, where the deaf students were less likely to be in the company of other deaf students.
This raises an interesting, overarching observation that most differences between accents in sign language communities occur between those who are deaf and those who are not. It has been suggested that deaf sign language users can determine whether another sign language user is deaf or not.
It will be interesting to see more research come out on this point.


Change Bitbucket login from username / password to login with Google

Question: I've got a Bitbucket account I setup using a username / password. At the moment Bitbucket doesn't allow you to have 2-step authentication on your account, so I want to change my Bitbucket login to be able to login with my Google account (which does have 2-step auth). Does any one know if this is possible?
Answer: After logging in, head over to Connected accounts & click on Connect next to Google.
Alternatively, at the Login page, if you login with Google, Bitbucket will offer to connect your existing account with the Google account if the email ids are the same.


Is there a way to get lightroom to show me the camera's original thumbnail?

Question: When I import raw files into lightroom, it displays one thumbnail right away, but then after it's processed everything, the thumbnail changes, sometimes noticeably.  From what I've read, the initial thumbnail is a jpg that the camera embedded into the raw file.  Here's my problem: sometimes the camera's thumbnail is significantly better than the starting point that lightroom comes up with.  Is there any way to get lighroom to display the camera's original thumbnail once its already done its processing?   I realize it won't have the all the data of the raw file, but I'd like to be able to look at it as a reference.
Comment: Possible dublicate of ["Can I save the JPEG preview image when I shoot in RAW only?"](http://photo.stackexchange.com/q/38594/17441) though this one asks specifically for solution in Lightroom.
Comment: One alternative is to use the manufacturer's RAW convertor. Most will apply the same in-camera settings when it opens the RAW file that were applied in-camera when the preview jpeg was generated.
Answer: In absence of another answer, after a couple of days:
As was pointed out in Can I save the JPEG preview image that's generated in-camera when I shoot in RAW-only mode?, dcraw can extract the thumbnail.   However, finding the raw file, running dcraw in a command window, and opening up the jpg it produces is a tedious process, so I made a little lightroom plugin to do all that automatically.
https://github.com/smoofra/Show-Camera-Thumbnail


InfoPath Web Part sends blank value to List view WebPart

Question: I would like to use a value (in a dropdown) from an Infopath web part (list form) to send a filter value to list view webpart. I have added a button to send data to webpart, I've also tried included this rule on the drop down. I feel like I've tried all the settings and such, but the Infopath webpart always sends "empty" value to the list view webpart. It doesn't want to send the value in my dropdown, just send empty every time. I have send first row of data unchecked, and send data when page loads is also unchecked. Is this even possible? Or am I missing something?
Thanks
Answer: First of all, please make sure the rule on the Button is "Send data to Web Part".

Then connect the list view web part with InfoPath form web part as shown below:

Configure the connection settings:

Simple demo for your reference:
Comment: so I followed your instructions exactly (thank you, they are perfect) but I still only get an "empty" filter on the consumer field in the list view webpart after I hit the button to send to webpart. The field in question is a lookup, do you think that's the problem?
Answer: this won't work for me as I'm using a lookup field, between InfoPath and SPD, I have created a hidden helper field to just show the value from SO number, which I will use to connect the InfoPath WebPart and the List view Webpart.