Can I reformat an old logo with a higher resolution?

Question: I have 2 logos saved in a PDF file. I sent them to my printer to have a banner printed using those logos. THe printer is saying they are not high enough resolution. How can I reformat them so they are usable for my banner? Thanks in advance.
Comment: No clue. PDFs can be created in a dozen different ways. Some PDFs allow easy resizing, others don't. There's no way for anyone to answer your question without either seeing the PDF in question or a detailed explanation on how the PDF was generated and what application was used to create the initial artwork.
Answer: You cannot "reformat" the PDF in a way that will make it appropriate.
You can do things to extract the image, and you can fuss with the numbers (pixel dimensions, dpi) so that the resulting file will conform to their specification. However, this will only play with the numbers and the quality will be the same as if they just used the PDF you submitted, since you will be doing exactly what they would need to do to get it to print at the size you requested.
What you need to do is go back to the the assets used to create the original item and then recreate the item, targeting the correct pixel dimensions and print size. If it is full color, not primarily line art, you would be going for 300dpi, so you need 300 pixels per inch per dimension. for 10x10 inches, this would be a 3000x3000 pixel image. You will probably want to avoid saving it as a jpg, since this will degrade quality a little.
If it is a logo or primarily line art and large areas of solid color, you probably want vector art (illustrator, eps), which is device independent and not measured in pixels, generally.
If you can't get a better quality image or don't have access to the original assets, you may need to recreate it. Otherwise, you will need to make a judgement call: decide if the low quality as submitted is going to be good enough.
Answer: It will depend on how the image are stored in your own PDF file: as you can see in this Wikipedia article about the PDF imaging model, the image could be either vector graphics or raster graphics.
You should be able to extract images from your PDF using tools such as Some PDF Images Extract.
In the case of vector graphics, you would be able to upscale them easily. If they are raster graphics, you can use your favorite image editor but be careful about which upscaling algorithm is used!
Answer: You can open the image in Adobe Photoshop, edit it and resave as a new format. However, the editing part is tricky. Depending on the quality of the original logo, you may have to nearly redo the thing to get a crisp, high res final product.


Was this a valid draw?

Question: I was playing this game in-person with someone and I was white. My opponent had a pawn on a7 and kept moving his king back and forth  between c6 and d6 at least 3-4 times while I maneuvered my bishop around the board to capture his pawn on a7 to make room for my past pawn. After I captured his pawn on a7 he moved his king back to d6 and claimed it was a draw because at that time he had moved his king back and forth on the same 2 squares 6 times. I understand the 3 fold repetition but his king had other squares to move and wasn't in a perpetual check. Was this a valid draw?
Answer: No, it was not a draw. For a draw by three-fold repetition, the exact position, and all of the possible moves (castling and en passant, which since en passant can only happen on the move, in essence, it requires a fourth repetition of the position), have to be repeated three times.
It was clearly a case of your opponent not really knowing the rules.
It seems like he was somewhat confusing, and mixing, three-fold repetition with the 50-move rule, which requires 50 moves of just moving around without a pawn move or capture with repeating the position three times.
P.S. The repetitions do not need to be consecutive.
Comment: Thanks Phish, I thought it was odd and I've never heard of a 6-move draw like that before. I don't play too often so I'm not too familiar with ruling like that. I just agreed for the game's sake but I know I was in a winning position to promote the pawn and pick off the rest.
Comment: Many players especially newer ones and those who do not play in tournaments do not know all the rules.  I played someone at the club we had at the uni who did not know en passant.
Comment: Primarily YOUR figures didn't take part in the repetition - as your bishop moved with a clear goal and clearly changed and did not repeat its move
Comment: "P.S. The repetitions do not need to be consecutive." They don't? Must be hard to keep track then.
Comment: No, they do not. Considering the rule is really borne of tournaments, you keep score there, so there is proof. That said, it might be hard for a weaker player to realize they have had a three-fold repetition, but most experienced players have an idea they have repeated three times, and then they can just glance at their scoresheet to confirm. It might need to be a bit more obvious if you are playing blitz, and thus, in a row is easier to prove.
Comment: @Mast Yes. If someone claims a draw and the opponent doesn't agree that it's a draw, then in a tournament the arbiter needs to look at the scoresheets and replay the game to determine whether it actually is a draw. This can take a while.
Comment: @JiK I think that this was much more informal (on off-hand game) than that, and hopefully, presented with the evidence that it is not a draw, he would just agree, and acquiesce.

Was this a valid draw?


Apple Music: "For You" section not refreshing on iTunes 12.2

Question: I'm using Apple Music on two devices: MBP and iPhone 5. Got the problem that iTunes doesn't automatically refresh the "For You" section on my MBP, unlike the iPhone. The CMD+R doesn't work as well.
The only way to get fresh suggestions and playlists in "For You" is to kill and restart iTunes.
Answer:
In iTunes, open the dropdown menu for your account (to the right of the apple logo at the top of the screen) and select "Choose Artists for You."
On the next screen (floating bubbles of "what you are into"), hit "next" without making any changes.
On the next screen (floating bubbles of "your favorites"), hit done.

On my Mac, this refreshes the "for you" every time. Pressing the "new" button as suggested by others has no effect on my Mac.


ANC Headset with good Microphone for Ubuntu

Question: I am searching a high quality Active-Noise-Canceling headset with have a good microphone and support for Ubuntu 20.02.
I already tried:
Bose 700, Bose QC35 ii, Beyerdynammics Lagoon Traveler, Sony wh-1000xm3
But these devices seem to be mostly headphones, not headsets. And there seems to be an issue with the Linux Bluetooth stack. As soon as you turn on the microphone the audio quality gets unusable.
Since ANC is important for me, I think over-ear devices are better suited for my need.
I need silence to concentrate on my work. Several times a day I have a video-call and there I need to solid microphone. The one in my laptop is not suitable, since I type during the conversation and I don't want my client to hear the sound of the keyboard.
It can be a wired or a wireless/bluetooth device. Quality of microphone and noise-canceling are much more important for me.
I really don't want to switch the between headset and headphones for video-calls. I want one device for both tasks.
I am willing to pay up to 400 Euro.
Answer: I have a wireless Jabra ANC Headset now (Jabra Evolve2 85)
This way the Linux Bluetooth gets avoided, since there is a custom USB-dongle which speaks to the headset.
But it is not perfect.
My voice sounds a bit strange, compared to much cheaper wired headsets.
I published my story here: https://github.com/guettli/headset


Change of final bosses in SAO Season 1 and Ordinal Scale

Question: In SAO season 1 Akihiko Kayaba reveals that he is the final boss, but in the movie 'Ordinal Scale' the final boss is something else. Why is this?
Comment: Argus had a boss, An Incarnation of the Radius, created before Kayaba turned SAO into a death game, and replaced it with himself as the last boss.
Answer: According to an Interview with Kawahara (original author of SAO), abec (SAO's illustrator), Miki (SAO's editor) and Itou (Ordinal Scale's director), the final boss shown in the movie, "An Incarnation of the Radius" was the original boss of the 100th floor designed by Argus, but Kayaba found it so broken, he decided he'd take its place as the final boss.
Quoting certain parts of the Interview:

Kawahara: The last boss that was present in the 《Ruby Palace》 was the one formally developed by 《Argus》 before Kayaba took over.

and later on:

Kawahara: The reason why Kayaba changed himself to the last boss was because he saw the data for the original boss and thought "Like hell anyone can beat this thing" …or at least that's what I think he did.

Source: translation of said Interview


How long does it take to warm a ham in the oven?

Question: I bought a fully cooked ham.  It was frozen, and it's now thawed.  How long should I put in the oven to warm it up?
Answer: Since it's already fully-cooked, you don't need to be all that precise with time or temperature.  The most important thing is to avoid drying it out, so use a roasting pan and add a little water to the bottom (not more than 1 cm) and cover it while it's reheating.
It's best if you have a meat thermometer; toss it in at 300° F / 150° C (or up to 350° F / 175° C if you're in a hurry) and aim for a temperature of about 140° F / 60° C.  If you don't have a thermometer, this about.com page suggests 16-20 minutes per pound; it also suggests heating to 135° F which is also fine.  But if you're not going by a thermometer then you'd better make sure that it's completely thawed first, all the way to the interior, lest you end up with a semi-frozen dinner.
If you also plan to glaze it then apply the glaze after it's been heated and raise the temperature to 400° F (205° C) as the above link suggests.
Comment: I followed the directions on the package of the ham 15 t0 20 min. per-pound at 350 degrees and it was dried out. Why does the temperature need to be 140 degrees internally when it can be eaten as is?
Comment: @MadelynPfaller 15-20 minutes per pound is really just a rough guess; it may be that it was a bad guess in your case and you actually got well above 140°F internal temperature. Also, you didn't mention whether you covered and added a bit of water like this answer suggested; if not, that's why yours was dry. All that said, the main reason for the internal temperature recommendation is just making it actually hot to serve; as you say, it's fully cooked and could be eaten cold.
Answer: Good instructions. It is easy to dry the ham out too much when you are heating it (precooked ham). I use a baking pan (with lid) AND wrap it in foil prior to putting it in the pan. A little water in the pan is a MUST. I usually go with 325 for about 18 minutes per pound. The combination of pan with lid plus foil seems like overkill but it insures a nice moist ham.
Comment: use reynolds oven bags...works great every time!!


Individual Update Employer address/profile informaiton

Question: Using profiles individuals are able to update their own information. However i need an individual to be able to update their employers information. What solutions are there using wordpress for this?
Answer: for WP or Joomla i think the only in-built option is if your Contact has a Permissioned Relationship with their Employer then they should be able to view and edit some details about their Employer via their Contact Dashboard.
But my quick test on demo (i guessed the url to get to the dashboard since i don't 'know' WP) doesn't show the permissioned Relationships I just created for 'demo, demo' on the Contact Dashboard, which I assumed (wrongly) was just a setting but MyContacts/Organisation was checked - hmm .
So either there is another setting that I have forgotten, or this is something I didn't know was a limitation in WP, or something else ;-)
But try it on your local anyway.
Also worth nothing that you can provide 2nd degree permissions via a setting (which i do see on WP)
Comment: sorry that wasn't as helpful as i expected it to be


does audio feedback consist of harmonic content?

Question: So sound from musical instruments as well as human voice consists of harmonics. just wondering if feedback from speakers also have harmonics component
I have heard that feedback does not consist of harmonics, whereas from other sources, it says that it consists only odd harmonic frequency content. so which is true?
Comment: The speakers may also introduce some harmonics/distortion. It's not a perfect linear device. The louder its playing the more non-linear it gets. I assume that you talk about acoustic feedback.
Answer: The contradicting statements may be a result of looking at two different aspects of the situation.  As Hilmar pointed out in an earlier answer, any clipping (be it electronic or mechanical) will indeed produce harmonics.
However, feedback distortion (not necessarily reaching to the point of the loud feedback oscillation being produced) definitely does not consist of harmonics, or even any spurious frequencies added!  Feedback distortion comes from a frequency response with a very weird structure (very unnatural to the ear, often described as adding a metallic quality to the original sound).
The reason is the following: since the sound takes a fixed amount of time to travel from the speaker to the microphones (simplified analysis assuming single speaker and single microphone, no echos/reflections, and no attenuation of sound w.r.t. distance traveled), then the frequencies at which the feedback is positive, thus producing peaks in the frequency response, are the frequencies $f$ such that $$d = k \frac{\,c\,}{f}$$ where $d$ is the distance between the speaker and the microphone, $c$ is the speed of sound, and $k$ is a positive integer.  In other words, positive feedback (and thus larger gain) occurs at frequencies where the distance between the speaker and microphone is an exact multiple of the corresponding wavelength.
Now, you see, that means positive feedback occurs at frequencies $$f_k = k \frac{\,c\,}{d}~~~~k = 1, 2, 3, \cdots$$
There, you can see that the distortion is not harmonic in nature --- first of all, the above, assuming gains are low enough that you don't produce clipping or oscillation, is linear distortion (strangely enough, seeing how the feedback distortion is a very unnatural-sounding artifact); and second, the spectral locations of the "spurious" frequencies are fixed and equi-spaced, independent of the input frequency. In fact, harmonic distortion applies to an input tone (a sinusoid at a fixed frequency), whereas feedback distortion simply introduces a "weird/unnatural" frequency response, so it applies to signals with a spectrum covering ranges of frequencies.
A feedback oscillation may be subject to a combination of both effects: it may still carry a perfectly audible "feedback distortion" quality (especially if the gain is just enough to produce the oscillation), while it may or may not produce clipping that adds harmonic distortion to the mix.
Answer: Audio feedback happens when the loop gain from the microphone to the speaker and back to the microphone is larger than 1 (ignoring some other phase considerations that in practice rarely matter).
At this point a single frequency starts building up and gets louder and louder. Theoretically it would get infinitely loud, but obviously that can't happen in the real world.
In practice to are limited by some system constraint: could be a real limiter kicking in, amplifier clipping, power supply sag, driver out of excursion, microphone clipping, protection circuit or algorithm, etc.
The harmonic structure is mainly determined by the specific nature of the system constraint(s). A well designed limiter would keep this pretty close to a pure sine wave, amplifier clipping will generate lots of harmonics. Odd harmonics are more likely than even ones, but you can certainly get them both.


What does it mean that a ball bearing can handle thrust load but a roller bearing can't?

Question: I can't wrap my head around it so if someone could explain this to me. According to http://www.vncbearing.com/roller-bearings-vs-ball-bearings-major-differences/
ball bearings can handle thrust loads but roller bearings can't. Now I understand that ball can rotate around all axis and roller around only one, but still... If you put a shaft on those bearings it's meant to rotate, you don't allow a shaft to go through a bearing, it's always fixated in one way or another. So what's really the point of that statement?
Comment: Think of the difference between the ball and the track it runs on and the rollers and the track they have...
Answer: if you look at a ball bearing in cross-section, you will see that the balls are assembled into the two races in such a way that the races have side walls against which the balls can press as they roll. this means that a thrust load on one race will be transmitted through the balls to the opposite race without tending to push the races apart and open up the bearing. note that to assemble the bearing, one of the sidewalls on one of the races has to be missing its sidewall so the balls can be inserted between the races, so the bearing's ability to sustain thrust loads in one direction will be limited by that. But a roller bearing's races do not have sidewalls that can carry thrust loads without scuffing the ends of the rollers against other parts of the bearing and thereby galling and/or grinding those parts into failure.
Comment: There is also friction in the roller bearing...
Comment: of course, but not the scuffing and abrasion you get when the end faces of the rollers engage other nonrotating parts of the bearing assembly..
Comment: Just that it is not clear given the way you phrased your answer...
Comment: will edit now for clarity
Comment: Your ball bearing assembly description is incorrect. Ball bearings are assembled with the races ground, polished, and fully formed. Rather, it is the ball retainer that keeps the bearing from falling apart. The retainer keeps the balls evenly spaced between the inner and outer races. If the retainer is removed, the balls can tightly pack together on one side, and the center ring moves sideways into the open gap on the opposite side that the balls have vacated. The side where the balls are grouped together opens up, and the balls can be removed.
Comment: yes, but not for bearings built without ball spacers.
Answer: Your main assumption,

If you put a shaft on those bearings it's meant to rotate, you don't
  allow a shaft to go through a bearing, it's always fixated in one way
  or another

does not hold true in many cases. For example the only thing that keeps a bicycle wheel from sliding around are the bearings (if anything but the ball bearing, you'd have a sliding point of contact which would mean more friction and wear). Another example is the free spinning carriage wheel axle set that was the need fulfilled by the Timken roller bearing (p 18). Rollers can take a much heavier load than balls. Until then that required a set of radial bearings and another set of thrust bearings. If simple roller bearings take an axial load the ends of the cylinders are sliding against the cage with force. Timken angled the profile of the bearing to make it be used with another like a pair of opposing angular ball bearings, but the key to that was making them tapered. A plain cylinder can't roll in a circle on a cone without sliding a little over much of it's length. So the races and the cylinders all tapered to the same point allowing all the parts to roll together.
Even when you throw an engine in the middle of that axle (a car) that's connected to the frame as is the outer race of your wheel bearing you don't want all the axial forces from the wheels taken up by expensive parts in the transmission. You still want the bearing to handle that.
Deep groove radial ball bearings can take axial force. The balls can roll slightly in the groove which takes the axial force. Angling the groove allows it to take more thrust in that direction. There are simple diagrams in this Nachi training guide showing the relative loads different bearing designs can handle.


Time spent marking essays

Question: A stack of psychology exam essays has just landed on my desk for marking. It was a 3 hour exam with 3 essay questions. This is a final year essay so I do not have to provide written feedback. How long should I be spending marking an essay?
Comment: Daniel: The problem is that the question is asking how long *you* should spend grading *these* essays. A more general question would be: "Are there general guidelines about how much time I should spend grading (exam problems/homework assignments/essays, etc.)?"
Comment: Time you have for marking / number of exam papers
Comment: @DanielE.Shub: The fundamental issue is that the question sounds like you're asking about how much time to spend three essay questions written on a three-hour exam. If someone wanted guidelines for grading, say, a fifteen-page paper, this question wouldn't help them.
Comment: This is an optimization problem. However, the information about constraints are lack.
Comment: @aeismail sorry to harp on it, but I don't see the difference. Is it I didn't ask for general guidelines or my question was localized to essays.
Answer: I don't work in a field with essay exams, but I do ask my students to write proofs, so maybe my advice is still useful.
TAs at my university are contractually limited to at most 20 hours of work per week.  You have 60 exams to grade in one week; that suggests an absolute limit of 20 minutes per exam.  Since each exam has three essays, I would aim to spend at most 5 minutes per essay.  It'll probably take longer at first, especially if you also have to develop a rubric, but you'll get faster as you work through the pile.  Aiming for 5 minutes leaves you lots of slack.
Also, I strongly recommend grading vertically—grading all of essay #1 before reading anyone's essay #2—instead of horizontally—finishing each student before starting the next.
Comment: @AndyW: You may be right.  But if the university wanted the essays to be given an obviously reasonable amount of grading time, they would have paid for more graders.
Comment: The only analogy's I could come up with had to do with cooking food. Perhaps the external circumstances dictate you only have a minute to cook and plate a hamburger, and someone can say well it takes 10 seconds to plate, ergo I have 50 seconds to spend cooking the hamburger. That doesn't mean you can actually cook a hamburger in 50 seconds.
Comment: Although the logistics of the situation dictate one only spend this much time in the given situation I hesitated to give such explicit advice. If the essays were really expected to take 3 hours, I find it unlikely this is a reasonable amount of time to grade them.
Comment: I cannot recall the last time I worked a 37.5 hour week (my contractual load). While 5 minutes per essay seems on the light side to me, I think it is probably close.
Comment: Perhaps you meant the Professor for the class? If the class size was 60 one TA is not unreasonable, and the professor should help with the grading as well. Either that or other accommodations should be taken in the future to prevent such a shortened time (or reduce the scope of the essays). I know people who teach mass lectures without TA's, but they don't give essay final exams!
Comment: My school attempts to make it as reasonable as possible. TAs are not allow to mark exams in my school so it makes it difficult. It is a 360 person class and there are 6 faculty members doing the marking. We know to block off the entire week in advance and get teaching relief for doing the marking. We have a good ruberic to start with.
Answer: The only hard and fast advice I have been given in general is to not spend more time grading than the person did writing the essay. Note in most instances you shouldn't spend anywhere near that amount of time, but in general you should be cognisant that grading essays is an arduous task, and for a size like 60 it certainly shouldn't be done in one day (I don't know anyone who grades that many by themselves to be frank, all classes of that size I am familiar with have TA(s)).
Other elements will impact how long the grading takes. Such as are you grading all of the exams by yourself or are there other professors/teaching assistants grading exams. If there are multiple people sometimes it is necessary to have a collaborative meeting, and even co-grade several essays to make sure you are being consistent.
For essays people typically make rubrics with which to grade, and this focuses the content for your review (as well as makes expectations explicit to students). The more focused the rubric the easier your task of grading becomes. The only other advice I would give is I typically read all of the essays once, making small comments, marks and notes for myself, and then go back through a second time and grade the papers. This obviously adds more time to grading though.
Not being able to give students feedback is awful for learning, so I would suggest (if possible) you at least keep notes for yourself and/or keep copies of the essays for a short period. Thus if a student requests feedback it will be possible to give them some.
Comment: The first paragraph of this answer sounds like it is saying one should expect to spend three hours grading a three-hour exam ("you should make arrangements in the future..."), which seems wildly off-base to me.  I don't grade essay exams myself, so maybe I am out of touch, but that sounds impossibly high.
Comment: I would agree with you Anonymous, and I didn't mean to imply `3*60=180` hours in this instance is appropriate. The advice is most of the time given somewhat in jest, as you don't want to slave over very poorly written essays that the student took very little time to write. I have attempted to rephrase my opening paragraph to make this clear.
Comment: I have 60 scripts and a week to mark them, so I don't think 3 hours per script is possible under any circumstance. I agree about the rubric, 2nd marking, and no feedback.
Answer: In the humanities 4000-5000wd an hour for commented responses on essays.  Two to three times as fast for commentless grading of essays.
This is a "work norm" ala Taylorism, but it hasn't been subject to speed up as far as I've seen (unlike the head count in tutorials work norm, for example).
Source: Australian system, multiple essay based departments' work cultures amongst permanent members of staff; and multiple rounds of multiple sites of collective contract negotiations with casual employees; as a Trade Unionist and department level administrator with previous pay responsibility.
Answer: The answer by Andy W discusses the role of Rubrics, which I think is key to simplify grading. They provide better understanding for both expectations and evaluation from the student's perspective.
To add to that, one method that I find works in many situations to reduce grading is to gather students after the exam and discuss the answers in session. This way I can express the points I consider important for a good answer. I realize this cannot always be accommodated in the schedule of courses and exams. But, students appreciate the opportunity to ask questions etc. The grading can then be done quicker since I can refer to what was mentioned in session rather than making many detailed comments. The comments necessary will then be more of a summary connecting to the rubrics and how the answer fills (or not) these criteria.
To say how much time is needed for the grading is difficult in detail but I believe significant reductions can be made, including post-grading discussions with students.

Time spent marking essays


How to find where is the broken in the house electric wire?

Question: I have a complex wiring problem. one of my outside house light is not working and I took out the light and found that the hot wire ( black) is not getting power. All other lights and appliances are working in the house except this light. I also check breaker box and it seems to all good and getting power so it is broken it between somewhere. I cannot see where are these wires coming from or connected? I tried hard I cannot locate any junction box near by. obviously the wire is broken but do not know how do I find where is broken because I do not know where is this connected to in other end? it is going through cement wall  so it is not east to break and look at the wire connection? Any help is appreciated?
Comment: The easiest solution is a wire tracer, which transmitted a signal into the dead circuit and let's you use a receiver to follow it through the walls; where it stops is the disconnection point. They aren't cheap, though, unless you get lucky on eBay. Cheap check: is power teaching the switch? Are you sure the switch hasn't failed?
Comment: You could check to see if you have any GFI's that may have tripped. Check your garage.
Answer: My most valuable tool is thinking about what the last guy did.  Or was most likely to have done.  I see lots of "what were you thinking?" situations but later I learn something else, and go "Oh, that's what he was thinking."
OK the wire goes through the cement wall. Somebody had to install that wire the first time. Where would he have routed it?  What would've been easiest for him?
Do you have more than one outside light?  Is it possible this light is fed from one of the others?


Is "so-so" correct usage for "more or less"?

Question: I took a trip down to Mexico last week and I heard "so-so" in response to "Do you speak English?" Now, I'm used to hearing "so-so" more in the context of "all right" or "OK", but not as in "more or less". Is this usage correct or is it a lack of good teaching?
Answer: According to Merriam-Webster, "so-so" means "neither very good nor very bad."
According to The American Heritage Dictionary, "more or less" is an idiom meaning "basically, essentially."
I have often heard Japanese and Korean students of English also use "so-so" in terms of their English proficiencies, and based on cultural context (outward humility), I think they mean to say that they are okay at English, but not great, rather than the seemingly less humble meaning of "more or less" (saying they can basically speak the language).
Comment: The problem with Japanese saying "so" in English is that they often use it as if it were the [Japanese そう](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%9D%E3%81%86) meaning "yes", "I'm listening" or many related meanings.
Comment: @Henry: Actually, [そう](http://kanjidict.stc.cx/japkanji.php?d1=on&s=そう&max=10&exact=on&btnJ=Search+JA→EN&d3=on&d9=on&d15=on) means something more along the lines of "it's like that" or "really"; the word that means "yes" or "I'm listening" is はい (*hai*).
Comment: @Henry: When I've asked these Japanese speakers in English if they speak English, they say "so-so" and rotate their hand at the wrist back and forth (to mean their English is okay). They are responding to my English-spoken question in English. Now that I think of it, I do wonder if the hand gesture is a part of Japanese culture or if it is taught to them while learning English.
Comment: @Eri. That wrist gesture seems natural to me, and I'm Irish. It's used with the same meaning in Irish Sign Language.
Answer: So-so means "passable".
When you ask 'Do you speak English?', the response means that though the speaker has the ability to speak English, he might have difficulty in finding grammatically and situationally apt words or phrases or pronunciations in his speech because he is accustomed to a local English dialect which is different from the dialect and accent used by the questioner.
In other words, he is "more or less" able to convey the intended meaning depending on the mutual understanding of the respective local English dialect.
Similarly, when you say your food is so-so, you mean that it is "more or less" okay to eat, depending on your own perspective. For example, one might not find anything excellent about a particular dish, but the spice level might tinge his tongue more than someone who might find the same dish a little bland, but not sufficing enough to complain.
Answer: It's probably meant in the context of "my English is so-so".  That would fit the "alright or OK" definition you mention.
Comment: @stefy You could possibly think of if as saying "it's more or less OK", perhaps?  I'm not really sure how to explain it other than that the response seems to make sense to me, in that if someone tells me their English is "so-so", I would assume they meant it was OK, but not that great.
Comment: @christy> Ok.However, I'm still lost.How can one respond to a question in that manner? Do you speak English? Alright or ok? I would be more inclined to use it as in "How's the food"? It's so-so>meaning it's alright or it's ok,but to mean"more or less" doesn't really fit the bill to me.Am I wrong?
Answer: The problem is that in Spanish "más o menos" means both "more or less" and "so-so". As a result people are often confused about which one to use in English. In the same way that English speakers get confused about using "ser" or "estar" in Spanish.
The response "more or less" to the question "Do you speak English?" or "How is your English?" isn't really correct but an English speaker will understand the idea!
Answer: When I was in USA I got a book which has a table indicating grades of quality, something as following:
excellent, good, fair, so-so, very poor (This case it means the opposite of good: 'not good').
Another day I asked an American friend the meaning of so-so. He told me that is close to "more or less" but something that is not good.
For example, if you do some work and ask you customer about it and you get "SO-SO" this means that your work is passable but don't have the expected quality.
Answer: If the question was, how is your English?  then So-so would be an appropriate response. To the question, do you speak English? it is incorrect.
I personally hate the use of so-so when people give a judgement about something. When students are learning English, so-so is a lazy response that they over use in many countries rather than challenge themselves with the wide range of adjectives they could use. As a teacher in China I do not allow my students to use it in class and encourage them to use one of a hundred other possible responses.
Comment: This provides your opinion but does not explain why "How is your English?" "So-so." is better or different than "Do you speak English?" "So-so." The answer would be improved by tackling the key issue of the question: Does "so-so" mean "more or less" in these situations? Why do you consider it correct or incorrect?
Answer: As far as I know, "more or less" relates to quantities. For example, "She has more or less 500 books at home". I believe it's similar to "She has 500 books or so at home" and "She has about/approximately 500 books at home".
On the other hand, when a question is asked with "how", we might answer it saying "so-so". "A: How was your day today? B: It was so-so".


Goal of liberation in yoga - Isn't it Boring?

Question: I see that the goal of yoga is liberation from the karma and from the birth/death cycle. People say that it is the ultimate happiness forever. But wouldn't that be boring and monotonous if there is happiness forever?
Comment: You're free to opt out! Just as some like Bach, others the Beatles and most are not interested in either. On a more serious note you'll likely get better answers on hinduism (or buddhism) SE
Comment: These things are subtle. The idea would be to transcend time and subjectivity. 'Forever' would mean out-of-time and 'happiness' would have a non-ordinary meaning. Boredom requires the passage of time and operation of mind so would be impossible. Hence the ability of practitioners to sit for days and years.
Comment: It isn't happiness, and it isn't forever. It is [nirvana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(Buddhism)), "release", from emotions, and from time, among other things. "Happiness", "boredom", and "forever" are meaningless as applied to the state of nirvana.
Answer: Every religion rotates and evolves around a principal axis. Let's call the top of the axis the great positive and the bottom the great negative. So for example

Christianity : evil/sin vs God
Buddhism : duhka (suffering) vs nirvana
Islam : rebellion vs surrender
Taoism : disequilibrium vs equilibrium
Hinduism : maya (illusion) vs brahman (reality)

People foolishly think it's the positive that determines the religion.  Not so. Eg you become a christian by having conviction of sin even if you don't know of Jesus Christ. Likewise you are a buddhist with conviction of duhka even if Buddha's methods don't call you.
So only if getting out of the grip of maya calls you this yoga question may arise. Else not.
Comment: I like the presentation of these religions along this axis. When you write "this yoga question may come" I assume you mean "this yoga question may occur to you". +1
Comment: May occur to you or to anyone... "To arise" better?
Comment: On re-reading, I think I understood your meaning, but "arise" may be better.
Comment: And thanks the kind word @frankhubeny. To be fair these renderings of the great religions are inspired at least in part from [treasury of traditional wisdom](https://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Traditional-Wisdom-Whitall-Perry/dp/8186569065)
Answer: The term yoga has been described as meaning union, specifically union with the divine or ultimate reality, alignment with the true nature of things.
Wikipedia lists a range of aims for the practice of yoga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga#Goals
What you describe 'ultimate happiness forever' is incompatible with Indian philosophy in two ways. First of all, there is no forever. Indian cosmology is cyclic, and all conditions and situations come to an end, even though the soul or atman is considered immortal. Second, concerns with happiness are about worldly desires, and the realms of rebirth. Pursuit of that only puts you on the treadmill of karma and rebirth. Inner development and alignment with the divine reality is associated not with happiness, but with bliss, presence in the full possibilities of the present moment, not limited or clouded by worldly desires.
This is a state which can help to act effectively to end suffering or dispel negative karma for oneself and others. But most importantly, it is not justified by that, it is a state or way of being valuable and worthwhile in itself, like the divine cosmic dance of Shiva (as Nataraja). It is the ultimate shift from extrinsic values to intrinsic ones, to a union of rational and aesthetic motivation based in a true understanding of the nature of being, and presence in the moment.
Answer: First of all Goal of yoga isn't ultimate happiness forever.
There is no such thing as ultimate happiness. happiness is not a thing which you can have from something. Two different people can be halt as well as sad in same situation.
Yoga teaches you to not get affected by surroundings or situations. Yoga says happiness is not a thing, it's already there within you while you are searching it everywhere.
Happiness is just a state of mind. Yoga teaches you how to control your state of mind. Now it's up to you that you want to be happy or not.
On monotonous part, you eat daily, you do toothbrush daily and you do n number of different things on a daily basis. Why don't you feel monotonous then. Because these things are part of your life. If you don't do brush, your teeth gonna be bad. Your mouth will start smelling.
Same is the thing with happiness. Without happiness your mind will go crazy.
Answer: There is a controversial link between what Hinduism is and what yoga is. To many yoga is a practice not a religion. Even some disagree with the Pantajali's vision explained in the sutras which you may follow for non-religious purposes at all not even for karma or reincarnation.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
  again, but expecting different results." Albert Einstein

A yogi who believed in karma would tell you that reincarnating over and over again to experience ignorance and suffering (including boredom) is also insanity. Another yogi would also tell you that boredom is a creation of an undisciplined mind which is continuously craving for stimuli that is taking control over your (ksipta, mudha, and viksipta minds).
The truth is that nobody can tell you what Samadhi really is because it's something to be experienced not to be told then again you may get glimpses of it as you go along the way.
Comment: Your points/observations are true enough but there is an (unsaid!) prejudice hovering around that v respectfully I'd like to reify/elaborate. Please feel free to deny/rebut : The gap between the higher spiritual yoga and the lower forms of Hinduism is absent in your dominant religion (May I assume Christianity?).  At this point things bifurcate according to one's native prejudice: Either Christianity **only** consists of { Jesus,Eckhart,Boehme,St Francis,...}. Or else it's {crusades, witchhunts, inquisition,...}. Hopefully you will agree both these views in extreme are onesided and dishonest??
Comment: (continued)

The same applies to hinduism, buddhism etc. There is the higher aspect and the lower and usually mixed up! A teacher of mine would tease his (western) students thus: "If you go to Thai prisons you know what you will find?" Students: (bated breath) "What?" Teacher: Buddhists! (And this before the rohingya carnage)
Comment: @Rusi I'm a freethinker myself. In this post doesn't show my personal opinion but a reality you face when you start studying eastern philosophies. There is hardly a consensus on anything. Agree on Buddha's Kalama Sutta and I tend to like more the idea of the four paths in Yoga(Karma, Bhakti, Rāja, Jnana) than the Pantajali's vision based alone in the pursuit of Samadhi. As for the gap you mention I think all religions are based on the same feature. Some religions are more Bhakti others more Jnana. Something happens to mind/consciousness under certain conditions. i'm still on my path. Namasté


Raleigh Circa 2 Mens 2017 Hybrid Bike

Question: Raleigh Circa 2 Mens 2017 Hybrid Bike What are the exact dimensions (in mm) of seat tube and top tube of 16'' frame of this model (CR216MBK)?
Answer: The best I could find was Raleigh's own web site , and all they list is frame sizes and approximate leg lengths to suit.
If the supplier themselves don't list it, then you'll have to go measure one at a shop, or hope someone else here happens to own one and a tape measure.

Raleigh Circa 2 Mens 2017 Hybrid Bike


Whatsapp backup restore without SD

Question: i need to transfer whatsapp messages from lumia 1020 to microsoft lumia 532.i have created backup from inside whatsapp application. but the problem is their is no SD card in 1020. i installed whatsapp in my new phone but there is not any restore option there.what should i do?
Answer: First, make sure that you're using the same phone number (same SIM card) since you can't sync/restore your messages using another account.
According to the WhatsApp FAQ:

WhatsApp automatically makes backups of your chat history every day at 4 AM and you can uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp to restore messages from this copy. If you are unable to restore your chats, unfortunately, we can not restore your chats, contacts or multimedia files for you.

So, granted that you're using the same phone number the backup/restore should be done automatically. As a matter of fact, this is what happened to me.
Other than, remember that you have the option to export your conversations to .txt format by following the next steps:
<code>1. Open the chat you wish to export.
2. Tap More  > info or group info.
3. Tap More  > email chat history.
</code>
Comment: This method (automatic backup at 4am or manual backup) is not working if you don't have an SD card. The backup is stored at `SDcard->whatsapp->winphonebackup`. If you don't have an SDcard and try the backup, no files are saved in phone memory. The user has tried the backup option in the settings. Read the question carefully. He says "i have created backup from inside whatsapp application" which is exactly what you are suggesting. The problem is restoring a backup without SDcard.
Comment: I agree with Aventinus, please read the questions carefully.
There is no way to restore your chat on your new device if your windows phone has no SD card. I know it is crazy and sad but unfortunately it is the truth. After experiencing this I switched to Telegram, it is a reliable and more secure app and u can install it on as much as devices you want with the same number and no matter when and where you install it you get all the old messages on your new device. Whatsapp sucks people, that is a fact!

Whatsapp backup restore without SD


Why don't we talk about angular momentum at all in fluid mechanics?

Question: People usually talk about similar (or maybe not?) things like vorticity or enstrophy in fluid mechanics, but no one talks about angular momentum, why?
Comment: @user23873 I just looked it up and it also didn't talk about angular momentum in detail..
Comment: Symmetry of the stress tensor takes care of it, most of the time
Comment: A quick search for 'fluid angular momentum' suggests that people *do* talk about the angular momentum of fluid (well, discrete parcels of fluid at least).
Comment: @Kyle Well, that's true but when you look at fluid textbooks no one talks about angular momentum...
Comment: Batchelor discusses angular momentum in fluids right on the first chapter, have you read it?
Comment: Angular momentum conservation follows from the symmetry of the stress tensor, as explained here http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/187044/in-a-fluid-why-are-the-shear-stresses-tau-xy-and-tau-yx-equal/187047#187047
Answer: We don't need to talk about angular momentum because the conservation law is summed up by vorticity. Consider the vorticity equation (in the context of a rotating frame as well):
$$
\frac{D\boldsymbol\omega}{Dt}=\boldsymbol\omega\cdot\nabla\mathbf u
$$
(ignoring all other terms that are normally contained in this term). If we take the coordinate system where $s$ is along the vortex line, then the component of this gives
$$
\frac{D\omega_s}{Dt}=\omega\frac{\partial u_s}{\partial s}
$$
This shows that the vorticity along $s$ changes due to the stretching of the vortex lines, which is principle of angular momentum conservation.
Answer: A fluid is modelled as a vector field and therefore we use vorticity to describe its spinning motion. Angular momentum is more often used for a single object or particle, but not so often for a vector field (even though it is still applicable in principle). For a fluid in general, vorticity is twice the mean angular velocity and this fact to me makes it less useful as a quantity when modelling fluids.
Comment: But I can calculate the angular momentum of any subset of the vector field by integrating over it. If I do it for the whole field, I get its total angular momentum. It's not like it's undefined...
Comment: To paraphrase something the mods keep saying: comments aren't meant to be permanent, can be and often are deleted, etc. -> make an edit!
Comment: @Kyle that is true but it seems to me it wouldn't be as useful as vorticity. Where would you use angular momentum for example?
Comment: @Kyle I have made an edit which hopefully answers (at least partially?) your question.
Comment: I wouldn't, I would use vorticity ;) I was more just pointing out that angular momentum is well defined for a vector field (well, you'd also need an associated scalar (density) field). If you desired, you could formulate a constraint on the mechanics of a dissipationless flow based on the conservation of angular momentum. Really I'm just quibbling that your answer reads as "we *can't* use angular momentum for vector fields" instead of "there is a more useful alternative in this case".
Comment: @Kyle Fair point! Hopefully the comments will clear this up in the case people have similar thoughts!
Answer: The total angular momentum of a continuum is the vector sum of net angular momenta of the particles it is comprised of. The net angular momentum of a particle accounts for its spin as well as its translational motion about the point about which angular momentum is to be calculated (moment of its momentum).
Vorticity is a kinematic quantity measuring (half of) the angular velocity of a point relative to a different point in the same continuum. As a result, vorticity equation is like a statement of conservation of moment of momentum.
However, the angular momentum corresponding to the spin of each particle is assumed to be 0 in most of the continuum treatment. This assumption follows the random distribution of molecular angular momenta (rather all vector quantities) inside the continuum. Very closely related to the assumption of kinetic theory of gases.
Answer: There is a paper that discusses the delicate (and often superficially brushed off) issue of diffusion of angular momentum in the Naiver-Stokes equation, the stress tensor, and its symmetries by Berdahl and Strang titled: The Behavior of a Vorticity-Influenced Asymmetric Stress Tensor in Fluid Flow. Here is a link: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a181244.pdf .
Consider an incompressible, isotropic, Newtonian, viscous fluid that is truly continuous (i.e. it is not composed of discrete particles that have some non-zero rotational inertia) in a large cylindrical drum (with full slip boundary conditions in the fluid state) and initially frozen solid. Spin the drum at some angular speed along its center z-axis, then, at time t=0, blast the solid with a burst of radiation that instantaneously melts it into its fluid state and raises it to an arbitrarily high temperature that is spatially uniform. The initial condition for this flow has zero shear strain rate – but everywhere has a constant vorticity equal to twice the rotation rate.
Rotational motion does not magically shut off diffusion along radial lines. Since the speed in the theta direction is larger at r + dr than it is at r, this velocity in the theta direction will initially diffuse radially inward and "the band at r + dr" will exert a viscous torque on "the band at r" and cause it to experience an angular acceleration in the theta direction. Angular momentum is conserved as it initially diffuses radially inward – not because the stress tensor is symmetric.
In fact, if the stress tensor were symmetric, this would imply that e.g. a shear flow v = (Cz,0,0) would not only have a shear stress exerted on the x-y plane in the positive x direction, but it would also have a shear stress on the z-y plane in the positive z direction - without any physical mechanism to account for this.
Since this is a truly continuous fluid, the inwards diffusion of angular momentum leads to an infinite angular speed at r = 0 for t > 0. Roughly, the viscous torque on a cylindrical volume element initially scales as r-squared and is equal to the rotational inertia of the axially centered fluid element (which scales as the density times r to the 4th power) times the angular acceleration which must then blow up as 1/r-squared. If such a fluid could be created in the physical world, angular speed would in fact blow up at the origin and this model would then be correct.
In the real world however, fluids are composed of particles that have non-zero radii and non-zero rotational inertias that prevent viscous torques from creating infinite angular speeds (there is an additional length scale that is relevant as well – the average inter-particle distance…). Consider replacing the above fluid with radon atoms. The same initial velocity gradient would cause the radon spheres to acquire an average spin. As these atoms collide, these spins would then average back to zero and indirectly mediate a transition of angular momentum of the fluid inward. If the relaxation rate (from intrinsic to extrinsic angular momentum) is sufficiently high, one can get away with symmetrizing the extrinsic stress tensor, avoiding the troublesome infinities, and allowing the intrinsic stress tensor to indirectly approximate the evolution of the fluid flow.
The continual relaxation of the spins in the case of the pure shear flow also indirectly accounts for the additional perpendicular shear stress - which resolves the paradox mentioned above.
Answer: Angular momentum is about a fixed point (you decide it) that is the same for every lump of fluid in the domain.  Vorticity is (1/2) the angular momentum of the fluid about EACH fluid lump's OWN center of gravity.
This is why a potential vortex has zero vorticity (except at the origin).
But lots of angular momentum at each point in the flow (especially about the obvious axis of the center of the vortex, but also about any other axis).
They are related, but definitely not the same (or just off by a factor of 1/2).
Vorticity is more useful.  In physics  - utility is always the final answer.
Engineers use angular momentum control volume equations (when they are useful, like for turbine problems).  An undergrad engineering fluids book (any) will have a section in the control volume chapter on the angular momentum equations.


Use PowerShell to update a SharePoint list choice column with a random choice

Question: I need to update all of the items in a list in SharePoint using PowerShell. The column I need to update [in each list item] is a choice column with 5 different choices. I need to randomly assign one of the choice options to each list item.
If possible, I would like to assign a probability for each one of these choices! (ie - Choice 1 = 30% chance, Choice 2 = 30% chance, Choice 3 = 30% chance, Choice 4 = 5% chance, Choice 5 = 5% chance)
I have started to build my script, but I'm not exactly sure how to handle the get-random section, or if I even use get random in this case.
Help is appreciated!!
<code>$web = Get-SPWeb http://weburl
$list = $web.Lists["Project Tasks Backup"]
foreach ($item in $list.Items)
{
  $item["Task Status"]  = $choices | Get-Random
  $item.Update();
}
</code>
Thanks so much!
-Josh
Answer: This will get you a random number between 1 - 5
<code>$rand = New-Object  System.Random
$rand.next(1,6) # gets random number between 1 and 5
</code>
Using System.Random
Some other examples of powershell random-ness
http://poshcode.org/118
http://tfl09.blogspot.com/2007/01/random-numbers-in-powershell.html
Answer: Assuming that Get-Random meets your randomness requrirements, you can first create an array of choices, with the weighting you specified, like this:
<code>$a = @('c1')*6 + @('c2')*6 + @('c3')*6 + @('c4','c5')
</code>
Then you can use Get-Random to randomly select an element from the array:
<code>$selected = Get-Random -InputObject $a
</code>
Or, you can shuffle the array:
<code>$shuffled = Get-Random -InputObject $a -Count $a.Length
</code>


How is the trend of acidity in the sequence: phosphinic, phosphonic, phosphoric acid explained?

Question: How is the trend of increasing $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}(1)$ value in the sequence:
phosphinic $(1.24)$, phosphonic $(2.00)$, phosphoric acid $(2.21)$
explained (the image was taken from Housecroft Inorganic Chemistry)?
Comment: http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/38034/why-is-h3po2-more-acidic-than-h3po4 but unanswered.
Comment: Are there any references about it?
Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277538700807512 although I'm a bit too busy to look at it again now.
Answer: The stability of conjugate bases is indeed a good way of estimating the relative acidities of different compounds.
However, in the case of the three compounds you've brought up, it is not sufficient. Taking the conjugate bases of each acid, one sees that each has a doubly bonded oxygen (oxo) and a deprotonated hydroxy. These are the only relevant groups as far as resonance is concerned.
Note that phosphorus-bound hydrogens cannot delocalize the negative charge, and neither can phosphorus-bound hydroxyl groups.
Given this, all three acids actually have the same resonance stabilization. Any resonance structure where a hydroxyl $\ce{O}$ donates an electron pair to the phosphorus is insignificant because it creates increased charge, likewise any resonance structure where the hydroxyl $\ce{O}$ receives an electron pair is insignificant because oxygen already has a complete octet in its hydroxyl form.
Since the resonance argument only tells us that their $\mathrm{p}K_{\mathrm{a}}$'s are similar (looking only at first $\mathrm{p}K_{\mathrm{a}}$) we can use the argument that the additional hydroxyl groups reduce the polarization of the $\ce{O-H}$ bond. This can be demonstrated by looking at the resonance structures of the acids (in neutral form). The hydroxyl $\ce{O}$'s in the neutral form can donate electron density to the phosphorus; however when there is only one hydroxyl group, all the positive charge is localized there, while when there are two or three, the positive charge is delocalized across three hydroxyl groups.
Note that in the case of the neutral acid, it is ok to have resonance where $\ce{O}$ donates to $\ce{P}$ because $\ce{P}$ does not gain a $2-$ charge as it would with the conjugate base.
Answer: I believe that the principal cause of confusion is that we think of the $\ce {-OH}$ substituent as electron-withdrawing via the inductive effect. However, let us consider the effect of an $\ce {-OH}$ substituent on the benzene ring. Although there is an inductive pull of electron density from the ring, the overall effect of the $\ce {-OH}$ group is actually ring-activating due to strong resonance donation. I am not sure if this comparison may be too absurd but I think it is appropriate. Contrast the acidity of para-substituted benzoic acids to the case of the phosporus oxyacids.
When the substituent is $\ce {-H}$, the substituted benzoic acid is actually more acidic than in the case when the substituent is $\ce {-OH}$. This is because the strong delocalisation of the oxygen lone pair of the $\ce {-OH}$ substituent intensifies the negative charge in the carboxylate ion rather than disperse it. If you understand this reasoning, then you should also be able to see the same effect occurring in the phosphorus oxyacid species.
Although there is some inductive withdrawal of electron density from the $\ce {P}$ atom, the net effect is donation towards the $\ce {P}$ atom to form a double bond. This actually intensifies the charge in the resultant conjugate base of the oxyacid. Thus, the more $\ce {-OH}$ substituents you have, the greater intensification effect and hence, the less stable the conjugate base of the phosphorus oxyacid.
I have seen many interesting sources proposing various explanations to this acidity order in the past but none are as convincing as what I have proposed. I hope you would agree with me on that. Some sources discuss a phenomena they call "cross-conjugation", which is similar to what I have proposed. However, the source which discussed that put it in a weird way, saying that the donation of the lone pair from the $\ce {-OH}$ groups "disrupt" the delocalisation of the negative charge on into the $\ce {P=O}$ bond.


Discussion for the sound of "El Topo"

Question: I often think that wacky movies blur reality to the point that they share similiar qualities with video games.
I'm about to watch El Topo for the first time and I think it would be cool to get a discussion going regarding the sound to such a strange movie.  If anybody wants to contribute, that would be cool.
Answer: So I watched the movie.  Great movie, very artsy, I loved the whole idea of it.  The sound was overdone in a way to add to the exaggeration that is El Topo.  Mostly, the fx were mixed more loudly than expected which perhaps was an intentional effect.  Some strange sync issues did occur with footsteps once.  The music was great.
Comment: but the whole film is based on a spiritual-mythological premise so any "over-exaggeration" of audio or visual effects is probably quite intentional. at least for me this is what gives this film its exceptional effect even after so many years (which can't be said for so many fantasy films from that time).

Discussion for the sound of "El Topo"


Using different algorithms/formulas to create spectrograms

Question: On the internet, I have seen people use Matplotlib/Python and short-time fourier transformations to create spectrograms. Are their other formula/algorithms to create spectrograms? And are they possible to implement in python or be called through command prompt?
Comment: i have MATLAB code that opens an audio file and creates a spectrogram using `surf()`.  is that what you're looking for?  it's pretty simple.
Comment: @robertbristow-johnson I was asking about a command line called exe/program that can use different algorithm/formulas to create a spectrogram. I notice that they all seem to use short-time Fourier transformations, and I was wondering if there were different formulas.
Comment: there all pretty much the same formula.  different windows, different frame widths and different frame hop distances.
Comment: @LaurentDuval No, but thanks for the advice. My final project was too similar compared to Melnet, using spectrogram for speech synthesis, to be worth pursuing for ISEF.
Comment: Do not hesitate then to upvote answers and validate the most useful one
Answer: so here's a short MATLAB script that will compute and draw a spectrogram.
if ~exist('inputFile', 'var')
    inputFile = 'tom_hit.wav';
end

if ~exist('frameLength', 'var')
    frameLength = 8192;
end
frameLength = 2.^(ceil(log2(frameLength) - 1e-10));

if ~exist('frameHop', 'var')
    frameHop = 256;
end
frameHop = 2.^(floor(log2(frameHop) + 1e-10));
frameHop = min(frameHop, frameLength/2);                                    % insure at least 50% overlap

[inputBuffer, Fs] = audioread(inputFile);

[inputFileSize, nChannels] = size(inputBuffer);

nSamples = 2.^(ceil(log2(inputFileSize + frameLength) - 1e-10));            % zero-pad on both sides and round up to nearest power of 2

nFrames = floor((nSamples-frameLength)/frameHop);

x = zeros(nSamples, 1);
x(frameLength/2+1:frameLength/2+inputFileSize) = inputBuffer(:,1);          % use left channel only, zero-pad half frame on both sides

clear inputBuffer;                                                          % free this memory

dB_floor = -90;

beta = 5;
frameWindow = gausswin(frameLength, beta);                                  % gaussian window

XX = zeros(nFrames, frameLength/2+1);

for frame = 1:nFrames

    X = fft( fftshift( x((frame-1)*frameHop+1:(frame-1)*frameHop+frameLength, 1).*frameWindow ) );

    XX(frame,:) = abs( X(1:frameLength/2+1) ).^2 + 10^(dB_floor/10);        % leave XX as energy with dB_floor dB floor.

end

figure(1);
[taxis, faxis] = meshgrid(0:Fs/frameLength:Fs/2, 0:frameHop/Fs:(nFrames-1)*frameHop/Fs);
surf(faxis, taxis, 10*log10(XX), 'EdgeColor','none', 'LineStyle','none');
xlabel('sec')
ylabel('Hz')
zlabel('dB')
view(40,40);

Answer: Sometimes people use time-frequency representations (TFRs) as a generalization of the spectrogram.
This C code calculates some different TFRs of Cohen's class: bilinear TFRs.
Answer: There are spectral analyzers that come with executables (and sometimes source code) like:

Spek – Acoustic Spectrum Analyser (Unix, Windows and Mac OS X)
BaudLine (Unix, Windows and Mac OS X)
Spectro
Sonic Visualiser
SoX (which is identified as having command line)

Even FFMpeg can do the job: ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp3 -lavfi showspectrumpic=s=800x400:mode=separate spectrogram.png

The basic formula is typically composed of:

select a frame, and apply a window,
compute a Fourier transform,
display magnitude or square magnitude values.

as detailed by Robert. As Peter wrote, there are many extensions or reformulation, termed time-frequency distributions or time-scale representations, that can be implemented as filter banks, quadratic formulae, etc. Among script language implementations, you can check:

LTFAT: The Large Time-Frequency Analysis Toolbox
DiscreteTFDs: Time-Frequency Analysis Software
TFTB: Time-Frequency Toolbox

This is still an open research topic.


How to redirect according to URL parameter after form submission

Question: Currently I'm using Drupal as my authentication system, and I would like to redirect user to our main site after login, according to an URL-passed parameter, for example user/login?redir=http://google.com. And yes I've found out there is a destination parameter however it doesn't work it the passed argument begins with http or somehow a non-Drupal path. Any ideas? hook_drupal_goto_alter is a hook I found might be helpful, but not sure how to implement it.
Answer: The issue with ?destination= is that it provides no mechanism for setting external => TRUE for the options in drupal_goto(), which Drupal needs to redirect to an off-site location.
I think the easiest way to get what you're looking for is to implement hook_form_alter() for the user login form, save the URL parameter if it's available, and then manually redirect in the submit handler.
Something like this:
function MYMODULE_form_user_login_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
  if (isset($_GET['redir'])) {
    $form['redir'] = array(
      '#type' => 'value',
      '#value' => $_GET['redir']
    );

    $form['#submit'][] = 'MYMODULE_user_login_redirect';
  }
}

function MYMODULE_user_login_redirect(&$form, &$form_state) {
  $form_state['redirect'] = array($form_state['values']['redir'], array('external' => TRUE));
}

Comment: you should know better. Use $form_state['redirect']
Comment: @googletorp Not sure what happened there :/ In my defence that was quite near my birthday so I may have been drunk ;)


Allow Limited Access in upper levels, to navigate to a restricted folder which allows Contribute

Question: I have a restricted folder five levels down (home site/ subsite1/subsite2/ library/ folder) that needs to have Contribute access for the folder's user group, and I'd like those folks to be able to navigate down to the folder but not see content in each site and library along the way (Limited Access?). Also, I think right now they actually have inappropriate Contribute rights at the top levels. Someone else set up the group, and the group currently has listed in "View Site Collection Permissions: " web dialog box:
home site - Contribute
subsite1 - no entry at all (why?, how did this get skipped?)
subsite2 - Limited Access
library - Contribute, Limited Access
folder - Contribute (which is correct, desired state - and "This folder has unique permissions")
First how do I modify the permission level on the sites above for this group, to make sure they don't have inappropriate access? I can't find how to change those upper levels, for this group.
I'm scared to change the top site level permission from Contribute to Limited Access, in case that changes the overall capability of the group throughout the site - the generic MS explanations don't seem to address this situation.
Second, any other suggestions for cleanup? It's a mess, and I've got alot of these types of restricted groups with a variety of upper level permissions.
Thanks!!!
Answer: The only way I can think that you could give someone access to navigate through a site but not access any of the content is to give the person/group read permissions to the site, and break inheritance for every list and library in that site to have different permissions. Obviously, it would be terribly tedious, but there's no way to give someone "navigate" permissions only.


Where does the term "three sheets to the wind" originate from?

Question: What is the origin of "three sheets to the wind"?
Comment: Frankly, this is easily found via Google, which links either to [phrases.org.uk](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.phrases.org.uk%2Fmeanings%2Fthree-sheets-to-the-wind.html&ei=IVZ1TbGKFtC38gOO98gM&usg=AFQjCNG73i8BXlweb7X-xpzbRT-Fma0iKA) or [urbandictionary.com](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=3%20sheets%20to%20the%20wind)… Is there anything in these easily-accessible resources that you don't understand?
Comment: funny that what runs these sites is ultimately selfishness ("gib points plz!!!") and not selfless desire to help (which is not the case as evidenced by the amount of complaints levied against people who don't upvote or accept answers). also awesome that the selfish desire can be tricked into a productive outlet.
Comment: This is a poor legacy question with several good answers. Why is it attracting close votes?
Comment: Sticks and Stones may break my bones....BS, the IRS crushed my soul with words...  Badges, I don't need no stink'n badges....
Answer: First, it means "being inebriated" or "completely drunk".
Second, regarding etymology, urbandictionary.com says:

origin: sheets actually refer to the ropes that are used to secure a ship's sail. If the 3 ropes used were loose in the wind, the sail would flop around, causing the ship to wobble around, much like a drunk.

Apparently, variants exist, as the New Oxford American Dictionary has:

two (or three) sheets to the wind: (informal) drunk.

Regarding the etymology of sheet in this meaning, NOAD agains comes to the rescue:

Old English scēata [lower corner of a sail] of Germanic origin; related to Old Norse skauti (kerchief)
Comment: Just to add a bit of nautical correctness, there is usually one sheet secured per sail, so three sheets to the wind would mean there were three loose sails. The sheets are the ropes used for adjusting the sail to take the wind direction into account. The other ropes used to hold and adjust the sails are *lines* but not *sheets.* See [this site](http://www.fortogden.com/nauticalterms.html) for a nautically correct definition of *three sheets to the wind.*
Answer: The original wording of this phrase was ". . . in the wind," as mentioned in the above-referenced phrases.org.uk entry. The entry cites Pierce Egan's character's descripton of a drunk cobbler in Real Life in London, 1821,

Old Wax and Bristles is about three
  sheets in the wind,

as possibly the earliest use in print. This is reiterated by many other phrase-origin sites.
Also mentioned is the "sliding scale" of drunkeness coined by sailors whereby an inebriated person could be anywhere from one to four "sheets in the wind."
I decided to take these possible variations of the phrase and plug them in to Google's Ngram Viewer. I found an earlier instance of the phrase in print.
In The Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury, first published in 1815, the Methodist Episcopal itinerant preacher describes a trip through Kentucky in 1813:

While this may not answer the ultimate question of the phrase's origin, it does show a use of the phrase several years earlier than previously reported and from an American source rather than British (although Asbury was born in England).
Update 3/16/11: Gary Martin has now updated his entry on this phrase at The Phrase Finder to include the Asbury citation.
Comment: +1 for an answer that doesn't get the nautical definition of *sheet* wrong.
Answer: Sheet is the nautical term that refers to the rope used to secure a ship's sail.
"Three sheets to the wind", or "three sheets in the wind", compare the way the sails (not anymore secured) are moved from the wind, to the way a drunk person walks on the street.
Answer: I think there is a significant difference between "to" the wind and "in" the wind. "To" meaning toward the wind (nautical) and "in" literally meaning out in the wind (windmill).

To the wind - A sheet onboard secures the sail to the vessel from the clew (loose corner of the sail), it is fastened to catch the wind, as the boat comes about it is loosened and the sheet on the opposing side is fastened, this keeps the sail in proper position to catch the wind.   Having three sheets "to" (toward) the wind, may very well mean a vessel with its sails in the completely wrong position, literally fastened up wind (the wrong side).
In the wind - A windmill, is completely unbalanced with one or three sheets "in" the wind, as opposed to two or four. You would never fly three sheets in the wind, you must always balance the sheets.
Comment: Sailing ships and sailing jargon aren't your forte. -1.
Answer: John Bee, Slang. A Dictionary of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, the Pit, of Bon-ton, and the Varieties of Life (1823) has this early glossary entry for the "three sheets in the wind" form of the expression:

Three-sheets in the wind.—Naval, but naturalized ashore, and means drunk, but capable of going along—like a ship which has three sheets braced—main, mizzen, and foresail.

The earliest Google Books instance of this variant appears in "Travelers in America," in  Niles' Weekly Register (May 2, 1812), quoting Thomas Ashe, of Great Britain, in connection with his travels to the U.S. state of Kentucky:

"The inhabitants of Louisville are universally addicted to gambling and drinking." Their mode of living may be taken from the following instance, which "conveys a general idea of the whole state." Mr. A. had met with a Kentuckyan on the road, and accompanied him home. "On entering the house, which was a log one, fitted up very well, the Kentuckyan never exchanged a word with his wife or his children, notwithstanding he had been absent several days. No tender inquiry, no affection or sentiment, but a contemptuous silence, and a stern brutality, which block up tall the avenues to the heart. The poor woman, whom I pitied, (for it is a bet, that the women do not degenerate in proportion to the men, but continue to this day amiable) made a large bowl of drink called toddy, composed of sugar water, whiskey, and peach-juice, and handed it to her husband with all the servility of a menial ; he drank and handed it to me, who followed his example, and found the liquor excellent." It must not be wondered at that the poor, untutored, savage Kentuckyan, got "more than two thirds drunk," that is, as the sailors term it, three sheets in the wind, and the fourth shivering, before the dinner was ended, upon a liquor which this great man found excellent.

The instance cited in Callithumpian's answer, which appears to be from September 26, 1813, also describes experinces in Kentucky; however, the locale seems merely coincidental, given that both Thomas Ashe and Bishop Asbury were travelers from elsewhere, just passing through the state.
Another early instance appears in "How Lorenzo Raised the Devil," in the [Leesburg, Virginia] Genius of Liberty (August 26, 1817):

The woman opened the door and received her husband with as much tenderness as surprise. He was about three sheets in the wind, that is to say a little intoxicated and began to talk loud and swear. She hushed him by informing him that a minister the famous Lorenzo Dow was asleep in the next room.

The earliest instance of the variant "X sheets to the wind" that I have been able to find comes from the [Pennsylvania State University] Free Lance (January 1, 1894):

While Mr. Hoard occupied the gubernatorial chair of the Badger state [Wisconsin] it chanced that he was passing through a street in Milwaukee late one night when he espied two old friends approaching, one of them three sheets to the wind and the other piloting him. "Brace up Jack" said the sober man, "here comes the governor."


what is the difference between a CSU/DSU and a modem?

Question: I'm so confused, both do the same function, converting the analog to digital, but what's the difference?
Answer:
...both does the same functions that converts the analog to digital...

That would be incorrect.
A modem will modulate (the mo in modem) an analog carrier to encode digital information on it, and demodulate (the dem in modem) an analog carrier to convert the encoded information back to digital information.
A CSU/DSU connects two different types of digital signals. A CSU/DSU is actually two different devices, the CSU and the DSU, which may be in separate boxes. In the old days, These were separate pieces of equipment. Today, they are almost always in a single box (e.g., a DSL "modem"), or a single interface module for the DTE (e.g. a T1/E1 WIC for a Cisco ISR). The DSU (Data Service Unit) is what connects to your DTE (Data Terminal Equipment), and converts your DTE serial communications to frames which the CSU can understand, and vice versa. The CSU (Channel Service Unit) is what connects to the communication circuit, and places the frames from the DSU onto the communications circuit, and vice versa.
Answer: A CSU/DSU terminates a digital local loop, while a modem terminates an analog local loop. A CSU/DSU converts digital signals from a router to a leased line; a modem converts digital signals from a router to a phone line.
Answer: The purpose of both units is to convert a signal from a form used for local transmission to a form used for long distance transmission.
In the old days modems worked by modulating signals onto a carrier and demodulating them at the other end. Interfaces for dedicated data lines generally used digital line coding schemes that didn't involve modulating a carrier. Hence the different terms.
However technology marches on and the technical line isn't nearly as clear cut nowadays. Voiceband modems moved away from modulating carriers and towards multi-level digital coding schemes. High rate dedicated lines may use transmission schemes that inovlve modulating multiple carriers to best use the bandwidth/noise profile of the line.
The convention nowadays seems to be that "Modem" is used for devices that work on lines not primerally intended for data service (cable TV lines, phone lines). The term CSU/DSU is used in conjunction with T1 lines. The terms "transciever" or "media converter" are used for fiber lines.
Answer: Modem:
A modem also called as modulator and demodulator, is a device that modulates one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information for transmission and demodulates signals to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used with any means of transmitting analog signals, from light emitting diodes to radio. A common type of modem is one that turns the digital data of a computer into modulated electrical signal for transmission over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data.
CSU/DSU:
A CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit) is a hardware device about the size of an external modem that converts a digital data frame from the communications technology used on a local area network (LAN) into a frame appropriate to a wide-area network (WAN) and vice versa. For example, if you have a Web business from your own home and have leased a digital line (perhaps a T-1 or fractional T-1 line) to a phone company or a gateway at an Internet service provider, you have a CSU/DSU at your end and the phone company or gateway host has a CSU/DSU at its end.


Multiple exposure feature on my Nikon D3300?

Question: I have been trying to find a multiple exposure mode on my D3300 but cannot find one, could someone tell me where to find it or if there even is one?
Thank You
Answer: The Nikon D3300 does not have a built in multiple exposure mode. You can use multiple images from your D3000 and combine them using any post-processing application that offers the feature. The most popular software application that allows you to combine two images is Adobe's Photoshop.
Answer: Nikon D3300 ... use Image Overlay in the Re-touch menu.  :)
See:  Image Overlay: Combining Images Together In-Camera (nikonusa.com)


I want to create a summary task without indenting the subtasks

Question: Is there a way to create a highlevel task that will summarize all the subordinate tasks without indenting the subtasks?
Comment: You mean in some kind of software tool? If so, which one? If not, can you give more context, because I'm not sure what you're asking.
Answer: This approach is not recommended because it will inflate the total work content
Your question can apply to MS Project and open source Project Management tools such as ProjectLibre and OpenProject.
Let us assume that you can do what you are asking:

a way to create a highlevel task that will summarize all the
  subordinate tasks without indenting the subtasks

Then, in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project, you will have the individual tasks counted once and the summary task counted again as a duplicate, thereby inflating the overall work content of the project. So, this is not recommended.
Answer: If you want a summary task in MS Project that includes all the project's tasks, you can simply set visible the "Project summary task". In the "Format" tab, check the "Project Summary Task" checkbox. The Project Summary Task always exists, but it is not shown by default.
If you want to summarize only a subset of tasks, then you will need to use custom fields with formulas. But as stated in Ashok's answer, this will duplicate some project variables (work, for example) so it's not a convenient option.
Greetings.


Only one electron?

Question: If it is true that an electron can be anywhere in the cosmos at any given time, then is it even theoretically possible that there is only one electron, instead of multiple electrons in the cosmos? If it isn't, I'd appreciate it if someone could point out where I may have misunderstood something as far as the fundamental properties of electrons are concerned.
Comment: Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/391/2451 and links therein.
Answer: The idea that there could be just one electron originated when John Wheeler pointed out that a positron is the same as an electron moving backwards in time. All the electrons and positrons could be a single electron zigzagging backwards and forwards in time.
However this idea preceded the development of quantum electrodynamics, and QED completely changed the way we think about electrons. In QED there is an electron quantum field that permeates all of spacetime, and electrons are just excitations in this field. If we add a quantum of energy to the electron field it appears as a particle, that is an electron. Add a second quantum of energy and we have two electrons, and so on. Likewise, take a quantum of energy out of the field and an electron disappears.
This process allows electrons, and other particles, to be created and destroyed. For example every time a carbon 14 nucleus decays it creates an electron (and an anti-neutrino that is required to conserve lepton number) and the number of electrons in the universe increases by one. Conversely every time a magnesium 23 nucleus decays it creates a positron, and that positron can annihilate an electron and reduce the number of electrons in the universe by one.
So the fundamental object is now the electron quantum field rather than the electrons, which are just excitations in it. It no longer makes sense to argue there might be just a single electron, because the number of electrons is not a conserved quantity.
Answer:
If it is true that an electron can be anywhere in the cosmos at any given time,

No it is not a true statement. The true quantum mechanical statement is that
there exists a probability that an electron can be anywhere in the cosmos at any given time
This probability is infinitesimally small, and thus the probability that atoms could evolve is practically zero. So it is not even theoretically possible . Your misunderstanding comes from ignoring probabilities coming from  the quantum mechanical basic framework.
Answer: It is improbable that there is only 1 electron since there are many protons that require several electrons to neutralize the charge on the molecules.
Comment: See this: [One Electron Universe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe)
Comment: @GigiButbaia That's his theory, I have mine.

Only one electron?


Where does the Calypso's Compass lead me to?

Question: I've gotten it only a couple times, but each time I try to follow it, I die in the harder areas. What does it evetually lead me to, and would I be able to find whatever it is without having the compass, just by searching every room of the castle?
Answer: The compass leads you to a secret room that contains 2 chests. The chests usually contain blueprints or stat upgrades.
From my experience they were good blueprints (armor I was not finding in the area normally).
You will not be able to locate the room without the compass.
edit: user2339067 says he was able to get to the room without the compass, so it might be possible. I have yet to find/confirm this information independently with any other online resources.
Comment: What about with the Spelunker(ette)'s headlamp? Will the two chests be shown on the map then?
Comment: I have not tested it, but I do not think they are not on the actual map. the only indicator that you found the secret room is the 'up arrow' bubble shows up when you stand still in front of the door. The door itself does not look like a door either. I did't check the map while in the room, but mechanically it is likely the same as traveling to a boss room.
Answer: Some additional information:
You can find the room without the compass, there will however not be ANY indications for it except for seeing an up arrow in a random location in the room.
Source: I found it randomly when I did not have the compass


Difference between 区別 and 分別

Question: Can anyone here help me understand the difference in nuance between 区別 and 分別 (in terms of the 'classification/distinction' meaning)? I have checked dictionaries but they seem pretty much the same in this case. I would have considered them interchangeable had I not just gotten a question about the difference wrong in a mock test.
Comment: Can you share the example from the mock test?
Comment: Sorry, it is in the Kanzen Master N2 Kanji book, which I don't have with me at the moment. I will search it out when I get home.
Comment: For the life of me I can't find it now, but I do remember that it was about rubbish division, which makes sense given the answers I have received.
Answer: Basically 分別 is used only in the following two types of situations:

separating trash (flammable, recyclable, etc); read [ぶんべつ]{LHHH}

燃えるゴミと燃えないゴミを分別する
ゴミの分別収集にご協力ください
空き缶は分別してリサイクルしましょう

distinguishing the right and the wrong as a sensible adult, discretion; read [ふんべつ]{HLLL}

物事の分別が分かる年齢になった
良いことと悪いことの分別をつける
大人としての理性と分別を身につける

According to BCCWJ these two usages are almost equally common. There were a few other examples using 分別 (apparently about philosophy or psychology), but I think you can safely ignore them.
区別 is "distinction" in general.
Comment: It's definitely worth noting that for the first bullet 分別 is read 「ぶん・べつ」, while for the second bullet it is read 「ふん・べつ」.
Comment: 読みとピッチ足しちゃったんですけど書き方とかマズかったら直してください・・
Answer: 区別 and 分別 are very similar in terms of the meaning 'classification' or 'disctinction', however, when looking at the raw/chinese meaning of '区' and '分', we can see that they have a slight difference.

'区' -> Distinct, zone
'分' -> Divide, separate

In that sense, 区別 is more about 'distinction', identifying qualities, differences and classifying them as types.

善悪の区別 -> Distinction between right and wrong, the 'good' and the 'evil'
色で区別 -> Distinguish by color

分別 is more about separating and sorting, almost physically.

ゴミを金属類や紙類、ビン類等に分別 -> Separate garbage into metals, paper, bottles, etc.
ごみの分別 -> Separation of garbage
Comment: Thank you for your answer. Looking at it that way it does make sense.

Difference between 区別 and 分別