Is there any way not to use the Drupal Image-style system?

Question: I upload mainly light images (around 40 kb's) to my site and also want to save room on my server and don't use 4 different folders for images --- is there any way to avoid using the Drupal image styles system? Can I safely remove the image style folders (or most of their files) and that's it? --- I will check all site pages afterwards and re add images if needed, I just don't have many pages (I have about 30). Thx.
Answer: The Drupal image style system let you upload an image in whatever form you choose, and the image style will transform it into the size, shape, etc. of the selected style according to preset rules that you find in the configuration for image styles.
One of the benefits of the Image style system is that it allows reuse of images in different styles.  You just upload the image once, and than you can use a thumbnail size version in the teaser, and a large size in the main article - or two different styles of the same image in two different nodes, etc.
There is one folder per style (I believe there are 4 default styles, but you can create and add your own styles if you want to, and this will add more folders below the styles directory).
Drupal does not create a copy of the image for a particular style until that style is requested.  While there are 4 folders, if you don't reuse an image, it will only be created in one style - meaning that there will be two copies of that image on your disk: The original, and the scaled, cropped, whatever, copy that Drupal has created for that style.
In other words, you need to condsider the (IMHO) substantial benefits of Drypal's image style system before you decide to get rid of it.
But if you don't want to use it, you can do without.
However it is a bit more involved than just removing the image style folder.
Basically, what you do is to resize, crop, etc. the image yourself, before you upload it to the site.  Then you create (by hand) a link to the original that you've uploaded from whereever you want to use it.  If you do this with all images, Drupal will never attempt to create a copy for a particular image style and the image style folder will be empty.
If you're sure you're never is going to allow Drupal to style an image, I suppose you can remove the image style folder at this point, but I would leave the empty folder it in place to avoid breaking the site if I at some point forget that I'm not supposed to use Drupal's image styles.
If you think that a lot of unused copies of images are living below the image styles folder, you can flush all (or a subset) with the following Drush CLI command:
<code>drush image-flush
</code>
This leaves the file structure below the image styles folder in place, so if a flushed image is requested, it will automatically be recreated in the requested style.
Comment: You can put them whereever you like, as long as you make sure the links to them from the nodes have the right path.  Moving images without fixing links will break the images.
Comment: If I want to clear the styles folders totally, but also want to keep some already-used images, should I just put these desired images in the "files" folder and that's it?
Answer: If you don't want to use image styles, then you can change the display settings on each image field to use the "Original image" style.
Go to admin > Structure > Content types > Page [or your type here...] > Manage display.
For any image field, click the cog-wheel at the extreme right of the row, and select "Original image" from the drop down.
This will prevent Drupal from using it's image styles for any post of this (Page [or your type here...]) type.
Additionally, you could disable the image module to prevent the use of image styles. However, this will also have the (likely unwanted) effect of removing the upload-an-image ability - and will delete any existing images you have uploaded this way when the module is uninstalled.
I recommend, instead, leaving the image module enabled and instead configuring your posts not to use image styles where they are not wanted.


Permanently sourcing data to an .mxd that was previously sourced to a .mpk

Question: I had to do some work away from the server that houses our GIS data. I created a Map Package so that I could take in on the road with me. Everything worked great away from the office. When I returned I open the .mpk and saved as an .mxd to the server and resourced all the layers to the appropriate geodatabase data on the server. Everything seemed fine, so I saved the .mxd and closed Arcmap. Unfortunately, the resourced data does not stay and I have to resource it every time that I open the .mxd. I even tried deleting the layer and adding the .lyr files again. this doesn't help.
Comment: There is no data in the .mxd, just paths to the actual data (whatever the source)
Answer: Two suggestions:

Repath your data using arcpy:  http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/analyze/arcpy-mapping/updatingandfixingdatasources.htm
Open the mxd and another blank mxd.  Copy the layout elements to the new mxd and drag the layers across and save as a new mxd (the original mxd may be corrupt)


Biot-Savart law when the electric field is changing

Question: In the case of Ampere's law, when the electric field at the area of the loop is changing, we add an extra term of displacement current. Likewise, do we also have to add an extra term in the Biot-Savart law equation to obtain the magnetic field at a point or is the law complete in itself?
Answer: Essentially, Ampere's Law has was altered to account for displacement current in order to make it universally true. Biot-Savart was not. As far as practical physics, Biot-Savart is only a viable method to calculate magnetic fields when you are only dealing with current-carrying wires and nothing of greater consequence.
That is not to say that it's impossible to alter Biot-Savart to account for other phenomena, but in that case, you would likely choose to simply use Ampere's Law instead.
Comment: *in that case, you would likely choose to simply use Ampere's Law instead.* This doesn't really make sense. Ampere's law doesn't give a direct method for finding a field. It's just a differential equation that the field has to satisfy. Finding a solution is a different matter.


Is there a way to input guitar tabulature by entering fret and string numbers instead of note letters in LilyPond?

Question: I want to use LilyPond to write guitar tabulature, but it would be quicker for me to be able to input fret numbers and string numbers instead of note letters. How can I do this?
Answer: You can use TuxGuitar which supports entering numbers and then export it as a Lilypond file under File -> Export -> Lilypond.
Answer: Inside Lilypond itself, I can't find a way to do this. You can sort of do this by making a custom fret diagram (which uses string and fret numbers) for each note or chord and then applying that to a tab staff without using a fret diagram staff. Scroll down to the second "Selected Snippet" here to see that in action.
Comment: When I get home I'll build some code and output to show a more specific example and add it to this answer.


What's the surface area of a liquid? How does evaporation increase if the surface area of a liquid is increased?

Question: Wikipedia says that a substance that has a larger surface area will evaporate faster, as there are more surface molecules that are able to escape. I think the rate of evaporation should decrease as there are more surface molecules. I want to know that what is the surface area of a liquid? And also that why the rate of evaporation increases with increase in surface area of the liquid?
Comment: Why would having more surface molecules make the evaporation rate *decrease*?
Comment: I was not sure.. I just thought that when you've more of something, it will last longer..
Comment: If you have a tall glass of water with a given fixed surface area, it will lose a constant amount of water per unit of time (in an identical environment); the deeper the water, the longer it will last. But for a given volume, the large the surface area that's exposed to air, the more quickly it will evaporate.
Answer:
what is the surface area of a liquid?

The surface of a liquid is the interface between the liquid and (usually) the air surrounding it.  The surface area is the amount of that liquid that is exposed to the air, or touching the air.

And also that why the rate of evaporation increases with increase in surface area of the liquid?

If more liquid is exposed to the air, then more of it can evaporate.

I think the rate of evaporation should decrease as there are more surface molecules.

To be particular,  depending on how you define rate of evaporation, you could say that it stays constant not depending on the surface area. However, with more of the liquid exposed, there is more liquid evaporating at a time (at the given rate $\frac{V}{A\cdot t}$).
Comment: Good clarification about the rate of evaporation -- not absolute amount.
Answer: Because in a liquid, the molecules are all about the same distance apart (since most liquids are not very compressible).
So the top surface of liquid in your coffee cup has a certain area and a certain number of molecules in that area.
Two cups of coffee will have twice as much area, so twice as many molecules, so twice as much evaporation.
Now connect the two cups by a narrow tube below the surface.
What you have then is a single quantity of liquid with twice as much surface area as one cup, and, of course, twice as much evaporation.
Comment: Thanks Mike Dunlavey for such an example to clarify the concept!
Answer: The surface area affects evaporation because if more area is exposed to air, allowing water molecules acquire more heat energy from the surroundings.  Due to the increased heat energy (kinetic energy), there is more rapid movement of the water molecules which helps them to overcome the force of attraction and evaporate.
The progression is essentially more area -> more heat absorption -> increased kinetic energy -> increased movement -> faster evaporation.
Comment: Akanksha - did you mean to comment on your own answer to say it was excellent? I am guessing you meant it to go on one of the other ones. ..
Answer: A liquid is a material where the bonds between the molecules are too strong for most molecules to escape but weak enough for the molecules to move around. Evaporation occurs when molecules get enough energy from heat to escape the liquid. They get this heat from motion and the air. An increased surface area means that more liquid will be exposed to air at one time, and therefore, more water can evaporate in a given time period.
Answer: When the surface area of liquid is increased, more molecules of liquid can go or evaporate at the same time. Because it also follow the law of physical equilibrium.
The vapor pressure of liquid remains constant, then if surface area increases then evaporation also increases.


Can I leave the airport in London during my layover for a visit?

Question: I am a US permanent resident but I am a Filipino citizen. I am planning to travel to the Philippines and wanted to get a ticket with a 15 hours layover in the UK. Am I allowed to go out of the airport and have a tour to London?
Comment: to clarify, you're travelling on a Filipino passport, with a US permanent resident visa inside?
Comment: Not sure if this is an exact duplicate: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/703/visit-the-uk-with-schengen-visa, http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/16835/i-am-going-to-greece-via-heathrow-i-have-a-philippine-passport-and-us-permanen
Comment: @Karlson No, since s/he does not have Schengen visa like in the other question.
Comment: @uncovery But the basic premise is the same I'm transiting through London and I want to visit it during the layover.  The end destination and possession of the Schengen visa is irrelevant here.
Answer: You can transit without visa (TWOV) landside (i.e., you are allowed to leave the airport). Citizens of Philippines can TWOV.

A visa national who is going to the UK simply to travel on to another
  country may enter without a visa if these conditions are met:

They arrive and depart by air
Their onward flight is confirmed and departs within 24 hours
They are properly documented for their destination and have a visa if they need one

Source: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/carriers/ukvisarequirements.pdf
See also: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/transitthroughtheuk/visa-to-transit-landside/

It is a good idea, however, to have some supporting documents (e.g. work contract) available, be dressed reasonably well etc., because TWOV is a concession.

The concession is operated at the border where you arrive in the UK
  and is at the discretion of Border Force officers.  You may not be
  permitted to benefit from this concession and may be refused entry to
  the UK.
Comment: TWOV would probably not be granted just for sightseeing, though -- unless the layover is overnight or involves a change of airports it would be difficult to argue that the purpose of _entering_ the UK is "simply to travel on to another country".
Answer: The quick answer is no without a visa. As a Philippines national you need a visa to go through the uk border.
This is clearly explained by the uk border agency here
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/transitthroughtheuk/visa-to-transit-landside/
Check the "Are you a visa national" section under "more information"
Comment: The comment from @R-traveler that seems to contradict mine refers to transit without visa "airside". This is not what the question is about. The original question is about leaving the airport "transit land side". The law allows this if within 24 hours, as per the question, but is subject to the discretion of the customs police. This needs to be requested "in situ", can't be requested in advance. The custom police is unlikely to grant this
Comment: I have successfully used this concession when traveling with a Thai Citizen when transiting through LHR to and from the US.  We explained our intent was to avoid the monotony of a 10 hour airside wait, and to get a decent bacon sandwich!  One thing that was asked on both occasions was whether we had checked baggage.


Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830M CyanogenMod 7.2: Google Play gives error 492 after factory reset

Question: I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830M from Telcel, Mexico running CyanogenMod 7.2. Per a previous thread I managed to install Google Play from the Google Apps package from the CyanogenMod Wiki for CM 7.2 by explicitly mounting /system from ClockworkMod (since I was wrongfully assuming it mounted automatically) and already added my account to the phone, but now I can't download anything from Google Play due to error 492. I already did a factory reset from ClockworkMod and it didn't work.
Comment: Would you mind posting the answer here and mark the question as answered?
Comment: lel nevermind, I found the answer on this 492 fixer package that fixes Google Play right from ClockworkMod. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2531392
Comment: And while doing so, please add some lines of explanation (e.g. how to install, what it does). Thanks alot!
Answer: This problem can be solved with the 492 Error fixer package from this thread here on XDA Developers. You just put it on the SD Card, reboot to ClockworkMod (which I'll assume you already know how to do), go to Install zip from sdcard, and install the fixer package.
Once you install it, you should be good to go.
Comment: i need a method without rooting


If central banks become shareholders, where can investors go?

Question: The ECB is buying corporate bonds. It could eventually also buy shares. What would be left for investors to invest in? Letting bank shareholders pay for bailouts resulted in crashes of their shares. It was interesting to see how fast they went down. It seems like bank shares are relatively volatile. Letting lenders take hair-cuts is very impopular (maybe this is a separate question) but, would the ECB becoming a shareholder / bondholder amount to the same thing? Could it soften or break the opposition against taking hair cuts? (Who would be paying ultimately?)
Comment: There are about three quite distinct questions in there. Please pick one and elaborate.
Answer:
What would be left for investors to invest in?

Stocks and bonds, as always. Just imagine the CB as another institutional investor. Institutions invest in the capital markets all day every day. Another large player will put upward pressure on prices due to increased demand. Upward price pressure can either be good or bad depending on what side of the trade you sit. From the POV of other investors entering the market it could be bad. But for investors seeking to exit and the corporate management and employees who either own company stock or their compensation is impacted by their company's stock price, it could be good.

...would the ECB becoming a shareholder / bondholder amount to the same thing?

It depends. The scenario you describe simply amounts to a shift in the risk pool. The bond risk pool is shifted from sovereign debt to corporate debt. Which is inherently riskier but, again, it depends on which corporations. Risk quantification would require a thorough analysis in order to be useful.

Could it soften or break the opposition against taking hair cuts?

Whose to say? Anything is possible. Further comment would be speculative.

Who would be paying ultimately?

As with any bank or corporation, all profit and loss of the ECB is borne by its shareholders. In this case, these are the central banks of the EU's member states. Primarily, Germany, France and (soon-to-be formerly, post-Brexit) UK. Closely followed by Italy and Spain. See this page for more details.


Best tool and blade to cut 8" pvc

Question: This is my first post.
I  need to cut 1' pieces of pvc sewer pipe for a few projects. The pipe will range from 4" to 15" diameter high density sewage (and perhaps fire-rated industrial pipe). I've researched at length all options from grinders, jigsaws, circulars, and reciprocating. I have a table saw for precision finishing at home, but I need a BATTERY POWERED option to simply chop 20-foot pipes into 1 foot cylinders to transport them from the factory yard to my house (I don't have a truck). So clean lines aren't crucial, but a tool with good battery economy and ease of use is preferable. Any input would be greatly appreciated, as I am relatively new to tools, but will be using them for this project a great deal. I would ideally like a tool that could also be used for lengthwise cuts of these 1-foot pvc cylinders, as I will need to cut all pieces into half-pipes, lengthwise. Tonight I bought this black & decker 20v lithium combo kit for $229.00 at Rona (circular saw, and reciprocating saw, with drill, two batteries, charger, work light, one circle blade, and one recip blade).
Am I on the right track? I've heard mounting the circular blade backwards is better for pvc. Oh, and don't say use a hacksaw; I would be there for hours, and I only have 20 minutes in the pipe manufacturing yard, as they are kind enough to give me industrial scraps for free.
THANK YOU!!!
Comment: Do you have a specific question besides "Is there a better way to do something?"
Answer: If you have limited time onsite I would not spend a lot of time making 20 cuts, regardless of the method. Just cut them into 5 foot lengths or whatever you need to get them in your car and finish up at home. I think you will be pushing the battery life of even a high-end lithium set making so many cuts through large pipes.
Comment: Thanks Henry, that's a good suggestion. I don't want to push their good will as it's a busy production yard, and they're not making any profit off of me being there. So even in that case, would you say that hand saw made for pvc, and save the money for the home tool,  or  a lithium circle saw /reciprocating? I'm just coming out of bankruptcy, so I have to invest wisely, and the patent cost of the devices in making is insane! My next post will be about cutting the pipe cleanly crosswise and lengthwise at home (a whole other ball game)
Answer: I've got some good experience using reciprocating saws, and I'd like to think that I'd be able to make acceptably 'straight' cuts, but there's no way they'll all be perfect. If you are going to use a reciprocating saw, use a blade designed to cut metal, as they have smaller teeth.
Your best bet is a handsaw, not a hacksaw; the arbor won't clear. A jig made up to help you cut them with a handsaw would be ideal. The "professional tool" for cutting large plastic pipe looks a lot like a basic handsaw to me...

20 minutes is plenty of time; handsaws are only as slow as their user. I would show up with both though, which ever one I don't plan on using is the backup option.
Comment: Thanks Mazura! When you said show up with both, did you mean reciprocating, and the saw in your picture? In terms of blade types, I've heard that to many teeth per inch can cause the blade to bandwidth the pipe, given the relatively low melting temp of  pvc. Have you experienced this? Although I don't know if this pertains to circular blades, sabre/jig blades, or what. That's why someone had recommended a standard all-purpose woodworking blade (on a circular or table saw) mounted backwards; also to prevent chipping, though I haven't had any chipping issues thus far. Man, I wish I could afford
Comment: Correction : I meant "bind to"  the pipe,  not "bandwidth"  the pipe..  Damned auto correct. Not sure how to edit my own comments.
Comment: @CharlieSkinner - That's why I began my answer with my level of experience, because yes, that can happen and a host of other problems when using power tools. If you cut too slow or let it bind, it will gall (burn). Teeth too big and it will chip (dangerous). Hold or do it wrong and you'll end up with circle-la-zoids (hard to fix w/o taking off a lot more stock).
Comment: Thanks again; I'll take everything I've got and let you know how it goes!
Answer: A 12" blade on the reciprocating saw. The blades in the link are the best blades I have used. They are strong and fast cutting. Use the wood cutting blades. The pipe will most likely be Schedule 40 which has a wall almost 1/4" thick, plenty thick enough so the tooth spacing will not rip out chunks, small chips yes, but cutting fast and quick as you said does not need to be neat this time around.
Answer: A suggestion, I don't know if this would work out or not, you'd have to experiment ... Rip the pipe lengthwise with the circular saw first, flip it over and rip it again - now you have your half pipes.  Stack those, and cut them with the reciprocating saw or the hand saw.  It will be easier to handle.
You'll get a lot more done if you bring something to hold the pipe while you cut it, don't forget about that.
I agree with the suggestion to use a hand saw, but get a BIG one.  Even if you're not very fast with it, it will be faster than the power tools once the battery dies.

Best tool and blade to cut 8" pvc


How can I remove a MEPLA cabinet door hinge that has no exposed screws?

Question: Below is an image of the hinge I need to replace. Just can not figure out how to remove it from the door side?
Comment: looks like they either used glue or pounded it into a slightly undersized hole or both.    Your guess that the screw holes are supposed to be used to hold it in is correct.
Comment: Like Tyson said, those style hinges are typically just pounded in with a hammer. Possibly you can get under it with a flat head screw driver and work it out?
Answer: Remove the two screws on the cabinet side, press down the tiny tab pictured at top right above, then twist the hinge to left (CCW) to unlock the hinge from the door.  There should be a plastic plate underneath held by 4 screws.


What are some good photography related DVDs?

Question: I can recommend David Noton's Chasing The Light.
Comment: This should really be a community wiki question.
Comment: This is worded pretty broadly; do you have any specific type of photography in mind?
Comment: @jfklein13 - deliberately so, I'm hoping this will be useful for all types of photographers...
Answer: James Nachtwey in "War Photographer".
Answer: I've been using Sandy Puc' resources for studying child and family portraiture.  They're priced for people who want to go professional in that area.  Without a mentor, it's hard to find a better source for posing and tricks for working with kids.
She sells her materials through
http://www.sandysworlduniversity.com/
Click on Campus Store.
I can recommend the Tour DVDs as a start.  I attended the 2010 Family Tour, and have watched the Bellies and Babies and Teens to Tots tour videos from previous years. All good stuff, but all aimed at professional photographers or someone who wants to be in that business.


Running SQL-like queries over large schemaless JSON dataset in the cloud?

Question: I've got about 5 million JSON files, about 50GB in total. They do not have a consistent schema (they're broadly the same format, but some have extra extension fields, some have missing fields, etc - the schema is quite complexly nested).
I would like to run SQL-like queries across these files - e.g. finding the count of files with a certain property, finding the count of files where property is in a numeric or time range, etc.
I have the files locally, and in an S3 bucket. I would ideally like to store the data in the cloud, so that others can run queries against them without having to have the files locally.
What are my options? Here are some solutions I've evaluated so far:

Apache Drill.

Pros: Great for SQL-like queries and 'on-discovery' schemas.
Cons: Ruled out because it struggles with a dataset this size both locally (runs out of memory) and hooked up to S3 (simply doesn't return results, I think because it has to get a local copy of the data).

Google BigQuery.

Pros: Great for SQL-like queries, stores in the cloud, large datasets, plus the friendly user interface is a bonus. JSON can be loaded from command line.
Cons: I'd need to define a schema, and remove or fill any data that doesn't conform to it. This is a hassle, and a problem because it means I can't query some data that I would like to (e.g. extension fields).

Amazon Athena.

Pros: Cloud support (runs against S3), and (I think) has SQL-like queries.
Cons: Seems to require a defined schema (one you define at runtime, rather than in advance)? Also seems to need the files in the query to match the schema, which wouldn't work for my data. However, I'm not sure this is correct, because the documentation is quite confusing.

Google Cloud Datastore.

Pros: SQL-like queries with GQL, stores in the cloud. NoSQL, so schemaless.
Cons: Seems to require pre-defined indexes in order to run queries (?), limited query support (e.g. no aggregation or joins). No documentation on how to load JSON files into it (possibly needs Cloud Dataflow setup).

I'm leaning towards BigQuery, mainly because it's much easier to get up and running than any other solution. However, the requirement for a predefined schema is a major hassle.
Are there any solutions I've missed? Have I misunderstood Athena's requirements about schemas?
Comment: Impala too, but, I think this is probably more on-topic in other SEs
Comment: If you're in the Google cloud, you will want BQ over DS for the pricing. DS is more for accessing individual rows. Drill is for people who run their own infrastructure. If you already have stuff on AWS, you should evaluate their options first; e.g., Redshift.
Answer: You want to write structured queries (have your cake) but have unstructured files (eat it too).
Is there any way you can play with the files a bit and have a common schema between them, with some fields just empty? That would make it easier.
That being said, BigQuery is probably your least bad solution as you found. Amazon's new Redshift Spectrum is kind of similar but will also require a schema to be defined.


Did they increase RAM in iPad 2?

Question: Since there was no hint about more RAM during the presentation yesterday, did anyone find out if they stay with 256 or (like iPhone 4) increased it at least up to 512?
Comment: It's impossible to answer this question at the moment. Probably only after iFixit does its job on one…
Answer: Apple never releases information about memory. The current rumour is 512 MB. You should wait until some opens it up (e.g. iFixit).
And there you go . iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Teardown. 512 MB of Samsung manufactured RAM.
Comment: Could be all marketing and content control. It sounds like something they did not want consumers comparing against other products/competitors...it really cannot be used as a valid indicator for purchase in the same way as a laptop. If I saw it up there in the specifications, I would think that they would have definitely played that out in the Keynote.
Comment: @Philippe … additionally they are using their own processor, which makes comparing/benchmarking it based on some "numbers" even more impossible. As you say, nowadays you cant really tell the speed of such a device based on these anyway and Apple Marketing does a good job at letting users find out the speed by "feeling" rather than "numbers".
Comment: I think they don't tell you because they want it to be an appliance. You don't know how much RAM is in your fridge or DVD player and I think Apple want the iPad to be be the same. Plus of course the iPad is magic, and nothing magical has RAM in it.
Comment: Any reason why they don't tell us about RAM? Their specs page has everything but the RAM, bit strange.
Comment: @MikeyByCrikey - But I *DO* know how much RAM my fridge and DVD player have, and I incorporate such information into the decision making process when deciding to buy products.
Comment: @MikeyByCrikey - Also, "Magic" just means no one has figured out how it works, and is a detrimental shortcut to critical thinking. I'd argue that it is actually a pejorative term.
Answer: You know, I know how much RAM is in the devices I choose as well. I used to be such a predictor of how well a device functions, but I have to admit that Apple's latest round of iOS devices make me not really care anymore. Why worry about when it functions so smoothly. I for one hope more hardware manufacturer's adopt this philosophy, "Make it work well as an integrated device, not as a combination of desperate gadets".

Did they increase RAM in iPad 2?


How do I rename an EV3 project?

Question: I can rename the program in the Home Edition software but I just can't rename a project. Please tell me how to do it. Thanks!
Answer: As far as I know (I use Education Edition but the menu on the Home Edition looks the same), all you need to do to rename a Project is to go to the File menu and use the "Save As" functionality to save your work under a different name. This will automatically rename the Project (as displayed on the Project tab) on your programming screen.
Comment: You can also change the "Project Title" on the Project Properties page.

How do I rename an EV3 project?


Getting from Fort Collins to Denver Amtrak

Question: The westbound Amtrak leaves Denver at 7:15 AM.How can I get from Fort Collins to there?
Comment: This isn't really a duplicate of the marked question - there are services that, due to their schedules, can be used to get from Fort Collins to Denver to meet the train, but not vice versa.
Comment: From the look of it, probably by travelling down the day before and staying overnight in Denver, but hopefully someone can confirm one way or the other!
Answer: Arrow / Black Hills Stages have an early bus, but it's unclear if it only stops in Greeley or also in Ft. Collins. Greyhound lists this bus as departing from Ft. Collins (5:45am) but Arrow / Black Hills lists it only from Greeley. You may want to call them to confirm.
This bus is scheduled to arrive Denver Greyhound station at 6:40am. It's a 12 minute walk from there to Denver Union Station. So this is cutting it close, consider the risk of having to stay an extra day in Denver and take the next train out, Amtrak tickets are often flexible, check the exact conditions.
In case this bus does, in fact, only stop in Greeley (5:40am) then you could try to get a ride/cab from Ft. Collins to catch it there.
Answer: If you're going on a weekday (Monday through Friday and not a holiday), you could take the Bustang North Line commuter bus service.  See my answer on Getting from Denver Amtrak to Fort Collins for details.  For instance, there is a bus leaving downtown Fort Collins at 5:40 AM and arriving at Union Station at 7:05 AM.  You can also catch it at I-25 and Harmony Road.
(Note that as of this writing, the westbound Amtrak California Zephyr arrives in Denver at 7:15 AM, but doesn't depart until 8:05 AM.  So this doesn't cut it as close as it appears.  If you prefer more or less extra time, there are other buses scheduled 30 minutes earlier and later.)


Histogram using gnuplot?

Question: I know how to create a histogram (just use "with boxes") in gnuplot if my .dat file already has properly binned data. Is there a way to take a list of numbers and have gnuplot provide a histogram based on ranges and bin sizes the user provides?
Comment: If you don't get an answer there are other tools which are meant to do such things. I use Root (http://root.cern.ch/) many others around here use R, and there are at least a few other options.
Comment: Bin is the range of values collected together for each bar in the histogram. Each bin has a lower and upper limit, and all the data with a value in that range gets counted towards that bar. Binned means that my data file is already organized by how many data points fall within each bin so it's ready to be plotted as a histogram.
Answer: yes, and its quick and simple though very hidden:
binwidth=5
bin(x,width)=width*floor(x/width)

plot 'datafile' using (bin($1,binwidth)):(1.0) smooth freq with boxes
check out help smooth freq to see why the above makes a histogram
to deal with ranges just set the xrange variable.
Comment: I think @ChrisW's answer below brings an important point to notice for anyone who wants to make a Histogram in Gnuplot.
Comment: Be very careful, this only works if there is no "missing" bin in the set... This function fixes the y-value of a missing bin to the y-value of the previous non-missing bin. This can be very misleading!!!
Comment: I would add `set boxwidth binwidth` to above. It was really helpful for me.
Answer: I have a couple corrections/additions to Born2Smile's very useful answer:

Empty bins caused the box for the adjacent bin to incorrectly extend into its space; avoid this using set boxwidth binwidth
In Born2Smile's version, bins are rendered as centered on their lower bound.  Strictly they ought to extend from the lower bound to the upper bound.  This can be corrected by modifying the bin function: bin(x,width)=width*floor(x/width) + width/2.0
Comment: Actually that second part should be `bin(x,width)=width*floor(x/width) + binwidth/2.0` (floating point calculations)
Comment: You mean `bin(x,width)=width*floor(x/width) + width/2.0`. If we are passing `width` as an argument, then use it. :-)
Answer: Be very careful: all of the answers on this page are implicitly taking the decision of where the binning starts - the left-hand edge of the left-most bin, if you like - out of the user's hands. If the user is combining any of these functions for binning data with his/her own decision about where binning starts (as is done on the blog which is linked to above) the functions above are all incorrect. With an arbitrary starting point for binning 'Min', the correct function is:
bin(x) = width*(floor((x-Min)/width)+0.5) + Min

You can see why this is correct sequentially (it helps to draw a few bins and a point somewhere in one of them). Subtract Min from your data point to see how far into the binning range it is. Then divide by binwidth so that you're effectively working in units of 'bins'. Then 'floor' the result to go to the left-hand edge of that bin, add 0.5 to go to the middle of the bin, multiply by the width so that you're no longer working in units of bins but in an absolute scale again, then finally add back on the Min offset you subtracted at the start.
Consider this function in action:
Min = 0.25 # where binning starts
Max = 2.25 # where binning ends
n = 2 # the number of bins
width = (Max-Min)/n # binwidth; evaluates to 1.0
bin(x) = width*(floor((x-Min)/width)+0.5) + Min

e.g. the value 1.1 truly falls in the left bin:

this function correctly maps it to the centre of the left bin (0.75);
Born2Smile's answer, bin(x)=width*floor(x/width), incorrectly maps it to 1;
mas90's answer, bin(x)=width*floor(x/width) + binwidth/2.0, incorrectly maps it to 1.5.

Born2Smile's answer is only correct if the bin boundaries occur at (n+0.5)*binwidth (where n runs over integers). mas90's answer is only correct if the bin boundaries occur at n*binwidth.
Comment: Tip: Set `Min` and `Max` to floating point values to use floating point math.  I tried using integers and got `x range is invalid`, because `binwidth` was rounded down to zero.
Answer: Do you want to plot a graph like this one?

yes? Then you can have a look at my blog article: http://gnuplot-surprising.blogspot.com/2011/09/statistic-analysis-and-histogram.html
Key lines from the code:
n=100 #number of intervals
max=3. #max value
min=-3. #min value
width=(max-min)/n #interval width
#function used to map a value to the intervals
hist(x,width)=width*floor(x/width)+width/2.0
set boxwidth width*0.9
set style fill solid 0.5 # fill style

#count and plot
plot "data.dat" u (hist($1,width)):(1.0) smooth freq w boxes lc rgb"green" notitle

Comment: This article helped me to get started with Gnuplot. Thanks! I had to terminate every line with a semicolon to avoid errors like this: `line -4: unexpected or unrecognized token`.
Answer: As usual, Gnuplot is a fantastic tool for plotting sweet looking graphs and it can be made to perform all sorts of calculations.  However, it is intended to plot data rather than to serve as a calculator and it is often easier to use an external programme (e.g. Octave) to do the more "complicated" calculations, save this data in a file, then use Gnuplot to produce the graph.  For the above problem, check out the "hist" function is Octave using [freq,bins]=hist(data), then plot this in Gnuplot using
set style histogram rowstacked gap 0
set style fill solid 0.5 border lt -1
plot "./data.dat" smooth freq with boxes

Answer: I have found this discussion extremely useful, but I have experienced some "rounding off" problems.
More precisely, using a binwidth of 0.05, I have noticed that, with the techniques presented here above, data points which read 0.1 and 0.15 fall in the same bin. This (obviously unwanted behaviour) is most likely due to the "floor" function.
Hereafter is my small contribution to try to circumvent this.
bin(x,width,n)=x<=n*width? width*(n-1) + 0.5*binwidth:bin(x,width,n+1)
binwidth = 0.05
set boxwidth binwidth
plot "data.dat" u (bin($1,binwidth,1)):(1.0) smooth freq with boxes

This recursive method is for x >=0; one could generalise this with more conditional statements to obtain something even more general.
Answer: We do not need to use recursive method, it may be slow. My solution is using a user-defined function rint instesd of instrinsic function int or floor.
rint(x)=(x-int(x)>0.9999)?int(x)+1:int(x)

This function will give rint(0.0003/0.0001)=3, while int(0.0003/0.0001)=floor(0.0003/0.0001)=2.
Why? Please look at Perl int function and padding zeros
Answer: I have a little modification to Born2Smile's solution.
I know that doesn't make much sense, but you may want it just in case. If your data is integer and you need a float bin size (maybe for comparison with another set of data, or plot density in finer grid), you will need to add a random number between 0 and 1 inside floor. Otherwise, there will be spikes due to round up error. floor(x/width+0.5) will not do because it will create pattern that's not true to original data.
binwidth=0.3
bin(x,width)=width*floor(x/width+rand(0))

Comment: You haven't encountered such situations, but you may later. You can tested it with normally distributed integers with a float sd and plot histograms with bin=1, and bin=s.d. See what you get with and without the rand(0) trick. I caught a collaborator's mistake when reviewing his manuscript. His results changed from absolutely nonsense to a beautiful figure as expected.
Comment: Ok, maybe the explanation is so short, that one cannot understand it without a more concrete test case. I'll make a short edit of your answer so that I can undo the downvote ;)
Comment: Consider integers of normal distribution. Since they are integers, many of them will have the same x/width. Let's say that number is 1.3. With floor(x/width+0.5), all of them will be assigned to bin 1. But what 1.3 really means in terms of density is that 70% of them should be in bin 1 and 30% in bin 2. rand(0) keeps the proper density. So, 0.5 creates spikes and rand(0) keeps it true. I bet the figure by hsxz will be much smoother using rand(0) instead of 0.5. It's not just rounding up, it's rounding up without perturbation.
Answer: With respect to binning functions, I didn't expect the result of the functions offered so far. Namely, if my binwidth is 0.001, these functions were centering the bins on 0.0005 points, whereas I feel it's more intuitive to have the bins centered on 0.001 boundaries.
In other words, I'd like to have
Bin 0.001 contain data from 0.0005 to 0.0014
Bin 0.002 contain data from 0.0015 to 0.0024
...

The binning function I came up with is
my_bin(x,width)     = width*(floor(x/width+0.5))

Here's a script to compare some of the offered bin functions to this one:
rint(x) = (x-int(x)>0.9999)?int(x)+1:int(x)
bin(x,width)        = width*rint(x/width) + width/2.0
binc(x,width)       = width*(int(x/width)+0.5)
mitar_bin(x,width)  = width*floor(x/width) + width/2.0
my_bin(x,width)     = width*(floor(x/width+0.5))

binwidth = 0.001

data_list = "-0.1386 -0.1383 -0.1375 -0.0015 -0.0005 0.0005 0.0015 0.1375 0.1383 0.1386"

my_line = sprintf("%7s  %7s  %7s  %7s  %7s","data","bin()","binc()","mitar()","my_bin()")
print my_line
do for [i in data_list] {
    iN = i + 0
    my_line = sprintf("%+.4f  %+.4f  %+.4f  %+.4f  %+.4f",iN,bin(iN,binwidth),binc(iN,binwidth),mitar_bin(iN,binwidth),my_bin(iN,binwidth))
    print my_line
}

and here's the output
   data    bin()   binc()  mitar()  my_bin()
-0.1386  -0.1375  -0.1375  -0.1385  -0.1390
-0.1383  -0.1375  -0.1375  -0.1385  -0.1380
-0.1375  -0.1365  -0.1365  -0.1375  -0.1380
-0.0015  -0.0005  -0.0005  -0.0015  -0.0010
-0.0005  +0.0005  +0.0005  -0.0005  +0.0000
+0.0005  +0.0005  +0.0005  +0.0005  +0.0010
+0.0015  +0.0015  +0.0015  +0.0015  +0.0020
+0.1375  +0.1375  +0.1375  +0.1375  +0.1380
+0.1383  +0.1385  +0.1385  +0.1385  +0.1380
+0.1386  +0.1385  +0.1385  +0.1385  +0.1390

Answer: Different number of bins on the same dataset can reveal different features of the data.
Unfortunately, there is no universal best method that can determine the number of bins.
One of the powerful methods is the Freedman–Diaconis rule, which automatically determines the number of bins based on statistics of a given dataset, among many other alternatives.
Accordingly, the following can be used to utilise the Freedman–Diaconis rule in a gnuplot script:
Say you have a file containing a single column of samples, samplesFile:
# samples
0.12345
1.23232
...

The following (which is based on ChrisW's answer) may be embed into an existing gnuplot script:
...
## preceeding gnuplot commands
...

#
samples="$samplesFile"
stats samples nooutput
N = floor(STATS_records)
samplesMin = STATS_min
samplesMax = STATS_max
# Freedman–Diaconis formula for bin-width size estimation
    lowQuartile = STATS_lo_quartile
    upQuartile = STATS_up_quartile
    IQR = upQuartile - lowQuartile
    width = 2*IQR/(N**(1.0/3.0))
    bin(x) = width*(floor((x-samplesMin)/width)+0.5) + samplesMin

plot \
    samples u (bin(\$1)):(1.0/(N*width)) t "Output" w l lw 1 smooth freq

Histogram using gnuplot?


pan size and cream pull candy

Question: I am making cream pull candy. Recipe is usually made in a 4 Qt. pan. Can I use a 8 qt. pan as long as  candy thermometer is submerged enough or will the different size--e.g. more surface area  especially width-- interfere with the candy formation?
Answer: Absolutely. Make sure that you brush down the sides of the pan a few times with a pastry brush soaked in water before your syrup reaches the soft ball stage to make sure there's no crystalized sugar left on the sides of the pan (which will trigger recrystalization once it's melted and make your sugar grainy.) After it reaches soft ball give it a swirl every few seconds to make sure it's heating evenly. You should be good.
Good luck!

pan size and cream pull candy


Airtime efficiency

Question: How is airtime efficiency measured? How does one increase it, decrease power consumption, and minimize the amount of RF transmitted?
cf. these comments
Answer:
How is airtime efficiency measured?

Airtime efficiency with regards to 802.11 networking is some measure of how efficient the RF spectrum is utilized. There is no single standard for how to calculate this (i.e. different vendors do it in their own way), but generally speaking it is a measure of what percentage of the "airtime" is actually used to transmit user data.
Things that are often considered to reduce efficiency:

slow 802.11 transmissions
802.11 collisions
802.11 transmission failures/retransmissions
802.11 management traffic

How does one increase it,

Again this is a general answer, but in a simple sense by reducing the types of traffic that impact efficiency negatively. Some of the ways you do this are as follows:

Increase the average data rate in use
Provide sufficient coverage
Make good use of channels
Remove non-802.11 sources of RF in the same frequencies when possible
Reduce the amount of 802.11 management traffic (without negatively impacting the service)

This general list can include dozens of changes to the environment and/or configuration. There are whole books dedicated to the proper planning and operation of 802.11 wireless networks and a large amount of vendor specific documentation, so there is no way to cover the topic in great depth here.

decrease power consumption,

Not exactly clear about what you are asking here, but 802.11 is generally very power efficient. Running the typical microwave oven for a minute or two will use more power (i.e. they generate more RF although it should be mostly contained within the device itself) than an 802.11 radio in a whole day.

minimize the amount of RF transmitted?

Again your request isn't very clear, so jokingly I want to reply that you could always live in a faraday cage? Seriously, RF is all around us every moment of every day. There is no place on earth (or space) you can escape it. Some (not all by any means) of the many devices that operate in the same frequencies as 802.11 include any device capable of using Bluetooth, wireless controllers for video game consoles, wireless keyboards/mice, cordless phones, baby monitors, wireless video cameras, microwave ovens, sensors, two-way radios, and of course 802.11 devices (which includes appliances, vending machines, home automation, etc). That doesn't even touch on naturally occurring sources of RF.
Most of these devices will tend to interoperate well with each other if everything is working correctly and in compliance with regulatory requirements. There really is no reducing the amount of RF transmitted, it simply is a fact of existence in modern civilization.
Reducing the RF transmitted by a single device is largely a matter of utilizing the correct antenna for the coverage you desire and reducing the transmit power of the device(s).
Answer: There is no standard definition of airtime efficiency, so you're free to define it yourself.
For WiFi, there is overhead in the 802.11 protocol, beacons, etc., but you need those to operate a network.
The biggest factor by far that affects efficiency is retransmissions. These are a fact of life over wireless media, but everything you can do to lessen them, such as increasing your S/N ratio will increase your efficiency.

Airtime efficiency


HTML Email Templates delivered Incompletely in Lightning List Email

Question: I have few html email templates which are used to send mass emails to Contact and Campaigns.
They are working fine in Salesforce classic whereas in Lightning, they are delivered incompletely. We need to send this template completely as there are few links on the template where recipients can subscribe. I didnt find any article online supporting this issue. Is there any workaround or can anyone suggest how to send template completely in Mass email in Lightning.
Comment: Are you using the email message object in your Lightning Org? I also see your question has the Visualforce-Template tag on it. Are your email templates visualforce templates or are they classic email templates? It makes a huge difference. There's a great deal of documentation on this in the Salesforce Help.
Comment: Yes @cmprogdev. HTML templates are working completely in email message lightning object. Whereas, when I send list emails from Campaign or Contact, it is sending incompelete template. The html templates that I use are from Classic. Visualforce-template tag in my question came by mistake.
Answer: Based on your clarification the problem only exists with list emails on Campaign and Contact, I think I found the answer to your question as to why you're having the problem you're seeing. List emails in Lightning are limited to 32,000 characters.
See List Email Limitations and Considerations for Sending List Email in Lightning Experience.
Comment: Awesome @crmprogdev. I was trying to find suitable document to verify this issue. Thank you very much for the info !


Can I get drivers to run Win 7 64 bit on a MacBook 2.1 manually?

Question: I have a working MacBook 2.1 mid 2007, i wish to run Win 7 64 bit. Is there a way to get the drivers i need manually? apparently running Win 7 64bit on this model is not fully supported.
Comment: Generally speaking (I've heard)  it's possible. But finding the drivers can be challenging as you need Windows drivers for Apple hardware. Often Apple uses "off the shelf" components. You'll need to find drivers for those components. Challenging.
Comment: In fact Windows installs the driver for the SigmaTel audio device that matches the one on the computer, but still i it does not work.
Answer: I have never installed Windows on a MacBook. However, I have installed 32 bit Vista and Windows 7, 64 bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 on a 2007 iMac. I base my answer on the assumption your experiences would be the same.
For all 64 bit installs on Windows, I used the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033. The Apple website Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp indicates your Mac should use the same version of the Boot Camp Support Software. Instructions for installing this software are given as a answer to Using Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 to install 64 bit Windows 7 or 8.
You should install Windows to BIOS boot. The main reason for this is that many of the drivers included in the Boot Camp Support Software are designed only for BIOS booting.
According to Apple, the Windows 7 installation media is suppose to include Service Pack 1 (SP1). Although, users have posted success installing without SP1. The Microsoft website Installing Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp does not mention needing SP1.
I could not boot from the Windows 7 DVD because the DVD contained multiple ways to boot. If you have this problem, then see my answer to to "Select CD-ROM Boot Type:" error during Windows install
USB flash drive based Windows installers would not work with my 2007 iMac. So, other than using the optical drive to install Windows, you could choose to use the procedure outlined in Installing Windows 7 or 10 Pro 64 bit without DVD or Flash Drive


Does the solarian weapon's damage count as magical?

Question: The solarian weapon states that it is supernatural which means it is magical. Does that mean the damage counts as magical for things like incorporeal creatures?
Comment: @Nyakouai Please see [this meta](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6533/should-users-refrain-from-answers-or-partial-answers-in-comments) for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
Answer: Yes, they do...
It is in the Supernatural ability very definition:

Supernatural Abilities (Su)
Supernatural abilities are magical but not spell-like. Supernatural
  abilities are not subject to spell resistance and do not function in
  areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic
  field). A supernatural ability's effect cannot be dispelled and is not
  subject to counterspells.

(Emphasis mine)
This point is further confirmed by the definition of incorporeal creatures:

Incorporeal (Ex) An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can
  be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or
  creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like
  abilities, or supernatural abilities.

But
Looking at the Ethereal condition:

An ethereal creature is invisible, insubstantial, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down, albeit at half normal speed.
  As an insubstantial creature, you can move through solid objects,
  including living creatures. An ethereal creature can see and hear on
  the Material Plane, but everything looks gray and ephemeral. Sight and
  hearing onto the Material Plane are limited to 60 feet.
Force effects and abjurations affect an ethereal creature normally.
  Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane,
  but not vice versa. An ethereal creature can't attack material
  creatures, and spells you cast while ethereal affect only other
  ethereal things. Certain material creatures or objects have attacks or
  effects that work on the Ethereal Plane.

An ethereal creature exist on the Ethereal plane and follow the same rules than any other planes about interacting with the Material Plane, with the exceptions above. So wielding a magical sword on the Material Plane do not bother a creature on the Ethereal Plane more than a creature on the Fire Plane, except if this weapon is enchanted with an appropriate Force or Abjuration effect. I think you were referring to Incorporeal creatures, as mentionned above.
Comment: While this is not relevant to the answer, I'd like to apologize for my first comment, as it was extremely wrong. Learned something today.
Comment: Whoops you're right changed it
Comment: This might not matter but that is the pathfinder ruling and the starfinder one is a bit different stating only energy and "magical kinetic attacks" can hit and deal 1/2 damage
Answer: I believe solarian weapons do not count as magical for overcoming incorporeal damage unless the solarian has a weapon crystal set in their mote.
See page 170 of the Core Rulebook, first complete paragraph of the second column:

When a weapon crystal is within a mote and the solarian uses the mote in solar weapon form, the solar weapon is considered magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

That strongly implies that if a weapon crystal is not in a mote, the solar weapon is not considered magic.  There is the detail of "for the purpose of overcoming magic damage reduction," and one could argue that incorporeal immunity is not damage reduction because DR is a specific thing... but honestly, I find it more likely that the intent is "weapon crystal adds magic" the way adding a fusion adds magic to normal weapons.
Regarding the weapon being supernatural, I don't see it called supernatural anywhere.  From page 102 of the Core Rulebook:

Your solar weapon functions as a one-handed kinetic advanced melee weapon, and you're automatically proficient with it. At 1st level, choose whether your solar weapon deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. You can change the damage type each time you gain a new solarian level. Your solar weapon deals damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. This damage increases by 1d6 at 6th level, 9th level, 12th level, and every level thereafter. Solarian weapon crystals (see page 170) can increase your solar weapon's damage.

That' the full weapon mechanic, and it's not described as supernatural or magical there.  The class ability that creates it, Solar Manifestation, is an SU ability, yes--but as written, it seems to supernaturally create a non-magical item.
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance.

Does the solarian weapon’s damage count as magical?


Thermodynamic properties software

Question: I am looking for a software (can be freeware or purchased) to look up water and steam thermodynamic properties (e.g. density, enthalpy, entropy) preferably a macro in excel. What do you use for this application?
Answer: I have access to several programs or similar solutions for the work with so-called steam tables. I usually prefer to use the NIST Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties Database (REFPROP) – NIST Standard Reference Database 23, Version 9. It is a program that can calculate the thermodynamic and transport properties of water and steam as well as some other important fluids and their mixtures. It was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is commercially available here.
Although I usually don't do this myself, REFPROP can be used with Microsoft Excel. This is described in the corresponding Help file as follows:

Excel Spreadsheets
The REFPROP software includes dynamic link library ('.dll') support that allows a broad variety of applications to take advantage of REFPROP's capabilities.  REFPROP is distributed with front-end software that links Microsoft Excel applications to fluid property functions.
The REFPROP Excel front-end is supplied as a Microsoft Visual Basic module.  Excel automatically incorporates Visual Basic as a macrofunction execution, scripting and interface utility.  When the REFPROP front-end module is imported into an Excel spreadsheet, REFPROP functions become accessible to the user.  The proceedure for doing this is described below.
The information given below demonstrates the front end usage; however, the user is not bound to this format; rather, the preferred method would be to write one's own visual basic code that calls the DLL directly.  A dedicated module will increase the speed of the application and give the ability to use the REFPROP functions to their fullest.
The following supplementary instructions are intended for users who wish to create and modify their own spreadsheets that utilize the REFPROP functions based on the front-end module.  The Excel application included with the software is called REFPROP.xls and is located in the directory where the REFPROP program was installed.  Sample FORTRAN and Visual Basic files are also included.
Properties are calculated by calling various functions.  For example, the following line would be placed in a cell to calculate the density of argon at 300 K and 10 MPa:
=Density("argon","TP","SI",300,10)
Other properties can be calculated by using any of the following functions:
(…)
Answer: I downloaded a macro for this many years ago and have since lost it.  It might have been this one: http://www.mycheme.com/steam-tables-in-excel/ .  That link is worth a look either way.
Answer: You can also use Engineering Equation Solver or EES (http://www.fchart.com/ees/).
You get a free Student Version if you buy Cengel's books (http://novellaqalive.mhhe.com/sites/0072383321/student_view0/ees_software.html#)
You can even solve equations, manipulate units, create tables and plot different parameters.
With this software you can simply write rho = density('Substance',T=Temperature,P=Pressure).
Take a look at this screenshot:

And the solutions:

The power of it stands in the ability to use the units. You can also change the references and the standards of tables, without the need to write extra codes.
Answer: You should check out CoolProp library. It is a C++ library that implements:

Pure and pseudo-pure fluid equations of state and transport properties for 122 components
Mixture properties using high-accuracy Helmholtz energy formulations
Correlations of properties of incompressible fluids and brines
Computationally efficient tabular interpolation
Highest accuracy psychrometric routines
User-friendly interface around the full capabilities of NIST REFPROP
Fast IAPWS-IF97 (Industrial Formulation) for Water/Steam
Cubic equations of state (SRK, PR)

Other free options based on CoolProp

SmoWeb for online calculation
ThermoState for offline calculation

Note: I am the developer of ThermoState

Thermodynamic properties software


Why say tachanun in mincha on 13 Iyar if you won't on 14 Iyar?

Question: Usually one does not say tachanun at mincha before a day when tachanun is not said. The Artscroll siddur says to say tachanun on the 13th of Iyar, the day before Pesach Sheni (the 14th of Iyar), even according to those who don't say tachanun on Pesach Sheni itself.  What is the logic or basis for this rule?
Comment: Maybe because the whole skipping Tachanun on Pesach Sheni thing is all made up recently anyway so הבו דלא לוסיף עלה we don't extend it further then necessary?
Answer: From R' Dov Lior's answer at Yeshiva.org.il:

הסיבה לכך היא, שכל עניין "פסח שני" מתחיל מהבוקר ואין שום עניין בלילה. את קרבן פסח שני עשו בבוקר, ובלילה לא עושים שום דבר (בניגוד לשאר חגים). ולכן כל העדות צריכות לומר תחנון.
The reason for this is that the whole concept Pesach sheini starts from the morning and there is nothing related to the evening. The sacrifice of Pesach sheini was done in the morning* and in the evening nothing is done (unlike other holidays). Therefore, all communities have to say tachanun.
Own rough translation

* Bemidbar 9:3 tells us that the sacrifice was actually performed in the afternoon:

בְּאַרְבָּעָ֣ה עָשָֽׂר־י֠וֹם בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֜ה בֵּ֧ין הָֽעַרְבַּ֛יִם תַּֽעֲשׂ֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ בְּמֹֽעֲד֑וֹ כְּכָל־חֻקֹּתָ֥יו וּכְכָל־מִשְׁפָּטָ֖יו תַּֽעֲשׂ֥וּ אֹתֽוֹ׃

Also if you carefully read the wording of Orach Chayim 131:6, a list is given there, so not saying tachanun on the afternoon preceding a holiday is not a general rule. We don't say it before ט"ו באב, ט"ו בשבט, Rosh Chodesh and most before Chanukkah, while Erev Rosh Hashanah (Orach Chayim 581:3) and Erev Yom Kippur (Orach Chayim 604:2) are exempted on their own right.
Whether one should say tachanun or not on Pesach sheini is discussed in depth with a very detailed list of sources by R' Ephraim Grunblatt in Rivevot Efraim חלק ו' סימן רנ"ח.
Thanks to Double AA for discovering the imprecision!
Comment: To what do you refer when you say "unlike other holidays". What is done in the evening, erev other holidays?  No sacrifices were brought in the evening, erev of any day, whether or not the coming day was a holiday.
Comment: @YehudaW When were you supposed to eat the Paschal lamb?
Comment: How is Pesach sheni different from other days before which we do not say tachanun?  What observances are there for erev rosh hodesh, for example?


Pi2 has no red light

Question: I have been working with my Pi2 for about a 10 days, it worked OK and I had no problem, today when I was working with a step motor driver, PI suddenly turn off and now it is not turning on.
Usually when you have no red light, it means that your power source has problem but in my case that's not true. I was working whit my power source for 10 days, also I testes my power source again with a B+ model which it worked fine.
Also when I plug the power source to the my Pi2, one of the very little part at the back of the board (between c94 and c49) gets hot that I can't touch it.
Answer: It seems safe to assume that you blew something in the board.  If you're not getting any of the LEDs to turn on and it gets that hot, something somewhere is drastically wrong.
Comment: of-course, the question is what thing?
Comment: @NimaNr: my guess is the power regulator. Though I don't have a RPi in front of me, so I can't tell off the top of my head where c94/c49 is.

Pi2 has no red light


Substitute apricot with some other fruit in this Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastries recipe

Question: This recipe (scroll down to the bottom of the page) calls for apricot to use on the topping of the pastries. What fruit do you recommend to use that will be as good, along with its jam for the glaze? What about mango? I have no idea about cooked mango, have never eaten one!
Comment: Any stone fruit or berry would work well in this application.
Comment: why do you not want to use apricot? without knowing that, people may recommend things that still don't work for you
Comment: @KateGregory: I don't have apricot at home and I'd use other fruits  that I have in the fridge. (mango, apple or some other fruit that people recommend)
Comment: I'm not sure what kind of answer you are expecting. If you want it to taste like apricot, nothing except apricot will work. If it is OK for you to taste like something else, any fruit will do, and none is better than the other one. Can you give some criteria - what are you trying to achieve?
Answer: If your objective is to maintain a similar color/texture/firmness, then cling peaches are the way to go. Except they are almost always found canned (I live in California and sometimes find them fresh at farmers markets where vendors come from the Sacramento valley).
I'm a fan of the pear.  Bosc and Anjou will hold up well during cooking (Bartlett pears may fall apart).
Both should work well with the pastry cream and vanilla in the recipe.
If you end up using pears, consider adding just a hint of almond extract or amaretto to the pastry creme.
Answer: I didn't see the link for the recipe, but  if it calls for fresh apricots you can substitute

Peaches. Freestone vs Cling refers to whether the flesh  is attached to the pit.  when you slice  the fruit. We get Michigan peaches in Chicago. There is no appreciable taste difference between the two.

I would skin the peaches.You dunk them in simmering water for about 30 seconds, remove and rub the skin off with a paper towel
Use peach jam for the glaze. Add a bit of lemon juice to punch up the flavor.

Some variety of plums. Look for firm fruit which the store or vendor says are sweet. For this I would use  a strained  orange marmalade for the glaze, again correcting with lemon juice for tartness. Plums should not be skinned first.
Nectarines. I would not  skin these. I use nectarines interchangeably with mangoes in a fruit salad . For a glaze try red currant jelly. Smuckers makes a nationally  distributed brand in the US but my international supermarket has several alternatives

It is a matter of personal preference but I think you should confine your substitute  to stone fruits rather than apples and  pears because of the different flavor and texture profiles.
Apples have a lot of pectin and can be used as a base for a glaze which is flavored with something to complement the stone fruit you use.


Wordpress Multisite allow site admin to add user without email confirmation

Question: In Wordpress Multisite,a site admin (not a super admin) doesn't have the option "Add the user without sending them a confirmation email" when adding a new user.
Is there a way to bypass the confirmation email or to add this option also for site admin ?
Many thanks
Comment: On a past proiect, I removed the original add-user page and I've added a custom one with custom hooks and processing. I will return with a code snippet if you want to go this way.
Answer: You will not be able to enable the checkbox for non-super-admins as the code for it shows:
<?php if ( is_multisite() && is_super_admin() ) { ?>

    <?php _e('Skip Confirmation Email') ?>
    <input type="checkbox" name="noconfirmation" id="noconfirmation" value="1" <?php checked( $new_user_ignore_pass ); ?> /> <?php _e( 'Add the user without sending them a confirmation email.' ); ?>

<?php } ?>

You can disable the sending of the confirmation emails altogether with the following:
add_filter( 'wpmu_welcome_user_notification', '__return_false');

The other option is create a plugin that makes your own custom add user page.
Answer: It's now possible in recent version of Wordpress (since 3.8 ?), with the right "manage_network_users".
You can access it with the User Role editor plug-in, for example (in network admin prefs).


Stock: Canned, Bouillon Cubes and Powder

Question: What are the Pros and Cons to each one? Most of the time I am making vegetable soup.
Thanks
Answer: Commercial stock or broth products come in several categories.  Of the ones you ask about:
Canned
Bulky, but ready to use.  May be the highest quality product of the three you asked about, with the best flavor.  Especially low salt versions contain less salt than the cubed or powdered alternatives.
Cubes
Contain lots of salt.   Must be dissolved in hot water before use.  May not be as high a quality product as canned.   Requires little shelf space.  Often inexpensive on a per serving basis.
Powder
Essentially the same as cubes, but not yet pressed into cube form.  Somewhat easier to dissolve than the cubes.
Concentrate
While you did not ask, concentrated stocks are also available on the market, which are almost like a jelly that you can add to thicken and enrich sauces, or reconstitute with water to use as a soup base.  These tend to be marketed at commercial kitchens, and may be a higher quality product than some of the others.
Comment: Thank you. This was a great summary. Did you want to finish that last sentence?
Comment: Concentrate stocks are the "bees knees"
Answer: It's hard to generalize them since within each category there are vastly different qualities.
Read the ingredients list carefully.

Bouillon: With some exceptions (buy these ones), you'll find most cubes contain little if any meat based stock, and are mostly salt, yeast extract, and dehydrated vegetables plus a load of MSG.  The best ones are the ones that are low in sodium and contain little fillers.  They also tend to be more expensive.  The good ones may allow you to provide a lift to the dish but not base a good dish on them.
Powder: Here you'll mostly find corn starch, MSG, salt and some powdered vegetables plus thickening agents.  The chicken ones may have some real chicken broth based powder, and it's very hard to actually find beef stock in powder form.  While many restaurants use this type, the professional chefs avoid them and typically shake their head at dishes made using these.
Canned: you might get some honest stock in this form.  Again, read ingredients and check for salt.
frozen stock: you can typically find honest beef and chicken stock in frozen tub containers in the freezer section.  They won't be as cheap as buying some soup bones or making your own.
Tetrapack: In North America, you can find Pacific, and Imagine brand of broth in tetrapack form.  They (and a handful of others) do offer low sodium organic broth which tend to produce the best result from any store bought product and contain little fillers.  The 'major' brands also have organic lines but when you read the ingredients you'll know how little actual stock you're getting.
Answer: I have a favorite option, it's a concentrate or "base", like SAJ14SAJ mentioned. Costco now carries it, making it also an inexpensive option - Better than Bouillon, the organic, reduced sodium variety. I almost always make my own broth, this product is great for stretching homemade or enriching it. In a pinch, it's even OK just mixed with water. It was included in America's Test Kitchen tasting test of canned broths, it tied (or almost tied) Swanson's canned broth for 1st place. Other answers have very well covered the pros and cons of each type of chicken broth product, this one just happens to be my favorite of all of them. All pros, no cons.


spsecurity RunWithElevatedPrivileges

Question: If you change the identity of the application pool, and the new account is not the System account, what account is used when calling SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges?
Answer: SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges reverts to the identity of the application pool (among other things). So, the code runs under the new identity you specified.
Also, if you did change the app pool's identity property (i.e. from the Central Administration Tool, so SharePoint sets correct permissions on the content DB + propagate changes to all servers in the farm) it is now the "new" System Account.
Answer: SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges always executes the code under Application Pool Identity. So you must ensure that Application Pool Identity has proper permissions over site, otherwise you will get access denied error.
Comment: which permissions we need to give for the Application Pool Identity
Comment: Its depending upon your requirements. If you want to add, update, and delete **list items and documents** then App Pool Identity should have at least **"Contribute"** access . If you want to Add, edit, and delete **lists** then **"Edit"** access. If you are dealing with some critical tasks then you can give **"Full Control"**.

spsecurity RunWithElevatedPrivileges


How to make cool hi-hats sounds in Reason

Question: I listened to this very neat track from Chet Faker, and I was stunned by the hi-hats sound beginning at 0:18.
I was wondering how to recreate it in Reason, and I figured maybe it would serve as an example to make guidelines on how to process hi-hats sounds.
Answer: There is a lot of stereo panning back and forth on the hihats supplemented by the clicks left and right. There is also some tight echo on the hats - notice also how the rest of the musicical instruments (apart from the scratches) do not impose on the mid upper and upper bounds of the spectrum thus leaving the hats and clicks to stand out proud and not clashing with other stuff.
I can't tell you how to recreate it in reason but if you were using cubase I'd have them perked up with some eq from about 2kHz to 10kHz (maybe 6 dB plateau), then i'd compress them with a ratio of about 5:1 so that the levels are nearly always causing compression to be instigated i.e. the threshold of compression is mainly below all the hihat sounds. Then I'd have an automation track doing the fast panning left and right. Then further down the chain I'd use some echo - not blatent - 50ms delay to 200ms should do it. Finally it sounds like they have been distorted a tad so whatever distortion fx you have might be worth a mess with.
Comment: There seem to be an aspiration effect or something like that, I was thinking maybe a gated reverb, but I wouldn't know how to tune the parameters.
Comment: I tried a gated inverted reverb, it kind of does the trick, but I think you are right with the delays.
Comment: @Flav maybe there is - the tight little echo I detected may be in fact reverb - I guess a little experimentation is in order!!
Comment: Maybe post a section of the song then your hi-hats on some backing Flav?
Answer: To me it sounds like they are comb filtered.  But that could be due to tight delay/reverb.
EDIT: try with a short reverb with high send level, and enable the low pass filter on the big mixer channel, set to around 5 kHz.
Comment: Which DAW or VST are you talking about? I am not sure of how to reproduce what you say


Views contextual filters for NULL value

Question: How do I use a contextual filter to find all nodes with field_abc that has a null value?
Answer: 1) Views PHP Filter is good to go when you have 'not that many' query results in total. The thing is that it loads node's object and it's not the best choice if you opt for better performance, but still it's okay for quick views filters creation.
2) Create new Computed field and store any flag (1/0 is quite enough) as its value. The flag itself will indicate if the field X has any content and then it can be used by Views for filtering.

Views contextual filters for NULL value


How much piloting did the Apollo astronauts actually do?

Question: I understand Armstrong landed the Eagle manually, and Apollo 13 did a manual burn.  Other than emergencies like that, did the Apollo astronauts do much piloting of the spacecraft.
Comment: From Wikipedia about Apollo 12: "Most of the descent was automatic, with manual control assumed by Conrad during the final few hundred feet of descent." Apollo 14 : "Shepard then manually landed the LM closer to its intended target than any of the other five Moon landing missions." Apollo 15 from NASA history : " 104:41:13 Scott: Okay.

    [Jim is confirming that Dave now has manual control of the spacecraft.]"
Comment: Noting that "manual" needs severe interpretation. There is a "computer" in that control loop".
Comment: When the decision to use the attitude-control thrusters is made by a human, and not a computer, that is sufficiently manual for me.
Comment: To expand on @RussellMcMahon's comment, the closest that Apollo got to manual control was "fly-by-wire" use of the attitude-control thrusters: move the control stick, and the computer will fire a balanced pair of thrusters to create the desired movement.
Comment: @Bob516 As I said " Noting that "manual" needs severe interpretation. " -> what you understand by "manual" is an important part of the question.
Answer: All six successful landings were done manually, with the commander taking the controls at about 500 feet altitude. It was possible for the computer to complete the landing automatically, and Jim Lovell claimed that he was going to attempt that mode on Apollo 13, but all the commanders felt more comfortable in manual control in the final phase of landing.
It's worth noting that there were a number of different "manual" control modes. The one used for the final portion of each landing, control program P66, kept the computer in control of the throttle to maintain a selected descent rate, but let the commander control the attitude (orientation) of the spacecraft and adjust the descent rate. Digital Apollo is a great source for more information on this, as is MIT's report on the Apollo Lunar Descent Guidance system.
Apart from that, all the maneuvers where multiple spacecraft were operating in close proximity were flown manually:

The "transposition, docking, and extraction" maneuver, where the command module turns around to retrieve the LM from the S-IVB third stage was flown by the command module pilot.

Prior to landing, the CSM and LM would separate and the LM would turn around slowly to allow the command module pilot to inspect the LM visually. This maneuver on Apollo 11 is shown in this video.

After the LM ascended from the lunar surface, the initial part of the rendezvous with the CSM was performed by the LM under computer control, but the final approach and docking was again flown manually by the command module pilot.

The re-entry could be flown under computer control or manually; by rolling the command module to control the direction of lift, the trajectory could be flown more steeply or shallowly. I don't know off the top of my head if the manual option was ever used here, or how often.
Comment: "kept the computer in control of the throttle to maintain a selected descent rate" How accurate and fast was the landing radar to do this reliably?
Comment: The vertical portion of the P66 logic updated once per second. I'm not sure of the accuracy of the landing radar but everything I've read about Apollo seems to treat the altitude and velocity figures from the radar, given in feet and FPS, as gospel, so at low altitude the accuracy must have been pretty good.
Comment: I wonder if [How did Conrad let Bean drive Apollo 12? Did anyone get in trouble?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/39998/12102) has at least a partial answer based on some of this?
Comment: I think, if that happened, it must have been during the post-ascent approach and rendezvous, but I haven't found any firm evidence for it. You would definitely not want to mess around during the landing phase.
Comment: @Michael The specified accuracy of the landing radar for both vertical and horizontal rates was 1.5 ft/sec. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.207.7507&rep=rep1&type=pdf


Which network protocol is used for media streaming from online music or video sites?

Question: I would like to know which network protocols are used for media streaming by online music and video sites ?
Comment: Welcome to NE, we hope you will both contribute to and learn from this community. Unfortunately, as currently stated your question is too broad to be answered. Either it has too many possible answers or a good answer would be too long for this format. Please edit your question and it will automatically start a reopen vote. You may find our [Question Checklist](http://meta.networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/292/33) helpful to improve your question. Not every site/service is going to necessarily use the same protocols. So which sites? How are the streams accessed (browser, app, etc)?
Comment: His question is not too broad to be answered.  As you can see below, I answered in using only 37 words.
Answer: If by music and video sites, you mean web servers you can access with a web browser, then the protocol in use is the one you see at the beginning of the URL within your web browser, ex.:
<code>https://www.spotify.com/
</code>
. It is plain HTTP (i.e. 80/tcp) or HTTPS (i.e. 443/tcp).
Answer: There are many network protocols at play.  Some at the network layer (IP), some at the transport layer (TCP / UDP).  Then there are formats or codecs for the media such as mp3 and mp4 and webm.


According to Calvin, how can God be loving if he created people to go to hell?

Question: I struggle with John Calvin writing that God created people to go to the lake of fire (Institues, Volume 3, Chapter 21, Section 5). How could a loving, merciful, and gracious God create people so that they will burn forever in the lake of fire? It may be a sovereign act but I fail to see the love. I can understand punishment following the crime, but to create with the intention of suffering before the crime is difficult to comprehend.
Comment: Thanks. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.pdf  Page 770

"All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death."
Comment: Can you please [edit] this to quote the specific sentences from the Institutes you're asking about, including telling us which translation you're reading?
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/84979/discussion-on-question-by-travel2learn-according-to-calvin-how-can-god-be-lovin).
Comment: You should include that quote into the question with the link. Excellent question btw.
Answer: I found a compilation of John Calvin quotes on the topic of God's love. Here is one that struck me as relevant to your question:

Sermon #28, Deut. 4.36-38, p. 167, this quote was compiled by Andrew
  Myers.
It is true that Saint John says generally, that [God] loved the world.
  And why? For Jesus Christ offers Himself generally to all men without
  exception to be their redeemer…
Thus we see three degrees of the love that God has showed us in our
  Lord Jesus Christ.  The first is in respect of the redemption that was
  purchased in the person of Him that gave Himself to death for us, and
  became accursed to reconcile us to God his Father.  That is the first
  degree of love, which extends to all men, inasmuch as Jesus Christ
  reaches out his arms to call and allure all men both great and small,
  and to win them to Him.
But there is a special love for those to whom the gospel is preached:
  which is that God testifies unto them that He will make them partakers
  of the benefit that was purchased for them by the death and passion of
  his Son.  And forasmuch as we be of that number, therefore we are
  double bound already to our God: here are two bonds which hold us as
  it were strait tied unto Him.
Now let us come to the third bond, which depends upon the third love
  that God shows us: which is that He not only causes the gospel to be
  preached unto us, but also makes us to feel the power thereof, so as
  we know Him to be our Father and Savior, not doubting but that our
  sins are forgiven us for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, who brings us
  the gift of the Holy Ghost, to reform us after his own image.

The other quotes are here:
https://www.monergism.com/john-calvin-god%E2%80%99s-love
The preceding quote shows
(1) that God loves all people with a first token because Jesus' offer of his life was sufficient to save all mankind,
(2) that God loved a subset of all people by preaching the gospel to them (though none were worthy to hear Him deliver His counsel), a second, more powerful token of his love,
(3) that God loved a subset of those who heard the gospel and made that message powerfully persuasive, converting them to truth and salvation, and ultimately translating them to Heaven.
Thus God loves even those who end up in Hell, and Christ was willing to suffer even for many who wasted His gift of His precious blood, pouring it into the sewer.


Why can't I create a pipe from this curve?

Question:  I have created a bezier curve and small circle. I want that circle take the shape of bezier curve so that the curve becomes a pipe. In the gif you will notice that its becoming flat, not like a pipe.
What is wrong with my settings?
Blend file
Answer: For this setup to work, your circle has to lay flat on Z axis.Like this:

And it has to have this rotation applied, so you can rotate it in object mode and press Ctrl+A and choose Rotation or rotate it in edit mode. It will have exactly the same effect.
Comment: It work. But before it was also on the z axis but was not flat. May i know how it works little in details. Thanks
Comment: It basically works like you would draw bevel shape in 2d from top view in local space. So if it lays flat, it makes full, nice circle.If you rotate it a little, form the top view it makes an ellipse and so the bevel shape looks like.In local space means in this example Edit mode space and in general, it's set of coordinates in relation to the object own pivot point unlike world space, which is set of coordinates in relation to world center.


How to programmatically create videos?

Question: Is there a freely available library to create a MPEG (or any other simple video format) out of an image sequence ?
It must run on Linux too, and ideally have Python bindings.
Answer: I know there's mencoder (part of the mplayer project), and ffmpeg, which both can do this.
Answer: ffmpeg is a great (open source) program for building all kinds of video, and converting one type of video (a sequence of images in this case) into other types of video.
Usually it is utilized from the command line, but that is really just a wrapper around its internal libraries.  It is expressly available to be used from within another program.
There are also python bindings that wrap the c api, though this particular project doesn't seem to be getting the best support (there are probably other projects out there doing the same thing).
There's also this link where someone has used ffmpeg to do something similar to what you're looking for.
Answer: GStreamer is a popular choice.  It's a full multimedia framework much like DirectShow or QuickTime, has the advantage of having legally licensed codecs available, and has excellent Python bindings.
Answer: in c++ OpenCV (open source Computer Vision library from Intel) let you create an AVI file and just push frames inside...
but it's like shooting with a cannon to a fly.
Answer: Not a library, but mplayer has the ability to encode JPEG sequences to any kind of format. It runs on Linux, Windows, BSD and other platforms and you can write a python script if you want to use it with python.
Answer: ffmpeg has an API and also python bindings, seems to be the way to go !
Thanks
Answer: ffmpeg minimal runnable C example
I have provided a full runnable example at: How to resize a picture using ffmpeg's sws_scale()?

How to programmatically create videos?


How do you break in a new air compressor?

Question: Just got a new craftsman air compressor (33 gal).  I have read that it is important to "break in" the unit by running it with the pressurized chamber open (so that there is no load on the motor).  How long do I do leave it running in this state?  Is there anything else you would recommend I do?
Comment: I would hook it up to a set of bagpipes, and leave it running until the neighbours call the police.
Comment: @chris: Do you have to dress the compressor in a kilt to do this?
Answer: Answering a little late, but the instructions that came with my 20 gal. oil-free Husky say to run the compressor for 10 minutes with outlet and drain open. Times may vary depending on compressor size, lubrication style, etc., so check your owners manual.
Answer: Not so sure about needing to break in the unit, but if it is an oiled compressor then make sure you change the oil after the first 10 hours (or about that).  Also if you do go ahead and break in the unit, some compressors have a duty cycle that is less than 100% (running 100% of the time).  The compressor I have (Sears Craftsman 3 gal., 1 hp, Horizontal Tank)  has a 50% duty cycle so it should not run more than 30 minutes in any one hour.
Answer: A new compressor should be broken in before being used for work. The compressor should be run for 30 minutes with the unloader valve locked open to seat the rings. The unloader valve can then be reset for normal compressor operation. The oil should be changed after the first few hours of operation. Check to see if there is any specific requirements; if there are no special requirements, use a quality synthetic oil.
Answer: I know from experience that break-in is required and a good idea for oilless compressors. I was unaware of that instruction once with a new one and sure enough it failed to reach its rated maximum psi after a single first success. From then on, it consistently came 10 pounds short. The instructions said run for a number of minutes without allowing pressure to build aka, drain valve open (I forget how many minutes...). I simply failed to read the manual! It did make a difference.
Comment: Welcome to DIY.SE! While this does point out the need to break in a new compressor, it doesn't actually answer *how* to break one in, which is what the question is asking. Could you edit your answer to include the instructions?
Answer: I just picked up a new Mastercraft 8 gallon oil less compressor, the run in instructions say to run it for 30 minutes with the drain clock open and the pressure regulator turned to closed.


Installing a dimmer switch for a ceiling fan

Question: I have a ceiling fan with a lights that have to separate switches- one to control the fan on/off, and another to control the lights on/off.  I want to put a dimmer on the light switch only but I most of what I have looked at warns against certain setups- I just want to make sure adding a dimmer switch for the light only won't put the house at any risk. Can anyone provide some clarification? TIA.
Comment: Since you have separate switches, adding a light-only dimmer is safe provided that you use the correct type. Some dimmer is for incandescent bulbs only, while some are for CFL or LED bulbs. Also make sure the total power of your bulbs is below the dimmer's limit.
Answer: Dimming the lights only is fine here
The problem that you're being warned about is that a dimmer switch designed for lights will not have a good time of things if you hook a fan up to it.  Since you have separate switches controlling your lights and fan, using a dimmer with sufficient rating for the lights installed into your fan+light combination to control the lights will be fine.


Keywords Not Working in Google Search

Question: I recently built this site (http://www.sykeshr.co.uk), and am having problems when trying to search for the site using the keywords in Google.
These are the keywords I've set:
<code><meta name="keywords" content="sykes, hr, sykeshr, human, resources, infrastructure, projects, buckinghamshire, slough, gerrards, cross, gerrards cross, london, recruitment, beaconsfield, chalfont st peter, amersham, chesham, performance, consultant, consultancy, personnel" />
</code>
But for some reason, I can only get Google to return the site if I explicitly search for "sykes hr" or "sykeshr". For example, if I search "sykes hr buckinghamshire", Google doesn't return the site.
Any idea why this is? Thanks in advance for any help.
Answer: If its recently uploaded it will take some time for search engines to detected/ re-index it. You can how ever ask google or Bing through the webtools for a re-index.

Keywords Not Working in Google Search


Want to marry a Non-Muslim Man

Question: I am in deeply in love with a chaste Christian guy and i am a Muslim 20 year old girl. We want to get married. So does Islam allow me to marry him?
Answer: Marriage of a woman with a non-Muslim man, whether be it from ahl al kitab or not, is not allowed. This article gives the actual answer, but I will quote the core reason here:

Even if we deny Jesus being the son of God, we give him as much respect as a prophet as we give to Moses and Muhammad. So, if a (Jewish or ) Christian girl marries a Muslim man, she can be confident that her religious views/Holy men will not be dishonored. But, if a Muslim girl marries a non-Muslim, it is certain that he whom she regards as God's Messenger will be abused/denied by her husband's family, and perhaps even by her own children.
Answer: Although you mentioned that

I am in deeply in love with a chaste Christian guy

But being deeply in love in some Christian guy (even he is chaste Christian), is not considered as an Islamic reason for getting married with him.
I also saw that you pointed in a comment that:

May i know why? If a muslim man is allowed to marry a non-muslim then
  why not a muslim woman have the same right?

The reply (as a reason) could be that the creation of women is delicate and seemingly due to that reason they (women) would get more effect from their parties (husbands) and perhaps it could be leaded to change their religion after a while.
To be honest I found the mentioned matter in a site, but I myself had such a view regarding this matter too. Since commonly men could have stronger effect on women, on the other hand the religion could be considered as the most issue of the life, then logically it is not worth of while to miss our saint religion because of the love in person which it is not clear what would be its result in the future.

Reference:

www.porseshgaran.org
Answer: Since the Quran permits 'everyone to his faith' there is no reason why you can't marry a Christian guy. However, consider being accepted or welcomed in each others families. Also consider the issue of children and how they will be raised.  While love between you and him should be respected, consider the above issues that can make your life easy or difficult.
May Allah be with you.

Want to marry a Non-Muslim Man