Custom catalogsearch layout and template override not displaying custom block content [EDITED]

Question: Edit: Could not having crontab and cron set up affect compiling the layout files and be related at all to the custom layout not loading? I have since moved all my logic out of the app/design/frontend/Vendor/default theme folders and moved them into my own separate custom module and it is still working perfectly locally but not working on staging, with no errors visible. Can anyone advise?
I have been working with Magento 2 for nearly 2 years and am very used to extending templates by creating files in app/design/Vendor/default/Magento_Module/layout folders, and using this to add custom blocks and inserting custom templates and overriding default templates.
I have a project I am working on currently and I have a local instance and a staging instance. On my local, I wanted to extend the CatalogSearch/Block/Result template to add some elements to the page (displaying page search results alongside product search results). So I used catalogsearch_result_index.xml to overwrite the template and add my own block. My catalogsearch_result_index.xml file looks like this:
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" layout="2columns-left" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">

        <attribute name="class" value="page-products"/>
        <referenceContainer name="content">
            <block class="Vendor\Search\Block\SearchResult" name="search.result" template="Magento_CatalogSearch::result.phtml">
                <block class="Magento\CatalogSearch\Block\SearchResult\ListProduct" name="search_result_list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml">
                    <arguments>

                        <argument name="positioned" xsi:type="string">positions:list-secondary</argument>
                    </arguments>
                    <block class="Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\ProductList\Toolbar" name="product_list_toolbar" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list/toolbar.phtml">
                        <block class="Magento\Theme\Block\Html\Pager" name="product_list_toolbar_pager"/>
                    </block>
                    <action method="setToolbarBlockName">
                        <argument name="name" xsi:type="string">product_list_toolbar</argument>
                    </action>
                    <block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\RendererList" name="category.product.type.details.renderers" as="details.renderers">
                        <block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template" name="category.product.type.details.renderers.default" as="default"/>
                    </block>
                    <block class="Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\ProductList\Item\Container" name="catalogsearch.product.addto" as="addto">
                        <block class="Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\ProductList\Item\AddTo\Compare"
                               name="catalogsearch.product.addto.compare" as="compare"
                               template="Magento_Catalog::product/list/addto/compare.phtml"/>
                    </block>
                </block>
                <action method="setListOrders"/>
                <action method="setListModes"/>
                <action method="setListCollection"/>
            </block>
            <block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template" name="search.search_terms_log" template="Magento_CatalogSearch::search_terms_log.phtml">
                <arguments>
                    <argument name="search_terms_log" xsi:type="object">Magento\CatalogSearch\Block\SearchTermsLog</argument>
                </arguments>
           </block>
       </referenceContainer>

</page>

I added my logic in my custom Block's SearchResult.php file, and I created a new result.phtml inside the following folder: app/design/frontend/Vendor/default/Magento_CatalogSearch/result.phtml.
It works beautifully locally. My logic from the block gets the right data and it is displaying in the template coming from my extended result.phtml. However, when I push my code up to the staging site, for some reason the template content just doesn't show at all... it's simply blank. It doesn't throw any errors.
I have tried running setup:upgrade, setup:di:compile, cleared and flushed cache a bunch of times, tried clearing var/cache/*, tried reindexing, and none of this has made a difference. I keep checking in the var/log folder for any errors and it doesn't show any.
I tried going into the staging site and deleting my result.phtml file so it falls back on the core Magento result.phtml file but it is still blank. I tried changing the catalogsearch_result_index.xml file to use the default Magento\CatalogSearch\Block\Result file instead of my custom module file and it's still blank (and doesn't throw errors even when it should be as I am calling custom functions in my result.phtml file).
I tried turning on template hints and it looks like the result.phtml template is not even being added to the page. If I leave my custom block on the layout xml file and change the template to some generic file like result2.phtml (with the only content being:
This is loading
) then that content and the template loads. This leads me to thinking that it's not an error with my block class, nor an error with my layout.xml class. So then I'm thinking it might be an issue with my template itself?
If I change my dummy template from the above text div to something with php that is calling a function from my custom block:
This is loading getResultCount(); ?> and then flush cache the php doesn't show, only the text. I have also tried just echoing a php string there so it isn't pulling from my custom block, and that doesn't show either (just the string of text above). So then is it some kind of hardcore caching issue? Or is there some reason that all the php in my file is being hidden/stripped out?
Even if the php is somehow not being loaded for the given template, you would think that the template would always be loaded when viewing the page with template hints. Or does it not load a blank template by default?
If I try then to switch it back to my custom result.phtml template and add the same generic div text at the top of the file (to get it to load if nothing else), and clear cache, this doesn't show and template hints say that template isn't even being loaded.
What else can I try? I cannot reproduce at all locally and am at a total loss. I have tried to make it deliberately throw errors and it doesn't seem to be doing it. What else can I test?
Sidenote: I just tried changing my layout xml file's block to be the generic Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template, and in that case it does load from the correct result.phtml file. Can I not extend a class that is already extending the template class (can it not extend 2 levels deep)? I will be testing trying to override the class I need rather than extending to see if that makes a difference.
Any help is urgently needed and welcome.
Answer: Please run setup:static-content:deploy command and check.
The static view files deployment command enables you to write static files to the Magento file system when the Magento software is set for production mode.
Comment: I have tried this multiple times to no avail. Any other suggestions welcome.


Add Stack Overflow as migration path

Question: The voting-to-close dialog actually allows to only migrate a question on the meta site for Drupal Answers. It should allow to vote to migrate a question to Stack Overflow, for those questions that are more related to PHP, or JavaScript, rather than Drupal itself.
Answer: It'd be very easy for such questions to get lost in the flood at Stack Overflow.
Of course, they can be migrated anywhere by flagging for moderator attention. I am curious whether the moderators on this site feel that migration path happens often enough to be a vote target (versus a flag).
Comment: Out of 24 migrations, 12 are for SO, 5 are for Server Fault, 2 for Asku Ubuntu, and 1 for Database Administrators; the rest are for the meta site. SO has the most migrations. I don't get the "get lost in the flood at Stack Overflow"; if they are questions for Stack Overflow, they should migrated there, independently from that (which then would still be true even for migrations done from a moderator). IMO, considering that SO is a related site with such migrations, it makes sense to add the migration path to SO; if it were for EL&U, it would make sense to require X migrations already done.
Comment: @kia I am disinclined to send these question to SO, unless they are *awesome* and are not getting any answers at all here.
Comment: @JeffAtwood I imagine that it is also difficult that a question about PHP has not been already asked on SO. I think it is difficult that a question about PHP is not answered on DA, but it is also probable that who asked a PHP question on DA is not asking an awesome question. That is a good point, which also means [meta-tag:status-declined].
Comment: If you look back 6 months the numbers are very different 2 for both SE and SO.
Comment: @googletorp I have already replied about that. If you are saying that is just me to send questions to SO, then it's just you to send questions to SF; neither of those migration paths should be added, then, following your reasoning.
Answer: We see a lot of content coming from Stack Overflow, because it's more Drupal than programming related. Questions about stuff like Rules and Views.
I can't remember ever sending questions over to Stackoverflow, maybe once in 6 months tops. If we should have a migrate path, Server Fault seems much move obvious since people from time to time ask a question about setting up Drupal on a server. We also see questions about some server config problem with a Drupal site, which isn't related to Drupal, but is a question about setting up Free BSD, linux, Windows or some other type of server.
I've seen a few of those this month, but generally it's quite rare to see questions being migrated away from the site. I don't think we see enough to make it a close reason. In time maybe, but I think it's premature. Especially since questions usually are closed by moderators anyways - not enough high rep users using the close button.
Comment: You migrated questions to Stack Overflow too. 100% of the migrations done to Server Fault are done by you; following what you said, I could say you like to send questions to Server Fault. I don't think that takes to any place.
Comment: Half of the already done migrations are for Stack Overflow; Server Fault has just 5 migrations. If a site needs to be added, that should be Stack Overflow.
Comment: @kiamlaluno If you go back 6 months it's 2/2 for SO and SE. The many posts migrated to SO in initial fase of the site is a poor indicator of what is needed.
Comment: I don't think the fact the migrations have been done at the beginning makes a difference. It just says that users who started to use the site were confused about asking questions here, or on another Stack Exchange sites. There are still new users, nowadays.
Comment: @kiamlaluno The migrations stopped roughly when you stopped as a mod. So the numbers (and this post) are really just saying you like to send questions to SO.
Answer: One thing worth noting in this debate, is that migration paths are only needed if the community closes the question and not a moderator.
My feeling is that all questions or very close to all are closed by mods. So this proposal is meaningless if this is true.
Comment: @kiamlaluno I think you are 6-12 months premature - that's all
Comment: @kiamlaluno lets not jump to the gun. If the need ever arise lets take it then. When we see a lot of migrations and a lot of posts closed by non mods, then we can talk about it. This is just my opinion.
Comment: That is the actual situation, and I agree, but we should think for when the situation changes. After all, I am not asking for populating all the available slots, but adding just a migration path.
Comment: I am not jumping on the gun. The migration path will be added when who adds it thinks it is worth adding it. Feature requests are kept open until they are implemented, or declined; it is not expected that the feature requests should always be implemented, or implemented the day after they are requested.
Comment: also a good point. The volume is just currently too low for this to really be needed, isn't it? We can certainly revisit this at a later time, any time..

Add Stack Overflow as migration path


bip-schnorr and HD Key Derivation

Question: Is it safe to use HD Key Derivation with bip-schnorr? The bip mentions that you should not throw away the first byte of a generated key.

It is important to not mix up the 32-byte bip-schnorr public key format and other existing public key formats (e.g. encodings used in Bitcoin's ECDSA). Concretely, a verifier should only accept 32-byte public keys and not, for example, convert a 33-byte public key by throwing away the first byte.

Later in the bip, it mentions that you should do this when doing HD key derivation.
Link: https://github.com/sipa/bips/blob/bip-schnorr/bip-schnorr.mediawiki#public-key-generation

Alternatively, the public key can be created according to BIP32 which describes the derivation of 33-byte compressed public keys. In order to translate such public keys into bip-schnorr compatible keys, the first byte must be dropped.

It sounds like its safe for the prover to drop the extra byte but not the verifier. Is this correct?
Answer:
Is it safe to use HD Key Derivation with bip-schnorr?

Yes, it is designed to be.

The bip mentions that you should not throw away the first byte of a generated key.

Perhaps this is worded confusingly.
It means that you can't use a variant of the signature scheme, which uses full public keys, but then throws away one byte of the public key at verification time. Doing so would just result in 50% of the signatures being rejected (because the public key wouldn't match what was used at signing time).

It sounds like its safe for the prover to drop the extra byte but not the verifier.

This has nothing to do with safety, but about correctness.

bip-schnorr and HD Key Derivation


Is there a plainer english explanation of bravery and poltroonery?

Question: Despite having reread the rules section multiple times, I don't understand how death numbers, death rolls and bravery / poltroonery settings other than flat numerical modifiers work.  Is there an idiots guide?  How do they work?
Answer: Limited Bravery and how you get to modify your death rolls.
You place in your orders Bravery: 8 (we're going to be silly brave)
Scenario 1: The death number set by the GM is equal to or lower than 8.
What happens: Nothing, he rolls 2d6 and if that number is equal to or higher than the set death number, you die. If it is less, your character lives and then rolls are made for loot, MiD, etc.
Scenario 2: The death number is Higher than 8.
What happens: The GM takes the death number minus your bravery number, then adds that to his death roll. So if the death number was 10.  He would take 10-8= 2 and add 2 to his death roll. He would then roll 2d6+2 and if that number was equal to or higher than 10, your character would die. If it was lower, then your character would live. AND get a +2 to all his loot, MiD, etc.
For Completion
Poltroonery goes to 11 (yes, I'll make that pun)
Scenario 1: The Death number set by GM is 11 or higher
What happens: Nothing, rolls 2d6 if number is equal to or greater than, you die. Same as scenario 1 on the bravery side.
Scenario 2: Death number is 10 or lower.
What happens: GM takes your Poltroonery number minus the death number, then subtracts that number from the death roll. So if the death number was 2. you take 11-2=9. Then roll 2d6-9 and if that number was equal to/greater than 2 you then die. If it was lower your character would still be alive, but you would probably be called a coward for running away.Disgraced, kicked out of your unit, etc etc.
Comment: @Scrollmaster The more reckless bravery there is than necessary, the more likely the fool is going to go and *make* the situation dangerous enough to get killed, is how I understand it. Of course, fortune favours the bold, so if you win the gamble and don't get yourself killed you get the rewards of going so far above and beyond.
Comment: This helps incredibly!  I was unable to parse the rules as written, whereas this makes sense!
Comment: Just to be sure: this means that the lower the death number is, the more likely you are to die, right?
Comment: Correct, To be more D&D non-thac0  the Death number is your AC and the death roll is his attack against your AC.


Get content types field in another content type with the entity reference relationship

Question: I have two content types. Person and Projects. I use a entity reference for the persons name on the project node so people can select the person that is involved in the project. Now using that reference I also want to get another field from the persons content type, and display this. I can't figure out how to do this. I thought I could do it with a views. I created a view with a relationship and filter with NID but it just doesn't seem to work. Whats the simplest way (view or not) to do this?
Comment: Do you want to display the field in the edit view?
Comment: Hi Huelfe, sorry I'm not sure what you mean. I want to display it on the projects node
Comment: If you want to display it in a node, create a view mode for person. After that go to display settings of projects and change the view mode of your referenced field.
Answer: With Entity Reference Autofill You can achieve something like you specified.

The Entity reference autofill module gives Entity reference fields an option to populate other form fields with data from selected referenced entities.
Comment: Hi thanks for the reply this looks like it might be what I want but I'm struggling to understand how to set this up. So I already had a entity reference to the person content type in projects. And the e-mail field in persons. So I create another entity reference in projects with autofill? I'm unclear how I piggy back off the reference.


Handling a GDPR subject access request when using google analytics?

Question: When using Google Analytics and receiving a GDPR subject access request does the party receiving the request also have to send all data collected by Google Analytics?
Answer: Yes, it would be too obvious a loophole otherwise. You'd just put a shell company in front of the actual business, and have that shell company claim it didn't hold onto any data.
Formally, you are the Data Controller, and Google is a Data Processor. You must have a contract in place with Google that guarantees you can abide by GDPR obligations.
Answer: Just to add to the (correct) answer already given by @MSalters.
You can escape this obligation by not letting Google Analytics process personal data on your behalf.
You can do this by enabling the GA IP-anonymization feature.
If you use Google Analytics and do not use this feature, you need to have a DPA (Data Processing Addendum) contract in place with Google in order to comply with the GDPR.
This is a real hassle, so unless you absolutely need fine-grained demographic data, it is strongly recommended that you use IP-anonymization.  According to our data protection supervisory authority, this is sufficient to comply with the GDPR vis-a-vis Google Analytics.
Comment: OK that's a very CRITICAL piece of information!  Thank you!
Comment: Please note that enabling IP anonymization will not necessarily make your data anonymous, as Google usually stores user IDs associated with events (either auto-generated ones stored in cookies or an ID that you provide to Google), so the data is at best pseudonymous. Why? Given such a user ID you can extract data related to a specific person from GA, hence the data is not anomymous.


How important is programming for mathematicians?

Question: I'm a freshman student in mathematics, and I'm considering whether or not to take a programming course. How important is programming for mathematicians? Do working mathematicians use programs to aid their research?
Comment: Some mathematicians use programming every day, others never use it in their research.  Mathematicians employed outside academia almost always use it.  If you are a freshman, you don't yet know what you will be doing later.  So take a programming course!  [I could continue OT:  take a foreign language, take a literature course...]
Comment: In any event: the skills (e.g. debugging, being able to shift levels of abstraction) and discipline that can be acquired though programming helps a great deal in constructing proofs, among other things... and it never hurts to learn programming, I always say.
Comment: You may want to browse some of my answers, especially ones with the [tag:combinatorics] tag; I often use short programs to find initial terms of sequences, explore hypotheses, search for counterexamples, generate tables and graphs, ...; I used to sometimes include code as part of an answer, but after asking [this question on meta](http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/3428/how-to-make-longer-programs-available), I started using [gist](https://gist.github.com) for that.
Comment: I think I could probably copy here my answer to the converse question on Programming, but I'm lazy so I'll just link to it: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/136987/48582
Comment: For what it's worth, I happen to disagree with points from all 8 (at the moment) answers written below. But I agree completely with GEdgar's comment above.
Comment: you can always find a routine with lots of programs or with mathematica or similar you can get your problems numerically solved :D .. anyway if you find interesting watching how algorithm works you could take this course. As a physicist i was ver very bad at programming
Comment: Depends on your interest: if you want to move into statistics or other sciences, programming skills will be *very* highly valued. If you want to work in pure mathematics - computer programming will typically not help you with creative proof work. Even if The Four Colour Proof was exhaustively completed by computer, the creative work to come up with the proof was not done by computer.
Comment: A [related question](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/8851/1037)
Comment: It's very important for the ones who want a job outside academia.
Answer: The answer is definitely yes, and there are many reasons. The three most important are:

The bigger your "toolset" is, the more you can do.
You do not know what you will be doing in the future.
Computers are right now are omnipresent, and efficient computer use = you know how to program and automate things.

To be more specific, I will just name a few concrete cases:

It is much easier to verify multiple cases using computer, e.g. the only known proof of the four color theorem is computer-assisted.
Computer can solve (symbolically) many tedious things fast, things that would take you weeks or even months to calculate by hand, e.g. integration, many types of ODEs or PDEs, minimization problems, linear programming and extrema finding, even formula simplification.
Every mathematical software (Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, but also Sage, Octave, and so on) are based on a programming language that you use to tell the program what you want to do.
Many mathematical problems are too hard to solve symbolically, but often you can find numerical solutions with arbitrary precision.
A number of math-related topics (or other domains that extensively use math nowadays, like computational biology, meteorology, financial analysis, quantum physics, ...) requires computers to work with.
Using computer you can visualize your results to gain intuition, or to present it to a wider audience, etc. Trust me, it really does help, knowledge of a programming language will help you here a lot, e.g. with generating and transforming data. Even on math.SE people use $\LaTeX$, which is a computer programming language, imagine all those posts typesetted using trivial monospace font!
Automation! This is what computers are really good at, so if you need to preform some well defined tasks on large sets of data, just make computer do your work. However, usually in a research there are no tools that would do exactly what you want, just some building blocks of some sort, so you need to know how to use them and build even more awesome things.
Also, you have no idea where life will throw you, it is good to know that skilled programmers (and big part of this skill is keen mind and approach to problem solving) earn a lot of money ;-)
Programming can be rewarding on its own, especially if you use nice tools. For a mathematician, I would recommend you a functional programming language, e.g. Haskell.
Finally, theoretical computer science is a part of mathematics (theoretical computer science $\neq$ informatics, I am talking about ideas and algorithms, not HTML tags and FreeBSD admin knowledge). As the field is very large, people tend to differentiate, but there are still areas where there is no boundary between.
Comment: @Ronald It is a markup language, but it is also a programming language. In case you are not aware of this, $\LaTeX$ is perfectly fine with loops and conditional statements and there are people who use this facilities in work. In fact $\TeX$ is Turing-complete, and if you are still not convinced that it is a programming language, please read this: [Rapid Prototyping in $\TeX$](http://www.haskell.org/wikiupload/8/85/TMR-Issue13.pdf). Besides, knowledge about programming languages, does help me a lot, not only with using $\TeX$ as a markup language, but also with typing ODEs into Mathematica.
Comment: Also - e.g. LaTeX is a mark-up language, not a programming language. The syntax to format a page nicely in LaTeX is something that most researchers will need to learn, but this not at all related to a programming course.
Comment: some of these points refer to using computers generally in your work, rather than programming skills specifically.

I would not say that solving an ODE ought to require programming skills - typing it into Wolfram Alpha will work just as well.
Comment: One can't *always* trust what the computer spits out, though. If you can't program, how do you know if the mathematics itself or how you presented it to the computer is what's giving you problems?
Comment: @Ronald `\latex` is a programming language. As dtldarek said `\tex` is turing-complete. And actually it is not just conceptual, you sometime have to write complexe pieces of code in order to properly display, auto-generated data.
Comment: @Ronald If you are talking about textbook examples, you are right, but in real life there is much more there than just "typing it into Wolfram Alpha".
Comment: a fair enough point, thanks. but mathematica/wolfram alpha will solve most tedious things of this type, either analytically or numerically, without requiring skills particular to programming.
Comment: One of the things you learn quickly as a programmer is the reasonableness test.  (i.e., I'm expecting something > 100, but I'm getting something < 20).  This is useful in mathematics as well.  Also, debugging techniques can apply to math algorithms as well.
Answer: Being able to write a program to test conjectures or just try to see what is happening in a problem is certainly an asset.
Comment: +1 This! Programming helps you do experimental math. To prove something you first need to find something to prove. You need to experiment, build some intuition,... Sure, occasionally it is possible to compute enough many example cases by hand, but there are limits to that.
Answer: I am not a mathematician. But I love some mathematical topics. I believe that automation can't be ignored as a tool in today's mathematics of all levels. You need to be at least familiar with the concepts of programming. You can grow your skills over time to cover your core interests. For example, you should know about variables, loops, etc. but not worry about web design using HTML and CSS. If you learn a bit each year, in few years you will gain a very good skill that will allow you to prove and check your work and possibly enjoy mathematics more. Also, in today's world, learning programming is not difficult. If you can understand Mathematics, general programming principles will be a piece of cake!
Answer: I use programming all the time in my daily research and I think many other also do so. On the one hand, the development of algorithms is indeed a part of applied mathematics itself. Moreover, it can be really helpful to check identities or even to form conjectures by programming.
Read more about experimental mathematics here or have a look at the book collection here to get an impression how programs help in different field of mathematical research.
Answer: I have a Ph.D. in mathematics and I did two postdocs and worked as an assistant professor for five years in which I spent much of my time on research. I currently work as a software developer.
It depends completely on the type of math you are interested in. If you are interested in pure mathematics as opposed to applied mathematics the answer is generally that a programming language is worth much less than another semester of math under your belt. Proofs are the only gold standard in that area and computers rarely furnish them. Read the abstracts of papers for the top math (pure) journals in just about any given month and you can verify this for yourself.
The applied mathematicians I knew seemed to make more use of a computer, but it still depended wildly on the specific area of applied math they were interested in. Some areas of applied math seem to have researchers who really primarily do proofs and hence probably made little use of software themselves. Others were very interested in computer simulations of specific examples.
On the other hand it is by no means uncommon for people who major in mathematics to eventually find themselves doing professional software development. Given the number of math doctorates compared to the number of CS students, I am surprised often I have run into another math doctorate lurking among the software engineers. It's not bad to have programming as a fail-safe in case you don't end up in a job that is actually doing mathematics for a living. Though honestly a single course is unlikely to land you a software job.
Comment: Even those intending to obtain a Ph.D. in the purest of pure mathematics will almost always be MUCH more marketable with some programming and computer science background. I suppose an example of an exception would be someone at the near Fields Medal level who is actively pursued for faculty positions by top 10 universities. **(continued)**
Comment: **(continued)** Nearly all smaller U.S. colleges see this as very positive for job candidates to have, because such a person has broader teaching capabilities and is typically a better resource for their undergraduate majors. I personally know someone whose Ph.D. work was in iterated forcing (set theory) and is now a very valued departmental member because of his computer science background (largely self-taught, by the way).
Answer: I think programming is useful in some branches of mathematics to have some concrete examples, which may lead to a conjecture or even a proof.
One example is using programming to find out some integer sequences related to a problem, then checking it out using The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences™ (OEIS™)
(www.oeis.org)
From there, one can get a clue of what is the underlying formula behind the integer sequences and from there work out a proof.
If I am not mistaken, the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture arose from using programming to generate some data. Also, the (in)famous Four-Coloring Problem in graph theory was proved using some computer checking.
So yes, I believe programming is useful for mathematicians. Some purists do not believe in using computers (Andrew Wiles was quoted to say "I never use a computer."), but I believe this is changing soon in this new generation.
Answer: Definitely programmers need math knowledge much more than mathematicians programming :-)
Answer: I'm currently a senior in college, majoring in mathematics, so I'll give you my (hopefully useful) perspective on the problem, and I'll try to not repeat anything people have already said.
I went into college pure-math.  That's all I studied, I was going to do grad school after I graduated, and then I was going to go into academia.  That was the plan.  Up until the fall of my junior year, I mostly stuck to this plan (apart from some silly distributional requirements).  But then I got burned out.  Did a little too much math in the fall of my junior year, and decided it really wasn't for me.  So I took a chance and took some computer science courses.
I can't speak to whether or not it will be useful for math research, although my intuition tells me that it most likely wouldn't hurt.  I found the theoretical computer science courses (graphs and networks, design and analysis of algorithms) to be very interesting and fun, and it wasn't until after I took some CS that I really understood how poorly I understood computers.
I can't say that taking computer science has deepened my ability to do mathematics, but it's certainly exposed me to a new branch of math (theoretical CS), given me many useful tools for doing math (especially stat), and even if you don't think it will be the most useful professional skill (which, for most jobs, it should be), it's still a great life skill to have.  I won't guarantee that it will be useful for your math research, but I will say that I can't imagine how the knowledge won't benefit you in a substantial way in your future.  Best of luck!


How do I stop googlebot from guessing urls parameters

Question: When the googlebot visits our sites it seemingly tries to visit urls that do not exist resulting in exception being thrown. The url is is like http://ourdomain/thepage.aspx/x/8/x/ etc.x stands for no value in our application. It seems like googlebot seems which parameters it can use, because the urls are no link from the page.
Is there any way to control this behaviour?
Comment: Non existent URLs should return a 404 "Not Found" HTTP status code, they should not "throw an exception"?
Answer: There is a lengthy article on how to fix crawl errors and on typical problems. Some hints may be of use for you (when to reply with 301 HTTP status codes, when with 404 Status codes etc.).
You should doublecheck if the attempt comes really from the googlebot and is not some attempt from an external source to gain information by playing with the URL. Or, by checking if there is a referer, if it comes from an external link actually.
It's not the same situation here as with infinite loops or "endless" followable links one sometimes sees on result pages with pagination. But you should fix your code to handle the case of "crap" parametrization.


Why, in an applied magnetic field, is electron with spin parallel to the magnetic field higher?

Question: My lecturer today said that when an applied magnetic field, $B_0$, is applied, the electron with spin parallel to $B_0$ is higher in energy than the electron with spin antiparallel to $B_0$. Similarly, in protons, it is the opposite; parallel spin is lower in energy and antiparallel spin is higher in energy. Why is that?
Comment: Do you want to know why there is an energy difference to begin with, or why electrons and protons behave differently?
Comment: I understand that there exists a energy difference, but I just don't understand why when the spin is parallel to the direction of the external magnetic field it is higher in energy
Answer: In addition to the other answer, the energy  of a magnetic moment in a magnetic field is $E=-\bar{\bf{\mu}}.\bar{\bf{B}}$ where the dot indicates the dot product between the two vectors $\bar{\bf{\mu}}$ and $\bar{\bf{B}}$, thus the energy is lowest when the magnetic dipole is parallel to the field $B_0$; $E=-\mu B_0$. The sign of $\mu$ is opposite for nuclear and  electron spin angular momentum.The magnetic moment of a nuclear spin is defined as $\mu=+\gamma I$, where $I$ is the nuclear angular momentum and if the field is along only the $z$ direction  $\mu_z=\gamma I_z=m_z\gamma \hbar$ (Joule/Tesla) where $\gamma$ is the magnetogyric ratio, (unit radians/Tesla/sec) the components are $m_z$, the projection, magnetic or azimuthal spin quantum number on the $z$ axis, the axis parallel to the magnetic field $B_0$. $I_z$ is the $z$ component of the nuclear spin angular momentum. (The magnetogyric ratio is $\gamma = g\mu _0/\hbar$ where $\mu_0$ is the nuclear magnetron and $g$ the nuclear spin factor, different for each type of nucleus). The energy is then $E=-m_z\gamma\hbar B_0 $. For a proton $m_z=\pm 1/2$.
The spin magnetic moment of the electron is defined in a similar way to that for nuclear spin but with a negative sign; $\mu_e=-\gamma _e I_e$ where $I_e$ is the electron spin angular momentum and $\gamma _e$ the electron magnetogyric ratio. (  $\gamma _e=g_e\mu_B/\hbar$,  $g_e$ is the electron $g$ factor, $g_e =2.0023..$, and $\mu _B$ the Bohr magnetron. Some authors give a negative $g_e$, in this case the negative sign is removed from $\mu _e$).
(The nuclear magnetogyric ratio can be positive or negative, e.g. $\ce{26.75.10^7 rad T^{-1} s^{-1}}$ for protons. For a few types of nuclei e.g. $\ce{^{15}N, ^{29}Si}$ $\gamma$ is negative. The magnetogyric ratio for the electron is much $\ce{larger 1.76 10^11 rad T^{-1} s^{-1}}$.)
Answer: In short: electrons and protons have magnetic moments. Electrons are negatively charged, and the direction of their magnetic moments is reversed from that of protons.
Intuitively, the potential energy is lowest when the magnetic moment is aligned with the magnetic field, as is the case with the proton. Because electrons are negatively charged, however, their magnetic moment points in the opposite direction, and the potential energy is then lowest when the magnetic moment is anti-aligned with the magnetic field.


Set number of free events for members

Question: I'm creating a wordpress site for a gym. The gym memberships are tiered. Platinum members can access as many classes as they like as part of their membership. They are easy to handle with CiviDisount - I just give those members 100% discount on event (class) bookings.
Other membership tiers are harder for me to figure out. The gold membership includes 12 classes a month. How do I limit the number of events a member can access based on their membership? Can I even do this is Civi?
Answer: I can not think of a way to limit the number of events based on a membership out of the box.
I would certainly add a custom field to a membership which I would then populate automatically based on the membership type with the CiviRules extension (more information here: https://docs.civicrm.org/civirules/en/latest/).
What CMS are you using?
Comment: I'm using Wordpress
Comment: Would maybe using Activities rather than Events work better?

Set number of free events for members


Play store uninstalled, Reinstalled not working

Question: I rooted my phone I accidentally deleted something that made my playstore shut down immediately. I tried everything I have found on the internet. Clear data / clear cache. Factory reset. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Im still getting unfortunately google has stopped. Looking for help. I did several back up nandriod titanium but I dont know how to install back ups. Please any help will be appreciated.
Answer: Depending on your device and ROM you can either reinstall your operating system (ROM) or you can reinstall the gApps (Google apps).
Normally the apps come in a flashable zip file that you can install (flash) via recovery (a secondary minimal operating system).
Depending on your device the ROM can come in a flashable zip file or a variety of other files (tar.gz, md5, etc...) so you will have to figure that one out.
You can download gapps for Android 4.4.4 here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2397942
When downloading gApps you will want to match the version up with your device so that they are compatible with it. E.G. You are running 4.1.2 so you will download the 4.1.x compatible gApps.
Hope this helps!


GFCI breaker tripping

Question: I have a 20A GFCI breaker that intermittently trips. In tried to isolate by disconnecting different devices to no avail. I finally disconnected the load wire from the breaker and it still tripped. I replaced the breaker and it still will intermittently trip with only the neutrals hooked up. Any ideas?
Comment: Is this a GFCI *breaker* in the electrical panel or is it a *receptacle* in a box in a wall?
Comment: I had a GFCI breaker trip when water from a roof leak wetted an outside receptacle on this breaker.
Comment: To get this important circuit back in service immediately I removed the duplex receptacle from this outside box and I connected the appropriate wires with wire nuts (black to black, etc.  I didn't need an outside receptacle there, but at some point I may reinstall a duplex receptacle in that box.
Answer: In any installation of GFCI protected loads, they must be designed so that currents are balanced.  That is because GFCI detection compares currents in the two wires, and aims to see them equal.  As such, unhooking only the LOAD "hot" wire, and not the accompanying LOAD "neutral", is a wrongheaded thing to do generally.   However, it is an excellent and interesting diagnostic test, that tells you where your problem lies.
What you have, by plain demonstration, is current flow on neutral that is not matched by equivalent current flow on hot.  That shouldn't be possible.  If the monogamous partner "hot" wire is disconnected, where can current possibly be coming from?
The most likely explanation is a promiscuous neutral.  That is, this neutral is returning current for other circuits served out of other circuit breakers.  This is occurring because at some point, some installer of something decided to grab the most convenient neutral, instead of grabbing the correct partner neutral.  This often accompanies shady handyman work and overloading too-few-wire cables -- this person's situation being a classic case of both of those.
Now there's one more possibility, but it's fairly remote. That is a neutral-ground fault somewhere in the wiring.  This would most likely be coupled with hot-ground leakage somewhere else whose grounds are connected to this ground.   Current takes all available paths in proportion to their conductance, and while most of the current would return directly through that circuit's grounding system, some might hop your neutral-ground fault and return on this circuit's neutral, where it would be most unexpected by the GFCI.  Like I say, it's a longshot.  But this too is coming out of another circuit.

Either way  -- How do you find that other circuit?  Shut off all your breakers and see if the GFCI breaker will stay on.   Then turn on one breaker at a time.  It really helps to turn on all the loads on that breaker.  When you turn on a breaker and the GFCI trips, you have found what circuit the promiscuous neutral or other-ground-fault is at.  Then you follow both circuits until you find the interaction or problem.
Once you find the breaker, you might turn it off, reset and continue turning other breakers on - just to preclude it being three circuits interacting.
The last thing to mention is a multi-wire branch circuit.  That is a circuit designed for two subcircuit "hots" to share a neutral.  Typically it uses /3 cable, red black white, with white being the shared neutral and red and black being hots. They must be on opposite poles or they will overload the neutral; and they need common maintenance shutoff; for those reasons we recommend using a 2-pole breaker or a listed handle tie.   If you wish to GFCI protect a milti-wire branch circuit, the only option is a 2-pole GFCI breaker.
What about a defective GFCI?  I doubt it.  Honestly that idea is the "first place people go" because they can't believe/accept they have a ground fault, but it's rarely true.  So I tend to discount it.   You can try unhooking both LOAD hot and neutral (do not unhook the curly pig's tail LINE neutral) -- if it trips with nothing on LOAD then, yeah, it's the GFCI.
Comment: @JimStewart no, it would increase the probability of a misconnected neutral.  The neutral is flowing current when that device is switched on.
Comment: The OP says it *intermittently* trips. Would that rule out a mis-connected neutral? In my (admittedly limited) experience a wrongly connected neutral will instantly trip a GFCI.

GFCI breaker tripping


Removing all seats except driver's + front passenger's one from Volkswagen Sharan 2nd gen. (2010)

Question: Is it possible to completely remove all seats except driver's + front passenger's one from Volkswagen Sharan 2nd gen. (production started in 2010) to get a very flat loading floor? I was not able to find this information online - it seems to me you can only put the backrests down to achieve flat loading space, but not to remove the seats completely, which still gives you less space that without seats at all.
Comment: Aren't the seats bolted in there in some way? You could remove them this way if you were looking to get them out of the VW, but it is a little more involved than what you are actually asking about, I believe.
Answer: I own a SEAT Alhambra, which is quite similar. This is something I looked into before buying the car as I thought I might want to do it.
The 2nd row seats in my car are apparently (i.e. I have not actually done it) removable by unscrewing four Torx bolts. However, I believe that the Sharan is slightly different, in that it has 2nd row side airbags. Removal of these is more complex - in particular, you are supposed to use a blocker which connects to the airbag cable and prevents accidental activation while they are in storage (I suspect all this really does is ground a few pins). The workshop manual (ElsaWin) goes into some detail about the procedure for removing the seats.
Note that if you were to remove all the rear seats, you would then have a big loading lip at the back of the car - i.e. it wouldn't be a flat loading bay.
Answer: I just found an online resource in Czech (translated to English by Google). It says: "Seats are just like the Ford Galaxy and S-MAX can not be removed from the car, but fold into the floor."


Can someone please explain to me this hand below:

Question: I here again with another Poker question.
The percentage of both player is showing 0% and the commentator is addressing that both player have equally the same hand value with whats shown on the bard no players win ..I don't get it! I thought a straight is a stronger hand than two pair which is what the other player have.I am super confused :(
I am new a Poker and I would really appreciate if someone can explain this to me.
 Many Thanks.
Answer: Split pot
Both have the same flush
Comment: Yes, regardless of the hands, if no player has a spade it's a split pot in Texas holdem
Comment: Thank you for answering my query I really appreciate it. So because there is a Flash Meijer hand(Q,J) that made the straight cancels out ? what if the other player would've have 2,3 hearts against the (Q,J) ? split pot again ? regardless what hands they had(nos  spade) would still be split pot? I am sorry if I am asking too much I really like Poker and I want to learn to play Properly .
Comment: Only with a J(s) to make the Royal flush
Comment: Or a spade larger than the 8 could this pot not be split
Comment: Thank you so much Jill Hemphill for explaining this to me , I now understand.


Lost "start a bounty" button

Question: I wanted to place a bounty on this Question, but I can't find a start a bounty button. I'm guessing this is a regressive bug. Or maybe I'm just going about it the wrong way.
Answer: As per the FAQ item,

Questions must be at least 2 days old to be eligible for a bounty.
Comment: That possibility did occur to me, though to be honest I didn't notice it in the FAQ. So I checked [this other question](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/34902/youre-not-the-boss-of-me-vs-youre-not-my-boss) I asked a few days ago, where I haven't accepted any Answer yet. I can't see a **start a bounty** button there either.
Comment: "There can only be 1 active bounty per question and per user at any given time." You already have an active bounty on another question. @Fum
Comment: oic. Thanks for that. It had the intended effect, then! I figured it might be considered "in poor taste" to start a bounty without giving the Q a chance to get somewhere unaided. I kinda forgot I still had another one outstanding. Except to remember that I'd have to offer more than 50 for the new one because that wasn't enough to attract a better Answer on the current one.

Lost "start a bounty" button


Do you still negotiate when going through a staffing agency?

Question: It's said you should always negotiate salary. However, I'm looking at some contract-to-hire type positions through a staffing agency. Typically, the agency "presents" me at a given hourly rate that we set before they even suggested a job to chase (in this case, I suggested a certain amount and they agreed without question). What's the etiquette here around negotiating?
Comment: The answer to this is basically the same as : http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/183/does-the-first-person-to-mention-a-number-in-a-salary-negotiation-lose   This is possibly a different question but the answer is basically the same.
Comment: Are you sure that the staffing agency is asking you to set a rate before looking at any particular job?  That seems odd.  It is very common, on the other hand, for a staffing agency to ask you for a ballpark of the type of rate you would generally be looking for so that they can avoid bothering you about positions that pay $x if you've said that you don't want to consider anything below $2x.  This tends to save everyone time and frustration.
Comment: Are you talking about the negotiation at the point of the switchover from contract to hire, or between the presentation of the hourly rate and starting the contract?
Comment: @jcmeloni I was thinking of the latter
Comment: @JustinCave To be fair, I've only ever had them suggest 1-2 jobs before I landed one, they're pretty good at matching up candidates. But they do have a hourly rate that goes with each opening that they "present" me at. I'm not 100% certain how they determine that number, if it varies per candidate or per opening.
Comment: @Yamikuronue - Did they give you all the details about the job or just a superficial overview before asking your expected hourly wages ? Did they ask you to email your expected wage to them and then expect you to not change the rate regardless of the actual job ?
Answer: Recruiter here.  The recruiting agency will typically want to find out your desired rate (or range) first, and then present you with the largest margin possible (margin is the difference between your pay rate and what the agency charges the hiring company).  The agency almost always has a minimum amount of margin they will accept as there are costs associated with this scenario, particularly if you are W-2.  The company may have a ceiling on rate as well.
You should make it clear that your rate is not fixed, in that if you have to drive further, pay for parking, etc you will want some adjustment.  If you make that clear, the recruiter won't be able to come back and claim some sort of agreement had already been made.  I would always be sure to leave some flexibility in your rate and if a job is presented to you that is outside your comfort zone, let the recruiter know right away that the rate is going up for that particular gig.
Since this is contract-to-hire, there is a slight wrinkle that is potentially to your advantage or could be to your disadvantage.  Some companies will pay recruiters a placement fee (reduced usually) when they convert you to a full time employee, while some companies will offer nothing on conversion.  Most that I have seen offer some placement fee if they hire within n days of start.  The reasoning behind this is that a company could agree on a contract-to-hire scenario, make you a full time offer on day 1, and avoid paying any recruiter fees at all.  So typically there will be some placement fee paid to the recruiter if you are hired within a certain amount of days of the contract start date.
The reason I mention this is that if there is no 'buyout' on conversion, the recruiter needs to make his/her money during your contract period, so he/she is going to certainly try hard to maximize the margin and may beat you up a bit more on your hourly rate.  If there is a buyout, and the buyout is somewhat significant, the recruiter may be willing to pay you a higher rate to get you in the door, knowing that the buyout on conversion will make up for the lower margin they are collecting.
I would suggest asking the recruiter if there is a buyout paid, and when that would happen.  I'm very transparent with my candidates in discussing fees and arrangements regarding fees like this so the candidate is aware of any motivations that I might have, and can make educated decisions.
Comment: `You should make it clear that your rate is not fixed, in that if you have to drive further, pay for parking, etc you will want some adjustment.` Can you please suggest how to do that ? I am in a similar situation as the OP and I have already started working for a few days. Thanks.
Comment: Not sure what you can do since you already started working, but my comment's intent was to be sure to tell agencies that you have a desired rate but that rate may require some upward adjustment if the project is not ideal (location, hours, etc.). If you've already started work, you can try by saying that a detail of this job was unaccounted for and you are incurring some unexpected cost, and then ask if they are willing to absorb some of that. For example if you found out that parking wasn't free, that might be something the agency would help with.
Answer: This situation is different from a typical interview negotiation because there is a third party involved that is representing you.
I would recommend doing your negotiating up front with the agency, not re-negotiating on the agency on the contract rate itself, and then negotiating directly with the company you are working for once you are offered a permanent position.
In my case the process was that I specified a rate at which I was willing to work, and that was one of the criteria the agency used when screening contracts to present to me. They may offer you jobs that pay significantly more than your rate (and keep the difference), but they won't typically offer you jobs that pay less. At this point, I would not negotiate the contract rate itself, as you would then be going back on what you previously agreed to work for. You want the agency working for you and selling you to the client, not upset with you. Make sure they know what you're really willing to accept.
Once you are offered the permanent job, there is a significant opportunity for negotiation. This is where you want to have done your homework, as there you have a number of additional advantages working for you. The company already likes you enough to make an offer, they know you can perform, and the staffing agency is no longer taking a cut.
I wouldn't be too concerned that you need to get a higher contract rate to get a good offer. The company knows the contract is a trial period, and should be willing to pay you well if you've performed well during the contract.
Comment: Thanks! That's kind of what I figured, but I wanted to be sure since the conventional wisdom states that you always negotiate (as it makes you seem more business-savvy).
Answer: In this case, you're negotiating with the agency, not the people you'll be working for.  While they may have a fixed rate set with the client, the difference between that rate and your pay is where they make their money.  If you think a position is a particularly good fit for you, mention that you're interested but the pay seems low.  In business, making less profit on a sale is better than making no profit so, especially if they're competing for the position, they may be willing to wiggle a bit.


Body parts(auto) spray painting requirements

Question: I have a 24l Fragram compressor, airbrush & gravity feed spraygun. I want to spray small Auto body parts(plastic). Will the compressor maintain?
Answer: By "maintain" I'm going to assume you are asking if it will provide enough air flow to do the work you need to do. If this is right, we'd need to know if your spray gun is a High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) type spray gun. If so, the compressor should do you just fine. I would bet, though, if you are going to be doing a lot of painting with this, even with small parts, you'll want to get a better/bigger compressor at some point. This will probably wear out fairly quickly with continued use, especially if the parts get bigger over time. This type of compressor is not really rated for continued use, but for short sporadic use.
The compressor would be WAY more than enough to service the air needed for an air brush any way you look at it.
If you are actually doing the work, you'll want to ensure you have a separator/drier/filter attached to the air line to ensure you are only getting air out of the hose and not contaminants.


NeoVim Save BreakPoints to Session

Question: I am using NeoVim for writing go code, for debugging I am using vimspector
The debugging works well, however everytime I exit and restart nvim the breakpoints are lost.
I tried saving the session using vim-session but even that does not work.
Is there a way to save the breakpoints in the session, so that the next time I open the project the breakpoints are restored.
Comment: There is no capability of this yet. https://github.com/puremourning/vimspector/issues/453
Answer: This and more (saving of watch window variables) should now be possible with a recent commit on github.
Essentially, prior to exit, you can have something so:
nnoremap <leader>d1 :call vimspector#WriteSessionFile(".vim/debuggingsession.txt")<CR>

Then, the next time you are in, you call:
nnoremap <leader>d2 :call vimspector#ReadSessionFile(".vim/debuggingsession.txt")<CR>

NeoVim Save BreakPoints to Session


Initial Fermentation Temp?

Question: A couple of days ago I brewed some Big Ben Pale Ale from Midwest Supplies.  After the boil I poured the wort in to the fermenter atop some cold water already in the fermenter.  I checked the temp right before I pitched the yeast (muntons dry ale).  At that point I was at the temp called for on the yeast label(30-40c).  I stored the fermenter without cooling it down to below 78f, which it finally reached the following day.  The airlock was churning at that point and stopped the next day.  Should I expect problems?  Is there anything I should do at this point other than wait.  On a side note I failed to get a SG reading as well.  Thanks for any input you may have.
Answer: I think you may have misunderstood the directions on the yeast packet. 30-40C (86-104F) is much too warm for pitching the yeast into the wort.
Pitching temperature is usually under 75F/23C. It's recommended to rehydrate the yeast in a little water at that high temperature, but not pitch into wort at that temperature.
You'll still get beer at the end of it, but you may pick up some additional flavors. Typical symptoms of a high pitch are hot alcohol flavors, and elevated esters (fruitiness.)
Answer: As long as you pitched the yeast under 75F you'll be OK. leave it along for 7-10 days. if you pitched over 75F there is a good chance you'll get some funky flavors and low ABV because the wort was too hot for the yeast. If it was even hotter the yeast would just be killed from the heat, but that doesn't sound like what happened.
typical fermentation:
no activity for 24 hours
very active for the next 2-3 days (air lock is bubbling)
still active, but no bubbles in airlock
With this style of beer you can either bottle it after fermentation, or transfer to secondary to help clarify the beer. No more than a week.
keep it in the bottle for ~5 days to carbonate and then enjoy. <5 days and the carbonation isn't there. 5 days is very young, but drinkable. 2 weeks it's mature enough to really enjoy.
Comment: I have to disagree that temps of 75F are "OK".  Sure, you'll make beer but it won't be great beer most of the time.  I guess I don't consider that "OK".  Also, wort over 75F won't damage yeast as long as it's under 110-115F.  5 days is very fast for carbonation, but it can happen.
Comment: the difference between 70 and 75 for home brew, especially your first few batches is negligible.
Comment: I don't think I agree with that, Jason, with an exception for Saison yeast.

Initial Fermentation Temp?


How can I distribute objects along a semicircumference in Inkscape?

Question: I'm trying to place small circles equaly distant along a semicircunference. Inkscape provides basic options to distribute horizontally and vertically, but can I do along a path, or in this case (if it's more easy) along a semicircunference?
Answer: Another possibility is to use radial clones, for cloning the small objects/circles around a common center, creating a circle of objects, and then deleting half of the circle, and "uncloning" the remaining objects.
It allows you to choose exactly how many clones you want in a full circle of 360 degrees.
Here is a video that shows how to make radial clones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0I51hXCdvE
In short:

change the center of rotation of the object (the small circle), to set it in the center of the big imaginary circle, around which the objects will be cloned.
select your small circle, go to Edit > Clone > Create tiled clones
Clone settings: 1 row, 20 columns (or however duplications you need on a full circle)
In Shift tab: per row, set shiftX to -100%, per column set shiftY to -100%
In Rotation tab: per column: 360 divided by 20 (or your number) = 18 degrees.
Click Create

Undo and adapt settings if necessary.
Comment: I had to use column shiftX = -100% and no shiftY and no row shift
Comment: This answer worked, with @altschuler's shift settings
Comment: I also had to uncheck "Use saved size and position of the tile"
Answer: You can use Pattern on Path extension or the likewise named live path effect.
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Paths-LivePathEffects-PatternAlongPath.html
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-GenerateFromPath.html#Extensions-PatternAlongPath
Answer: The following is based on Tricks from the Inkscape Manual by Tavmjong Bah.

Click the object twice to get rotation handles (or once and Shift+S).
While holding Ctrl, left mouse drag the Rotation Center down.
Open the Create Tiled Clones dialog (custom assigned to Ctrl+Shift+I in my keyboard preferences).
On the Shift Tab, check the "Exclude tile" checkbox under the "Per column" heading.
On the Rotation Tab, set "Rows, columns" to 1 x 6 and the "Per column" angle to 360° / 6 = 60° to generate 6 duplicates on a full circle.

Hit the "Create" button.
See "Use saved size and position of the tile" at DuckDuckGo for documentation on that setting.


Add caseId to Live chat transcript record missed status

Question: User initiates a Live Chat session for the existing case but then closes the chat session before an agent accepts the chat, we are finding that a chat transcript is created with status "Missed". I would then like to associate that chat transcript with the CaseId, but I'm not finding a way to do that because I can't find a way to get the chatKey or transcript ID in our custom chat window. Is this even possible?
Answer: We had same requirement- we developed a trigger on Transcript object to lookup and associate it with Case if Status is missed.
Comment: How did you associate the Transcript to the correct Case? The Case is only filled in on the Transcript when the Agent accepts the Transcript.
Comment: When you're using Omni-Channel routing, the chat transcript is created when the chat's requested by a visitor; so you can get case Id in that case. If you are not using omni-channel but using pre-chat form then you can find case based on combination of subject+Contact name ...


Excel table losing color in over half of the highlighted cells when exported from ArcMap 10.4 to PDF

Question: I'm trying to add a table to from Excel into layout view. Bringing it into Arcmap it holds the color in all the highlighted cells and looks perfect. There are about 85 highlighted boxes (out of 740) to show exceedence levels of pollutants. When I export map to PDF the table loses color in about 50 of the 85 highlighted cells. I've brought it in as a JPEG but the quality is poor. I tried to insert an object and create a table but the table looks nothing like it should. It comes out very compact and cannot be read. Anyone have some tips?
Table in Arcmap

Table exported to PDF
Answer: If you have access to Adobe illustrator, you could export the map to .pdf, without the table, and then copy and paste the table from ArcMap into the .pdf separately, in Illustrator.
Answer: I know this is old, but I wanted to put my 2c in as I have had this issue before.
My solutions are as follows:

Try changing the DPI of your export. I do not know why, but
increasing or decreasing the DPI by 1 has helped me.
If 1 doesnt work, try changing the output file type. Try *.PNG.
If 1 and 2 do
    not work, this step always works. Try "printing" the map using PDF
    software such as PDFCreator. PDFCreator allows you to set the file
    type when saving the print.
So the steps are: Print, select PDFCreator as your printer, choose where you have to save it and then choose your file name and type. These steps work for me 99% of the time.

Good luck.


How to recover deleted photos from Android's internal memory

Question: I have Redmi Prime 2 mobile and I accidentally deleted some of my pics and now I have tried as much I can to recover them but I can't recover them. I can recover by using some tools(Mini tool power data recovery my Fav.) but the android device shows only two options i.e MTP and PPT. Mini Tool only works on when I choose USB Storage. I don't know what should I do. Can somebody help me to recover my photos or give a way so that I can connect my Redmi Prime 2 android as USB Storage. I have tried my recovery tools for android but they only shows gallery photos which are not deleted.
Comment: Is the phone rooted?
Comment: Yes, I have rooted android
Answer: If fortunately, you have backed up your photographs in Google Photo, then you can simply open it, go to the "Trash" and choose the photos that you've backed up and tap on the "Restore" option.
Note:
1.This method is only useful for the data that have been deleted within 60 days.
2.Be sure that the option "Backup &sync" in the "Settings" of Google Photo has been turned on.


Is there a way to read the files off of a hard drive that was previously in a Western Digital MyBook External HDD Enclosure?

Question: My external hdd unfortunately took a tumble the other day and it landed square on the usb connector, breaking the socket off so it was inside the enclosure just rattling around, leaving me unable to connect it to a computer. I thought perhaps it would be as simple as taking the hdd out of the enclosure and connecting it to my motherboard via SATA, but it said the entire hdd was "unallocated space". Is there something I can do to get my data other than getting my enclosure repaired?
Answer: Unfortunately if you are getting unallocated space warning, chances are the tumple actually damaged the drive or caused corruption of the file table. Continuing to connect it to a windows machine might actually end up making the data unrecoverable by inevitable writes that will happen to it by the OS trying to communicate with it. So before you take any more action on it, get yourself a data recovery tool, such Ontrack EasyRecovery from one of the more reliable recovery people and give it a go and see if there is anything to even recover off it. Also Western Digital has their own hardware testing tool call Data Lifeguard diagnostic (http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3&lang=en) run that first to make sure the drive is ok, and then worry about the data. If the drive is dead, short of a professional recovery, you are pretty much out of luck.


Using an EHIC Card in Wales

Question: As I understand it, an EHIC Card entitles the bearer to recieve treatment at the same cost as a local resident within an EU country. In Wales, residents are entitled to prescriptions without paying a prescription charge, but in England most residents pay an £8.80 prescription charge. What's to stop a resident of England travelling to Wales (albeit without the expressed intention of recieving treatment which would invalidate the card) and claiming free prescriptions using their EHIC card?
Answer: EHIC cards state the country which issued them, so the NHS staff in Wales would be able to see that the EHIC card presented was not from a different EU country and therefore not relevant.
On the more general question about avoiding prescription charges by travelling from England to Wales, the NHS cross-border services guidance states that to receive free prescriptions you need a GP who is based in Wales and a prescription dispensed by a pharmacist who is based in Wales.
Answer: Inconvenience of a travel usually costs more then 8.80 pounds.
Additionally you are wrong about:

the bearer to recieve treatment at the same cost as a local resident within an EU country.

On NSH page Cover your healthcare abroad:

Free EHIC
If you're going abroad on holiday or a business trip, you should apply for a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which may give you access to reduced-cost medical treatment.

So, if you go to your doctor and you get your prescription (so at your home), it will seems very strange that you will go on a trip forgetting to get the medicines (but not forgetting the prescription).
And abroad you could get some extra costs, not for the prescription, but to validate the prescription (e.g. for the chemist to call abroad; this case could be suspect, so the validation could be required).
Note: your question is not really about abroad (England and Wales), so the above is not relevant, also the EHIC rules are not required. In any case if you have a 8.80 surcharge in wales, you are still paying like people in the same country (UK).

Using an EHIC Card in Wales


Can a state assess a capital gains tax on a sale of property owned by a non-resident?

Question: If I own property in Massachusetts, but am not a resident of Massachusetts, and I sell that property at a profit, does the Massachusetts capital gains tax apply to my sale?
Answer: They call it "Massachusetts source income" and most states use similar language. As a non-resident a capital gain event will trigger a filing requirement if the gain is greater than $8,000 or the prorated personal exemption you are entitled to, whichever is less.
Just out of curiosity I emailed the Massachusetts Department of Revenue to ask:

If one were a non-resident of MA for the year but sold a property
  located in MA would the capital gain from sale trigger a filing
  requirement for an MA NR return? Thanks!

And they responded within a day:

Dear Taxpayer,
Thank you for your recent inquiry.  Yes, you would be required to file
  a MA return to report the capital gain.
Thank you for visiting our website,
The Massachusetts Department of Revenue

During off-season, IRS and state tax support are usually very quick to respond and help clarify any questions you may have, granted that was an easy one.
Edit:
The logical next question is, are you going to get double taxed? The answer to that question depends on which state you live in, but since you live in New York you will file Form IT-112-R to get credit for the tax paid to Massachusetts.
Comment: Ok, if I live in New York which also has a capital gains tax, am I getting double taxed?
Comment: @FiveBagger Edited to answer that question as well, it's a logical follow up but depends on state.
Answer: In general a state will make a claim on income if it is sourced from that state. When you sell property in state X, then you do have income sourced from that state.
It doesn't matter to state X where you are living at the moment the property is sold, it only knows that you have income sourced from their state.
The rate could still be zero if you meet their rules for exemptions.


Can you use PowerPoint images on your website?

Question: Is it all right to use powerpoint images on your website?    For example, If I draw an arrow using the shapes tool, can I then cut the image from the powerpoint and save it, Then use it on my website?
Answer: Yes, you may.
I contacted Microsoft support and they confirmed this.
However, I don't know how much trust I would put into a chat representative for legal concerns. So, I've provided some more information...
Here is an excerpt from Microsoft's own website:

Clip Art and Sample Art
The End-User
  License Terms that accompany your
  software describe the permitted
  commercial uses of images, clip art,
  animations, sounds, music, shapes,
  video clips, and templates that
  accompanied the product. Find End-User
  License Terms for Microsoft products.
The Clip Art and Media gallery
  provides a compilation of artwork. See
  the use terms for the description of
  permitted uses. If those terms do not
  meet your needs, our Clip Art partners
  at Office Online provide a variety of
  images you can license directly.
In the absence of language to the
  contrary in the License Agreement,
  Sample Art (which includes images
  customarily found in the "sample"
  folders within Microsoft operating
  systems) may be used for personal use
  only. You may not sell, lease, or
  distribute Sample Art, or any
  materials you create that use Sample
  images, for any commercial purposes.

Additionally, here is an excerpt straight from PowerPoint 2007 EULA:

Media Elements and Templates. You may
  copy and use images, clip art,
  animations, sounds, music, shapes,
  video clips and templates provided
  with the software and identified for
  such use in documents and projects
  that you create. You may distribute
  those documents and projects
  noncommercially. If you wish to use
  these media elements or templates for
  any other purpose, go to
  www.microsoft.com/permission to learn
  whether that use is allowed.

You may find out additional details here.
For any further inquires I was suggested to contact microsoft directly, in writing, at:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
Comment: Note that "commercial use" is an annoyingly vague term. Interpreted broadly, it might cover even such seemingly innocuous things as using an image on a website that also has an ad banner on it, or indeed using it for _any_ purpose at a for-profit company.
Answer: To expand upon Johannes' answer, a simple arrow like you describe in your question is not likely to pass the threshold of originality.
The details vary between jurisdictions, but for example, the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices states, in section 503.02(a), "Minimal standards: pictorial or graphic
material":

"Similarly, it is not possible to copyright common geometric r. figures or shapes such as the hexagon or the ellipse, a standard symbol such as an arrow or a five-pointed star."

Thus, you can safely use your arrow without having to worry about copyright issues.  Of course, if it was a really fancy arrow, with a substantially original design, the situation might be different.


One Very Odd Email

Question: Yesterday, I received a very strange email from a friend of mine. It was originally very hard to read and dribbled with extra characters, but I believe this is relatively the original message. It doesn't format correctly with how it looks in the post, no matter what I do, so head here to see it properly.
Your mission: Help me find the true message in this email
Comment: I've fixed the formatting for you. Feel free to roll back if I accidentally broke something.
Comment: @Deusovi unfortunately, you did. That's actually what I originally tried, but then I found that it doesn't work that way, whether it's copying straight from the code box or copying after clicking edit
Comment: Then I suggest using Pastebin.
Comment: @Deusovi lel kk
Answer: The hidden message is:

 This was a waste of time to code :P

Explanation:

There is a programming language called Whitespace.

The interesting thing about this language is that the only valid characters are newlines, spaces and tabs. Because of this, it's relatively easy to embed in other text, or even other code.

 When I saw the strange indentation/formatting as well as just the strange structure of the text overall, I had a hunch the whitespace was significant. Since the text mentions "coding" a lot, I guessed it might be a programming language. After pasting the entire text into an online interpreter, it produced that hidden message.

Easter egg:

 At first glance, it seems that the email is addressed to someone named "Edwin". Line 7 says "Ediwn, I just wanted...". However, line 76 is addressed to "Brady".

 This is a reference to the original author of the whitespace programming language, "Edwin Brady".

One Very Odd Email


Why does espresso taste different to percolator coffee?

Question: I recently switched from percolator coffee to espresso. The taste is noticeably better. I feel as if it is common knowledge that espresso coffee is superior to percolator coffee. Why is it different? What are the scientific reasons for this?
Comment: I think the pressure involved in the extraction process for espresso extracts more of the natural oils in the coffee beans and results in a richer flavour.
Comment: It's not only the pressure, also the temperature of the water is different (lower in an espresso machine).
Comment: I'd say you can also make good coffee with a percolator. Of course, it depend very much on the coffee type and suitable grinding.
Answer: Espresso tastes different than percolator coffee, but not necessarily better.  Espresso extraction produces a more concentrated drink with a different set of compounds that you would get with percolator extraction.  With a shorter extraction time and higher pressure, espresso will have a slightly different set of compounds than you would get from the same coffee with percolation.
Some people prefer a more concentrated taste, however, some do not (many people think espresso is "too strong" when drank straight, thus the popularity here in the US of mixed espresso drinks).  This doesn't mean it's necessarily better.  Some types of beans are not well suited to espresso extraction and will actually produce a better cup when brewed with other methods.
All coffee can be benefited or hindered by brew/prep method, but the quality of the bean and it's roast have quite a bit of influence in the matter.  Badly grown, processed and roasted coffee will not magically be made better by espresso extraction.  It might actually end up worse because concentrating it can highlight it's flaws.
Answer: In essence it's pressure, temperature and how coffee is generally ground for the method that make the difference.
Espresso forces water at high pressure (generally about 250PSI) and a specific temperature (generally between 92 and 94 degrees Celcius) through ground coffee. Percolator coffee relies on gravity to move water that's generally boiling (100 degrees) through coffee. The water temperature does make a significant difference because it is possible to burn coffee with water - which is one of the reasons that to many espresso drinkers filter coffee tastes burnt.
Grind makes a significant difference as well, Espresso coffee is generally ground finer than drip filter coffee which makes for a more intense taste for the volume of liquid. As per Chris' post, roast and been quality makes a difference - although I'd slightly disagree with Chris and say that it's more than a hindrance. The same bean ground for espresso and produced by an espresso machine and then ground for and produced by a drip filter will taste much different - and he's right in saying that it will highlight a really bad bean. It is also part of the skill of good baristas though that they know how to grind and extract almost any bean to get the best out of it, I know baristas who adjust for humidity though too so how far you can go is a guess for me.
Answer: To me, espresso has a much better taste.  I learned this overseas, where, in many countries, they make traditional, straight espresso.  I know the modern American preference is coffee with lots of sugar and cream, but not for me.
I've used a cone filter at home with boiling water, to try to make espresso, but it tastes nothing like real espresso from a machine.  That's why I just ordered two espresso makers, one for work and one for home.
The second answer seems to give a good reason for the difference.  The high temperature must cause the burned taste.
Comment: This post does not answer the original question regarding why expresso tastes differently.
Comment: I agree, this is not an answer, but an opinion. A downvote.


Javascript for date sorting in Applet level in siebel

Question: I have date field named ENDDATE in a BC, i need to display the latest records in the applet based on this date field using applet level java script so need the records should be in desc based on this date, can anybody help me with the script and the implementation on which event i should deploy this script, i am using siebel 8.0
Noet: i need only javascript
regards,
Rajesh
Answer: To sort the records in an applet, you SHOULD NOT be using scripting.  You should either set the sort spec on the buscomp, or you should create a PDQ with the sort spec you need.  If you tried setting the sort spec on the buscomp and that didn't seem to work, then you probably have All Mode Sort enabled and should consider disabling it.
However, if you still feel like you want a hack solution and you only want it to affect the buscomp when it's backing a specific applet, then you can add a script like this to the applet server script event WebApplet_Load (but I don't recommend it):
<code>BusComp().RefineQuery();
BusComp().SetSortSpec("ENDDATE(Desc)");
BusComp().ExecuteQuery();
</code>


What is the opposite of an orbiter?

Question: One may say an orbiter orbits around a planet. But an orbit doesn't have to be around a planet. What is a more general name for the object which is orbited?
Answer: The orbiter/satellite doesn't orbit around the planet, it orbits around the center of mass (which, in case of a large difference between the bodies, is well inside the more massive body).
That said, the two bodies in such an orbit are often called 'primary' and 'secondary', see e.g. Wikipedia. You can use it both as a noun (just 'primary') and an adjective ('primary body').
Comment: I would have said _primary_ is the answer to the question. I think this answer is being unnecessarily pedantic.
Answer: There isn't really an "opposite" in the true sense. Everything which is orbiting or being orbited could be described as an "astronomical object", "celestial object", or "heavenly body".
In our solar system. the Moon orbits the Earth - but in turn, the Earth orbits the Sun. Also, the Sun and all the stars in our galaxy are orbiting the galactic central point (although the latter is not an "object").
An interesting and relevant fact is that a moon is "a moon", not because of its size, but the fact it is orbiting another body classed as a planet. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is actually bigger than the planet Mercury, and if it was orbiting the Sun it would be classed as a planet. One planet has been found that does not have a star. Further, although we haven't found an example yet, it is theoretically possible for a moon to have a moon of its own! So assumptions cannot be made from the terms sun, moon, or planet that it is orbiting anything or being orbited (except for "moon" which must orbit something).
In the case of planets, if you spoke of "Jupiter and its moons" it would be understood that Jupiter is being orbited by other objects. Likewise, if you spoke about a "solar system", this refers to a sun/star which has other bodies (planets, dwarf planets etc) orbiting it.
Really then, there is no need for a word to describe something which is being orbited when the context and terminology make it clear which objects are orbiters.

What is the opposite of an orbiter?


Water hammer (maybe)

Question: so I live in a 1950's era bungalow, and a few weeks ago I started to hear I 'hammering' noise in the upstairs wall whenever the downstairs water taps were turned off. Before I hire a plumber to the tune of $$$ does anyone have any advice for me?
Comment: A simple thing to try is to drain the entire system and then refill it. So turn off main incoming valve, open all taps, flush all toilets, etc. Then turn main back on and once all air clears out of each tap you can turn it off.
Comment: Has anything changed, or did this just start happening? Do you have a pressure regulator on the main supply?  I'd start by measuring the supply pressure, as increased supply pressure could lead to suddenly having water hammer issues. You should be able to pick up a pressure gauge for about $10, that will fit on a hose bib.
Comment: In the olden days, before water hammer arrestors existed. Plumbers used to leave vertical pipes filled with air, that would absorb water hammer. However, over time these pipes slowly fill with water. If you have these, draining the system will "recharge" them.
Answer: If there are taps or a bathroom up stairs a small leak can cause water hammer make sure all the water is fully turned off and the problem will stop. There needs to Be water flow to create water hammer.
Comment: Nonsense. Water hammer is caused by the sudden stoppage of flow (at the taps being turned off) it does not require flow elsewhere to affect other places, as the shock wave travels through standing water in the pipes.
Comment: I have observed water hammer from small leaks it is not the normal thump thump but a vibration of the pipes. It is still water hammer! And water hammer can be created in some plumbing with a constant flow.
Comment: I agree. The most violent water hammer I've observed was in a 1970's home and involved the drinking water tap in the kitchen. Turning it on a bit resulted in repeated hammering in the supply pipes.

Water hammer (maybe)