Does playing Video games affect our relationship to God?

Question: I am asking this question because the question about video games being sin was placed on hold, but I feel so compelled to answer it that I have decided to ask and answer my own question.
Comment: @ Wikis Guess I was wrong about what you play.
Comment: I think this is subjective. Personally, I have not found games to be positive or negative (though they take *time* - which could also be spent with God).
Comment: @ Wikis I rather doubt that you play the kind of  games we are referencing.
Comment: =:-) GTAs on iPad are my current fave...
Comment: This could be salvaged if it were changed to "What is the basis behind the statement that certain video games is sinful, according to those that hold this position?".  You can then find references like [this](http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-video-games.html), and it would meet site guidelines.  Strategy consistent with [Tips for editing a question to make it suitable for re-opening](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1475/tips-for-editing-a-question-to-make-it-suitable-for-re-opening)
Comment: It seems that everyone has missed my point, and for that I apologize. Perhaps I am not sufficiently able to express my concerns, or perhaps Satan has been able to extricate himself from the role of villain.  Now I know how Jeremiah felt. My fear is that we no longer fear Satan and have accepted that Satan was defeated on the cross (which is true) and has lost his power (which is not true). As with all wars the enemy may be defeated, but isolated battles continue. The battles will continue until the final judgment and they are cast into the lake of fire.
Comment: Because you asked the question, I believe your conscience is telling you yes it does.  So the answer is yes.  And given that some video games are full of the occult that's hardly surprising
Comment: I'm going to be the last vtc. Happy Thanksgiving. lol. On the topic, many video games glorify sins such as murder, fornication, and theft. Many also glorify violence in general. Christianity is a religion of peace and if you are filling your head with evil and violence then you will probably have trouble restraining yourself from resorting to evil and violence.
Comment: You have been around awhile. You know that this is off-topic as worded and should not have posted it, especially since there was a nearly identical question only a few days ago.
Comment: @ David Stratton Since I asked and answered my own question should that not have relegated it to a reference status?
Answer: Every now and then a passage jumps up and sticks with me. Right now it's Romans 14. The entire chapter is summed up in the very first verse,

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. -Romans 14:1

If there ever was a disputable matter, it's video games. I've been a gamer my entire life. I've also been a Christian my entire life. The games I've played run the gambit from educational to religious to violent to outright demonic. However, no matter what, there's never been a game that's been able to distract me from God. If anything, there were games I put down because my relationship with God made playing them uncomfortable. But my point here in the next few verses.

2 One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. -Romans 14:2-4

I can handle games, video or otherwise, without losing sight of God and his purpose for me. And there are plenty of Christian game makers and gamers unions that say I'm not alone. But, here in Romans, Paul says that we shouldn't judge one another for what our faith allows us to do. Just because I play games, I'm not going to sit here and insist that playing games isn't a sin. Because while I can play a game without being desensitized to violence, death, and disobedience to God, that doesn't mean everyone can. I shouldn't judge them and they shouldn't judge me because both of us go before God who is our master and he makes both stand.
But, and this is how you know I'm a Methodist, it goes so much farther than I think it's right and you think it's wrong and we should all be OK with that. When I was 19, my father forbade me to bring my Magic: the Gathering cards into his house because he thought they were tarot cards. My father, the nerd, who handed me my first video games and my first fantasy novel couldn't wrap his mind around a card game because it said Magic on it. But, I never brought my cards to his house again because of what comes next in Romans 14.

14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. -Romans 14:14-15

Methodists were among the biggest supporters of the prohibition movement. The lasting effect on us is that we hold Romans 14 and other similar passages to heart especially this next bit.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

We know some people can't handle alcohol so we ask our Elders not to drink in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are struggling with addiction. We use grape juice and not wine in worship because it's better to make worship easier for those who are struggling than it is to follow the church traditions.
Now, I'm not giving up video games (or alcohol) anytime soon, but, I am aware of of the effect games have on others. I have put games up for the sake of other people and played them elsewhere. I also help my friends with kids to be aware of the content of certain games so they can make informed decisions about what their kids play. I'm something of an advocate for age appropriate play to help protect games from being judged en masse. That and this entire post is how I best understand Romans 14:16-18.

16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
Comment: There's one board game I've been waiting to play that has you playing as a demon trying to destroy stuff. Anything D&D related that you play as a character with an evil morality. Cards against Humanity. I play them because they're fun and I'm able to separate fantasy from reality. The ones I don't touch are things like Hasbro's Ouija. I can't separate fantasy from reality there.
Comment: Excellent. Out of curiosity, which games do you play that you brand as *outright demonic*?
Comment: I have no quarrel with anything you say and do not feel that the mass majority of gamers will be enticed to go out and kill 26 first graders, and that is not what I meant to imply, but it might someone and those are the ones Satan had in mind when he did what I conveyed. I do not even think that all video games are bad and play certain ones myself. I do think however that some games do and will desensitize maybe not all, but a large number of people to violence.
Comment: I didn't challenge that. I just said that I, myself, do not have that problem. As for whether Satan designed certain video games I didn't touch and I wouldn't touch it because once again it's disputable and debating it doesn't further the cause of Christ.
Comment: An excellent answer which can be a good answer for a **lot** of questions. For example, once I heard from a Baptist, that dancing (in pair) is a sin, because it encourages lust and sexuality. It got me thinking, and exactly these words from Paul gave me the answer. It's not a sin if we can both enjoy the dance without it leading to sinful desires. However, had I felt temptation for sinful desires and nevertheless continued to practice dancing, it would have been a sin.
Comment: @crownjewel82, You mentioned that you did not bring your games into your father's house because he didn't want that to happen. But what happens when his wants violates more? For example, what happens if your father wants you to burn the cards, would you burn them then?
Answer: Even though I agree that that question is an opinion question, I am going to answer it in my own way, because I feel that it one of our biggest problems in Society.
Satan knows that one of the best ways that he can entrap people and put a wedge between them and their God, to entice  them with glitter and peak their desire.
He is also aware that one of his best attractions he can use is the challenge of being the best which man will accept every time it is offered. He not only uses that in things like sports and video games, but he is able to infect churches with it. How often do you see Churches and Pastors brag about their attendance or compare their Baptism numbers.
Competition is not bad within itself, but Satan knows that he can slowly sneak in things which may seen innocuous to start with, but over  time he can work them around to desensitize people to  not only sin but violence and sexual promiscuity.
We as Christians must never forget that there is a war going on between the forces of good and evil.
That was the reason God made the penalty for disobeying him and gaining the knowledge of good and evil, so stringent.
It was the gaining of the knowledge of good and evil that initiated the war for men's souls.
When God created man, man was perfect in the site of God, and that is why he looked at all he had made and said it was good. Remember that that man was perfect as God originally made him, and that was without the knowledge of Good and Evil.
The knowledge of good and evil within itself is not a sin, sin is disobeying God. What makes the knowledge of good and evil so  bad is that Satan as the Prince of the World knows just how to make evil so attractive that it will tempt man away from the Grace of God. We as humans exist because of the grace of God, Since God is omniscient he knew exactly what was going to happen, so it was only because of his great grace that he made the world and man and even gave man the opportunity to go to Heaven for eternity. Heaven would be just fine without even one man or woman we need to be aware that we need God he doesn't need us.
So what does that have to do with your original question?? The reason for saying all of that is to make what I am going to say next make sense.
with the advent of video games Satan had a new and most valuable weapon. The first video games he used were somewhat innocuous that is to say that they started out games like pong and then progressed to Pacman and on to the games of today. What made these games so valuable to Satan was that he could combine dexterity and challenge with sight. He began slowly to build these games from the pong type games to the gore of modern games like we see played today.
For instance Pacman was a tiny step in the direction he wanted to go in that Pacman ate up his opponents, and before you say that's nothing consider that gobbling up the opposition was foriegn to that generation, we did not eat our enemies. So what Satan has done is to slowly desensitize us to violence, death and disobedience to God.
We must remember that Man's third sin was murder.
But I will not stop with just video games Satan has used circumstance and greed and quest for power to slowly entice man away from the haven of God's grace. He has made man to kill maim and degrade his fellow man in seeking both power and greed. that's why we have wars and weapons of mass destruction.
And all the While Satan is laughing at how he is able have man rebel against God for such trivial and evaporative possessions, while ignoring the one valuable thing that man could have.
Comment: @ Mawia I read and study my Bible
Comment: How do you know so much about Satan? Was Satan your colleague? :)
Answer: The way I see it, the sin in question here is idolatry.
As with anything we do in life, if we find that it's taking top priority away from God then it will begin to adversely affect our relationship with Him.
I find that to pray about these things helps because this means you're involving God with the pastime rather than shutting Him out.  If you're conscious of God in all that you do then you're more likely to do what pleases Him, which may even be to stop playing a particular game!  Prayer is a great way of preventing Satan closing the door on God in all aspects of your life.
Comment: Welcome to Christianity.SE! We like to advise our new users to read our [about] page and [how we are different than other sites](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1808/how-we-are-different-than-other-sites). Thanks and I hope you continue posting.
Answer: No materials are by itself a sin. I knife is useful for cutting vegetables but the same knife can be used to kill someone. Wine itself is not a sin but when misused, it is chaos. Sex is not a sin but improper use of sex is a sin. I can't list all examples.
In the same manner, Video Games by themselves are not evil or sin. Misusing them is the cause of problems. Some video games are very useful and helpful. Strategy Video Games are my favorite. The first time I played Age of Empires, I was completely into it. Later I played Age of Mythology, Stronghold Crusaders, Knights of Honor, War Craft etc. and I still love them. I just wish that I still have time to play them but I don't have time for them anymore. I find strategy games very helpful for training the brain. Some are helpful for studying history and mythology.
We can misuse video games also. On Sunday, instead of going to church, if you play video games at home, that is obviously the instrument of Satan to enslave us with worldly things. Some games have wrong teachings or are too violent, which can transform a person to mindless and violent animal-like human. And I believe there is no need of mentioning Adult Video Games, which are designed only to satisfy sexual fantasies.
Therefore, let us spend more time in prayer and reading Bible, instead of wasting our time on worldly things which cannot give us salvation nor inner peace.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the
  world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the
  world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
  life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its
  desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1
  John 2:15-17, NIV)


How to enable ext2 or ext3 partitions?

Question: Does anyone know how I can enable ext2 or ext3 partitions on my LG Optimus V? I have already partitioned my 16GB SD card to 14.5 GB FAT32 and 500MB ext2. When using Link2SD it gives me a mount error. I am rooted but have not flashed any ROMs yet.
Comment: Have you tried ext3 instead of ext2? It may be better supported.
Comment: what's the mount error message?
Answer: I think your ext partition must be a primary one NOT logical - check to make sure that's the case.
Comment: I created my partitions using parted and specifically chose "primary" as the answer, so that shouldn't be the problem.
Answer: I am not completely certain what you mean when you say enable, so this might not answer your question.
Filesystem support is determined by the kernel, so if the kernel was not compiled with support added for a specific filesystem, you cannot use it. That being said, all android devices I have fiddled with have had support for ext2/ext3 compiled in (I think all Gingerbread devices must have support for ext2/ext3 since they are starting to use it on the eMMC flash instead of YAFFS2).
In order to check that ext2/ext3 is working correctly, I suggest you connect your device to a PC and log on via 'adb shell'. From there, create a mount-point (for example by doing 'mkdir /mnt/tmp') and try mounting manually. SDcards usually end up as /dev/mmcblkXpY, where X is the device number and Y the partition number. Try mounting by doing 'mount -t ext3 /dev/mmcblkXpY /mnt/tmp'. If that works, and you can read and write to /mnt/tmp, ext3 is working as it should.
Comment: I have the same issue as OP and tried to follow your instructions. There is `mmcblk0p2` device in `/dev/block` and I tried to mount, but I got an error "mount: No such device". Is there another way to check if ext2 is supported?
Comment: Same problem here. I have an `mmcblk1p2` in `/dev/block` giving the same error, both in the adb shell and in the onboard terminal.
Answer: Some cards do not support creating ext2 partition larger than 6.5 GB (I faced the same in 64GB SD card). Try Mini Tool Partition utility. Once it completes the ext2 partition format, you should not see other in the partition type space holder. It should be ext2. If it shows other, it will never work in the phone. Try reducing the size of the fat32 gradually and create ext2 after that.
Answer: I want to mention that user must use CWM recovery for partitioning SD Card and then swap, after that mount as ext2 or ext4 but not ext3 with Link2SD.
Check if this works for you.
Comment: The SD card can be partitioned on a PC using GParted as well, or on-device using AParted. In fact, the 1st is what I did when I used Link2SD. Please note that your answer, as it stands, is probably incorrect.
Answer: In Google Play exists EzyMount, a tool with which you can mount and make accessible devices formatted with NTFS, Ext2-4, etc. for Android 2.3 and greater.
Comment: EzyMount requires a rooted phone with busybox installed, so please don't try installing it unless you have root.

How to enable ext2 or ext3 partitions?


what's the difference between while using `let` in switch case at begin or in the()

Question: I have a little doubt about the let position in switch case, here is a simple code, which one is better
enum Result{
    case success(code:Int)
    case fail(err:NSError)
}

var result = Result.success(code: 3)

switch result {
case  .success(let code):// first
case let .success(code)://second
    print("success",code)
default:
    print("fail")
}

Answer: case  .success(let code):
This syntax is used when the enum specifies the let value. In this case, enum Result specifies that the case success will also include an Int value for code.
Using let right after case in a switch statement is generally used in conjunction with a where clause to allow for more complex case values in a switch statement. An example of such could be as below
var text = "Hello"
var greetings = ["Hello", "Good Bye"]

switch text {
case let value where greetings.contains(value):
    print("Yes")
default:
    print("No")
}

Answer: As The Swift Programming Language: Enumeration: Associated Values says:

You can check the different barcode types using a switch statement, similar to the example in Matching Enumeration Values with a Switch Statement. This time, however, the associated values are extracted as part of the switch statement. You extract each associated value as a constant (with the let prefix) or a variable (with the var prefix) for use within the switch case's body:
switch productBarcode {
case .upc(let numberSystem, let manufacturer, let product, let check):
    print("UPC: \(numberSystem), \(manufacturer), \(product), \(check).")
case .qrCode(let productCode):
    print("QR code: \(productCode).")
}
// Prints "QR code: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP."

If all of the associated values for an enumeration case are extracted as constants, or if all are extracted as variables, you can place a single var or let annotation before the case name, for brevity:
switch productBarcode {
case let .upc(numberSystem, manufacturer, product, check):
    print("UPC : \(numberSystem), \(manufacturer), \(product), \(check).")
case let .qrCode(productCode):
    print("QR code: \(productCode).")
}
// Prints "QR code: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP."

In short, they're equivalent, and the latter is a useful shorthand when you are extracting more than one associated value.
Answer: case .success(let code):// first
case let .success(code)://second

In the examples as you have shown them, there is no difference. Both are legal, and both do the same thing. They are equivalent patterns in this context.


Private phone call recorded by company phone in UK

Question: I work for a Company in the UK, and routinely recording conversations between customers and myself providing that they (the customer) give consent.
A private phone call on my personal mobile phone between another agent and  myself was accidentally recorded on my company device in which we had a conversation where we had a discussion about the company.
This conversation was listened to by my business manager who then started disciplinary proceeding against me and my colleague. This resulted in both of us losing our jobs.
Can the company use a private conversation between people which was recored accidentally and not meant for other people like this?
Comment: How did a phone call on your personal mobile get recorded on your company device?
Comment: i have to record conversations between myself and clients as part of my normal work related duties providing that permission is granted by the client.If permission is not given then the conversation is not recored on a company device .The conversation in question was between two agents who both work in the same office.It was made on personal mobile phones and was recored on a company device which was running in the background unknown to both parties
Answer: What private phone call?
All I see is a phone call you recorded in a manner which you knew was available for your employer to play. A conversation that you conduct in a way that allows you to be "overheard" is not "private".
We are not talking about an unlawful covert recording by them, we are talking by an accidental recording by you which legally came into their possession.
Of course they can act on it.
The more interesting question is: given they can legitimately act on it was their action in terminating you legal?
Why not ask it?
Comment: The phone call was made on personal mobile phones and was supposed to be a private conversation between two people.It was not meant to recorded and was unknowingly done so on a company device
Comment: @Sundaco I understand that and have expanded my answer


How to trace SQL queries sent by ArcGIS Server (ArcSDE) to Oracle database?

Question: I'd like to generate a log file containing all SQL queries sent by ArcGIS Server (ArcSDE) to Oracle database.
Is there a way to do so?
I'm using Oracle 11g and ArcGIS Server 10.0 on Windows. ArcSDE is used in direct connection.
Comment: You can use Oracle's tracing & Auditing. Have a look at this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7914354/oracle-sql-query-logging
Comment: You can use Toad Quest for the real time tracking log.
Answer: There are actually a number of ways of tracing any ArcSDE connection.  Calls between the client application and the ArcSDE client are logged in the SDE Trace file, between the ArcSDE client and server in the SDE Intercept file, the ArcSDE server will log certain events in the service or direct connect log, and database calls are logged in the DBMS logfiles.
<code>-------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                           |
|  Client (ArcObject, ArcCatalog, ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS...) |
|                                                           |
-------------------------------------------------------------
      |
      |
     \|/
------------------ --------> SDE Trace
|                |
|  ArcSDE Client |
|                |
------------------ --------> SDE Intercept
      |
      |
     \|/
------------------- --------> SDE Intercept
|                 |
|  ArcSDE Server  | --------> ArcSDE Service Logfile, or direct connect log
|                 |
-------------------
      |
      |
     \|/
------------------
|                |
|  DBMS          | -----------> DBMS logfiles or trace
|                |
------------------
</code>
The ArcSDE Trace files log every call made to the ArcSDE client.  These files are usually large and noisy.  Look at the SDETraceLoc and SDETraceMode in the dbinit help.  These values can also be set as environment variables before you start the application, this works for application and direct connections.
ArcSDE Intercept files are usually more helpful.  They will show what time is being spent in what call.  A word of caution though, SDE works off a concept of streams.  Certain commands (like inserts, updates and deletes) set information on the stream, then execute the command.      Usually the stream number is the first integer after the command in the intercept file.  This can get confusing if you have many streams (I have seen up to 26 streams).  You can look at SDEIntercept and SDEInterceptLoc in the dbinit help or this KB article on SDE Intercept files for some more information and examples.
The ArcSDE service logfiles, in the %SDE_HOME%\etc folder, or the direct connect logfiles, in the %SDE_HOME%\etc or %TEMP% folders, contain general information about whats going on with the service, or connection.  The amount of information being logged can be increased with the SDEVerbose variable (dbinit help).
DBMS logfiles and traces are very useful.  But they do only give you part of the picture.  Additionally, some database (like Oracle) don't actually include all types of errors in the DBMS trace.  There are many ways to enable SQL tracing, Devdatta's comment above links to more information.
Other links:
Digging deeper – Troubleshooting geoprocessing errors when using ArcSDE data
Comment: The Trace and Intercept locations in this diagram are incorrect (trace is inside the API between ArcSDE client and ArcSDE server, and intercepts are between the Server and RDBMS).  Application logging such as the output of ArcGIS Server sits between the client application and ArcSDE API.
Comment: @Vince, I think there is some confusion here.  I updated the diagram in am attempt to better illustrate my point.  The Trace lists command that are issued to the SDE Client (through the SDE API) but not necessarily to the SDE Server (eg. SE_coordref_free, SE_shape_get_binary_size).  The Intercept contains commands that trigger a round trip to the SDE Server, but not necessarily the DBMS (eg. QueryWithInfo, StreamSetState).  Logging between SDE and the DBMS is dependent on the DBMS and connection type (OCI, OleDB, ODBC).
Comment: Granted, ASCII isn't the best way to diagram this, but it would help if the two "ArcSDE Client"s were marked "ArcSDE Client API" and "ArcSDE Server". The SDETRACE is captured at the interface between client app and the API (echoing parameters as they cross the API in either direction).  I believe SDEINTERCEPT lives on both sides of the SES function interface in the gsrvr DLL (as manifested by either application server or Direct Connect), and includes both messages received from the API and calls made to the DBMS (move the intercept on the upper client to bottom of lower).
Comment: Ya, the two SDE Clients were a copy paste error.  During runtime, there isn't really an API...just the client (thread(s) and memory) and the server (thread(s) and memory).  But I agree that the SDETRACE echos parameters as they cross that.  I am fairly certain that by default, the SDEINTERCEPT does not log anything to do with the DBMS directly (eg SQL).  There may have been other parameters that enabled SQL logging, but they would be implemented independently for each DBMS. And I don't know what they are.
Comment: I don't generally look at intercept output, but I just ran a simple set of API calls ('sdelist -o layers') with both trace and intercept enabled, and it does seem to generate two intercept files (without the SQL interaction I remembered), so it looks like we can agree on this :)


Were they trying to kill off Klinger?

Question: In the two parter 'Fade out, fade in' in MASH we see that Klinger enlists the services of a 'lawyer' to get him a section 8. Although this fails, out of universe, was this an attempt, at least initially, to 'kill off' the character of Klinger? Are there indications that Farr wanted to leave the show at this point?
Comment: Forgive me for stating the obvious, but wasn't Klinger *always* trying to get a discharge, in various ways?
Comment: @Walt yes it's just it struck me that we said goodbye to Ferret Face and this seemed like it was a good chance for Klinger to leave also
Answer: It's possible.  This interview doesn't specifically state the timeframe that he's discussing, and I don't recall when that episode aired, but Farr does discuss that he asked for a raise and the studio's typical response was to write a character out of a show rather than give in to the actor's demands.
But, at the same time, Walt is correct in that for the majority of the show, Klinger was trying his best to get a Section 8 dismissal.  At some point, after a discussion with Col. Potter, he stopped trying to do that.
The interview is here (and should start up at 29:08, where Farr talks about asking for the raise).
Jamie Farr interview

Were they trying to kill off Klinger?


Create email link within a workflow

Question: I am creating a workflow in SharePoint 2013 that will email the user that created the list item. Within that workflow Define E-Mail Message box I would like to create a link to generate an email to the manager that is selected in the current item. How can I do this? Thanks.
Answer: 'Workflow context' gives you 'Current Item URL'
SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow Email Link To Item
Comment: Could you update you post by adding the variants you have already tried? May be you had a minor error only
Comment: Thank you. But what I am referring to is a sort of mailto link. I have tried different versions and none appear to be working.
Comment: Manager is part of current item so you can get the email of the user assuming that 'Manager' is a person / group column. once you get the email id, you can add mailto tag to it!

Create email link within a workflow


Question about federal airways in Class E airspace going from 5500 MSL(USA)

Question: Class E with a floor of 1,200 feet AGL is shown with the "fuzzy" side of the blue. And sometimes Class E has a floor higher than 1,200 feet. They will print the floor of the Class E altitude in the "fuzzy" side of the blue. I know the Class E with a floor of 1,200 feet AGL is usually the floor of an airway. It goes from 1,200 AGL to 18,000 MSL. But if there is a designated specific altitude higher than 1,200 AGL for Class E airspace floor covering a federal airway, at what altitude does the Federal Airway start?
Answer: Likely at the floor of the Class E airspace.  A Federal Airway coinciding with a Class E floor higher than 1200' AGL would normally only exist in mountainous terrain.
A definitive example could be found by looking in the FAA's "Airspace Designations And Reporting Points" document, available on-line.


Can I work on iMovie online?: ie upload a library to googledrive or etc and work on it from any Mac?

Question: I will be traveling without my Mac, but need to continue my editing. Can I edit using iMovie online? I would want to upload an entire (huge) library to googledrive or etc and work on it from any Mac, maybe in a desktop-rental place.
If that is not possible: can I save a project online and then download it to use in my library?
For example, I would take along a Mac, but I don't want to chance losing the edited versions if the Mac and any external HDs I bring along are stolen/damaged. If I don't need to import new events (nor move events, nor projects from event to event) while editing, can I save the newly-edited projects online somehow, so that even if all is stolen I can have the edited project back when I return home and re-connect any Mac to the backup HD with the iMovie library on it, so that iMovie will load with the project I had edited while travelling?
Answer: I'd recommend Dropbox. You'd be able to edit files locally with Dropbox, and then it would handle syncing them to the cloud. You'd just have to make sure you left your computer on long enough to allow it to finish syncing after you made changes.
I'm unsure if Google Drive works the same way - but I use Dropbox for something very similar to your scenario and it works great. I can edit files at home or at the office, and they sync across so I don't have to worry about transporting things back and forth.
Comment: Your answer is unfortunately not relevant, I'm asking about using iMovie online, and about uploading iMovie Libraries to online storage. Unfortunately if you aren't familiar with iMovie, you would not be able to understand the question.
Comment: 1. Make a folder on Dropbox, 2. symlink the iMovie folder on ~/Library to it, 3. there is no step three.


Wavelet transform of data with sliders

Question: I saw a beautiful application of wavelets applied to a randomly created data series of about 500 data points. It used the Haar wavelet and had two sliders. The first slider allowed the user to view a smooth transition from the most coarse Haar approximation to the most refined. The second allowed the user to progressively detrend the data. Both can be used together. The application did not show the code. It is clear to me that manipulate was used to creat the sliders, but that's all I can get from it as a new user of Mathematica. I'm not sure how to create these sliders for this application (i.e., how to access the individual waveforms that when added together reconstruct the data). I have used manipulate with sliders successfully for other applications, such as for approximating a price series with a log periodic cosine function.
Comment: And the question is ...
Comment: David, here is the source of my question:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUUSMXdBdTQ&spfreload=10
Comment: Maybe browse some of the results of this: `?*Wavelet*` and try to ask a specific question.
Comment: Point us to the demonstration (online?) and we'll try to generate code that would produce it.
Comment: Sjoerd, I did a fair amount of research as you mention. I thought I could just add a parameter inside the brackets of HaarWavelet(),and add a range of values, say .001 to .99, using manipulate, but I really don't no how to "get inside" the HaarWavelet function to do this. I didn't find that the documentation for wavelets aided me with this, though I copied, pasted, and attempted to modify code from Wolfram demonstrations. I've also made an effort to understand the underlying math of the Haar wavelet in particular.
Answer: I won't catch the fish for you rather than teach you how to do it.
Generate a random data set:
data = LowpassFilter[Accumulate@Re@Fourier[Table[RandomReal[{-.5, .5}]
          Sinh[Exp[RandomReal[{-.5, .5}]^2]], {2^10}]], .4];

and transform it
dwd = DiscreteWaveletTransform[data, HaarWavelet[]]
swd = StationaryWaveletTransform[data, HaarWavelet[]]

We will compare two different ways to detrend the set
ListLinePlot[data - .93 (Last[swd[Automatic, "Values"]])[[1]]]

The coefficient .93 is sometimes used when correcting the background drift in analytical chemistry, but feel free to experiment.
And now the other one
ListLinePlot@InverseWaveletTransform[WaveletMapIndexed[#1 0.0 &, dwd, {___, 0}]]

You mentioned that you need to see the different approximations (levels) of the transform.
Manipulate[ListLinePlot[dwd[{HaarApproximation}, "Values"]],
              {HaarApproximation, First /@ dwd[{___, 0}]}]

Comment: +1 for answering a question which has not yet been asked :-)
Comment: @chris Appreciate it :)
Comment: Sektor, many thanks for your impressive response! I can see that I have a lot to learn in Mathematica syntax. See the URL above where I got the inspiration to try this. You can see how the video is using sliders. I tried to contact the author to see if he would give me his code but had no luck contacting him (no email address). I tried cutting and pasting from several Wolfram demonstrations with no success. My understanding from stock trading is that the detrending means giving the data a mean of zero.
Comment: No worries, I love working with wavelets :) Don't be afraid of the learning curve it is really not that horrible :D To get a mean closer to `0` you can just do this `data - Mean[data]`. Of course when working with wavelets you can be more precise when you de-trend.

Wavelet transform of data with sliders


What is the reason of the post-high-school year in an Israeli yeshiva?

Question: Almost all the yeshiva high schools strongly push all the graduates to spend their year after high  school in one of these programs. I am curious as to why there is this emphasis? What do rashei yeshiva, parents and graduates hope to gain from the Israel experience that might not otherwise be accomplished similarly or better by attending a yeshiva program in their own city or an out-of-town yeshiva in the U.S.?
Comment: Is this Jews not Judaism?
Comment: They don't all push Israeli yeshivas. There are also American undergraduate yeshivas
Comment: @ShmuelBrin Of course there is. I'm specifically asking about going to Israel to study vs. doing it in their home country / location.
Comment: @ShmuelBrin "without it affecting their career potential" - That's **extremely** debatable. I've seen a few kids whom I know have turned down a full tuition-paid scholarship in a medical program, and decided to spend 2 years in an Israeli yeshiva. They never recovered the scholarship or opportunity upon return, and the kid struggled financially for many years, afterwards. In almost all cases, BTW, even if it doesn't affect the kid's potential, it frequently becomes a financial drain on the parents. That's a separate, yet, important issue.
Answer: (Disclaimer: I do not work for the Yeshiva high schools, nor for the Yeshivot in Israel, so I can't say that this is their reason. All I can say is that this could be a reason.)
The simple explanation is that Israel is better suited for Torah study.
Bava Batra 158b

כי סליק רבי זירא קם בשיטתיה דרבי אילא קם רבה בשיטתיה דרבי זירא אמר רבי
  זירא שמע מינה אוירא דארץ ישראל מחכים
When R. Zera went up [to Palestine] he adopted the principle of R.
  Elai. R. Zera said: From this one may deduce that the climate of the
  land of Israel makes one wise. (Soncino translation)

(There are various other Talmudic statements about the superiority of Israeli Torah study over Babylonian Torah study, but most of those would probably have to be interpreted within the specific context of the Talmudic Era.)
Additionally, Israel has various benefits relating to mitzvos other than Torah study. In fact, R. Hayim David Halevi has an interesting responsum. A student wanted to study in Israel and his parents wanted him to remain in the Diaspora. The rabbi responded at length that the student is not obligated to listen to his parents in this matter, and he spent most of the responsum explaining that the reason is that there is a mitzvah to live in Israel.
Shu"t Aseh Lecha Rav 1:17

כל ההקדמה הארוכה הזאת באה כדי להכין אותך לקבל ההלכה הפשוטה והברורה
  שאין עליה חולק בלב שקט כי כך היא הלכה שאין אתה רשאי לשמוע לקול הוריך
  כאשר רצונם מתנגש עם צו התורה והלכה פסוקה היא מי שאמר לו אביו לעבור על
  דברי תורה בין שאמר לו לעבור על מצות עשה או לבטל מצות עשה אפילו של
  דבריהם הרי זה לא ישמע לו שנאמר איש אמו ואביו תיראו ואת שבתותי תשמורו
  כולכם חייבים בכבודי (הרמב"ם הלכות ממרים פרק ו' הי"ב ומקורה ידוע ביבמות
  ו' ובבא מציעא ל"ב) ועתה התבונן אם בכל מצוות התורה אין הבן רשאי לשמוע
  לקול אביו כשמצוהו לעבור על אחת מהן כל שכן וקל וחומר כאשר מצוהו לעבור
  על מצות ישיבת א"י שהיא שקולה ככל המצוות שבתורה שבודאי שאין הוא רשאי
  לשמוע לאביו ומבלי להאריך בציטוטין וברשימות של פוסקים אציין לך בקצרה
  שזו דעת כל גדולי הפוסקים
Comment: They may also want to inculcate a Zionest-type value in the student/child
Comment: @DoubleAA That's probably the real reason, but not one I can prove with a Talmudic source.
Answer: Our texts are full of praise for the Land of Israel and how Torah study there is of a different quality than in the Diaspora. Maybe the rashei yeshiva and parents who send kids to Israel want them to experience this for a year as they transition into adulthood, as a way to further elevate them and give them an even stronger Torah platform to stand on.
R Dov Lipman (an American rabbi who made alyah in 2004 and served as a Member of Knesset from 2013-2015) brings many of these sources in Coming Home: Living in the Land of Israel in Jewish Tradition and Thought and I selected a few relevant ones to this question in particular

There is no Torah like the Torah of the Land of Israel and there is no
  wisdom like the wisdom of the Land of Israel. (Bereshit Rabbah 6)
Rabbi Yossi bar Chalafta told his son, Rabbi Yishmael, 'Do you want to
  see the Divine Presence in this world? Study Torah in the Land of
  Israel.' (Midrash Tehilim 105)
When I come to the Holy Land, I feel clearly that here my heart is
  more easily aroused to the study of Mussar. In addition, one feels the
  heavenly assistance in Torah study here.... In our generation, we
  see with our own eyes how youngsters who study Torah flourish in the
  Land of Israel. They advance in their studies, they succeed in
  acquiring knowledge in all of the Talmud, and they achieve much more
  than others achieve in their Torah education in other lands. (Michtav
  m'Eliyahu 3:194)
The Kli Yakar explains that when the Torah calls Israel a "good land,"
  (Bamidbar 13:2) it is referring to spiritual goodness, since "the air
  of the land itself helps a person attain true good."
Answer: I have now seen an interesting answer from a very different angle. R Aharon Leib Steinmann (in his artscroll biography, p. 394) was asked whether it would be a good idea to establish a state-of-the-art yeshiva in the United States and bring in some high-caliber Roshei Yeshivah from Israel to give shiurim, thereby obviating the need for the boys to travel abroad.

He answered he did not like the idea. He felt it was beneficial for
  boys from the United States and other countries to see firsthand that
  although the standard of living in Israel may be several notches below
  the norm abroad, avreichim there are happily learning Torah with
  great hasmadah and without the luxuries and large houses that are so
  common in other locales. This, he felt, is a whorthwhile lesson to
  absorb.
(told by R Chizkiahu Mishkovsky who was present)
Comment: @DoubleAA [Baghdad, apparently.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/29-cities-with-the-worst-quality-of-life-in-the-world-a6905236.html) [Not too far from Jerusalem.](https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&ei=K0-NW4rCEKnv_Qb9ma2ADw&q=distance+from+baghdad+to+jerusalem&oq=distance+from+baghdad+to+jerusalem&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.18303.19672..19889...0.0..0.261.1041.4j4j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.8vDrH7er2CE)
Comment: This has nothing to do with Israel. He's just saying the Yeshivas should be in the poorest location worldwide.
Comment: +1 for the interesting angle. No personal offense to *Avreichim*, but, I see a few potential drawbacks to this reasoning: 1) The Israel year (or 2) is meant for High School boys. Avreichim would occur several years later. 2) Many avreichim are poor and being supported by the community. While there certainly is a concept of supporting *lomdei Torah*, I don't think this idea is meant for everyone, and I question the concept of introducing and, in a sense, encouraging this as a way of life for all post-high-school students. There is nothing wrong with *parnassa* or being wealthy.


Have we seen a black hole?

Question: Have we actually seen a black hole out there? By "seen" I mean "recorded a em-spectrum image of gravitational lensing caused by object believed to be black hole".
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How are black holes found?](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/24/how-are-black-holes-found)
Comment: My question is not "how we can find black holes?", but rather "have we already?". It's related, but distinct.
Comment: @RobJeffries Please elaborate. Should you mean "no, we did not record a image of gravitational lensing of object believed to be a black hole", this should be an answer, not an comment. If however you meant "no, this is not an distinct question" elaboration is still welcome.
Answer: The answer was no prior to 10 April 2019. There were no resolved images at any wavelength of black holes or black hole candidates that demonstrated their lensing effect.
There were of course lensing images due to massive objects that probably have black holes at their centres (e.g. Courbin et al. 2010 and see below), but that is not the same thing.

A quasar acting as a gravitational lens - Courbin et al. (2010)
All this has changed with the release of a reconstructed millimetre-wave image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of M87.
The image below, obtained by the "Event Horizon Telescope" (a global interferometer) is formed by intense light from accreting matter being lensed by a 6.5 billion solar mass black hole. The dark circle is known as the "photon shadow" and is about two times the size of the black hole event horizon. The bright ring is caused by the lensing of light from around and behind the black hole. It is thought to be asymmetric and off-centre because of the black hole rotation.
Comment: As of today, this answer is no longer correct -- or, rather, it doesn't tell the whole story.
Comment: nice edit! SO EXCITING!
Answer: While the original post inquires specifically about gravitational lensing, I'd like to suggest that this is not the only criteria for "seeing" a black hole. Clearly, since no light can escape from a black hole, the actual hole itself cannot be seen. However, there are a variety of epiphenomena that can be observed, and gravitational influence on other celestial bodies (e.g., stars) can certainly be observed.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) released a video of the center of the Milky Way galaxy made from 20 years of observations of this area by the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. This seems to me like extremely compelling evidence that an enormous black hole exists at the center of the Milky Way.
As for gravitational lensing, Space.com reported just such an image attributed to Courbin, Djorgovski, & Meylan. This image may satisfy the exact criteria requested by the OP.
EDIT/UPDATE: This morning (April 10, 2019), the Event Horizons Telescope held press releases on four continents announcing that they have indeed imaged M87*, a black hole of an estimated 6.5 billion solar masses in the Messier 87 galaxy, some 55 million light years away. Strictly speaking, we still cannot see the black hole itself but rather its epiphenomena such as the accretion disk and the turbulence caused by the presence of the black hole. This image, created by very long baseline radio interferometry, is not a photograph in the traditional sense, but rather a false-color image composite generated by converting enormous volumes of radio wave observations with a supercomputer into an image visible to the human eye.
Comment: The Coubin image dates to 2010 and is the same as that Rob included.  If you read carefully, you will see the gravitational lensing is actually done by the quasar's host galaxy. "By studying the way a quasar magnifies light as a gravitational lens, he said, 'we now can measure the masses of these quasar host galaxies' "
Comment: While I agree that there are other ways to determine locations of black holes, I was specifically interested in visual images. Light can not escape event horizon, but accretion disk should be visible. As far as I know, best visual representation of black hole we have comes form movie "Interstellar", where a black hole was simulated by specifically written rendering software.

Have we seen a black hole?


Displacement with a stopping object

Question:
Ok guys. I have a question I hope you can help me with. I will use the image below to illustrate what I want.
I want to use Displacement on the man (I like the blobby effect it makes, and thats the one and only reason, so an alternative to displacement if it exists is also totally ok). I want to drag the weight-slider to preferred size, but I want the blow-up-effect to be affected by the ring around his waist.
In other words, I want to expand him around the ring. Kinda like having a rope around a balloon while you blow it up.
I hope you guys can help and I hope I explained my problem in an understandable fashion(I'm Norwegian).
Answer: Use 2 displacement modifiers with the same settings.

1st will displace the object until it touches the collision object
2nd will continue with displacing, but only around the object. To do that, paint and assign a vertex group to the modifier to influence only the right vertices.

Simulating this inside Blender is not possible, because Blender does not simulate pressure inside volumes. With SoftBody sim there is a possibility to alter the edge springs to make the mesh sort of "blow up" (Length% under Soft Body Edges tab), but the result is not nice and does not look like inflating.
Houdini can simulate pressure in volumes very nicely, the apprentice version is free and can import/export .obj(s) if you wanna try it.
Comment: Thanks man! Houdini seems virtually impossible to understand, but I will try! :D
Answer: Following @Jaroslav's answer .. I guess you could play with the object painting its own vertex weights, using a Vertex Weight Proximity modifier..
Comment: THanks, man! Will definitely explore this option.

Displacement with a stopping object


Publishable with revisions

Question: I submitted a manuscript to a journal in the social sciences.  The response to the initial submission was "accepted with conditions".  The only feedback I received related to a few typos and grammatical errors.  I reviewed the entire paper for additional typos, made some minor edits to improve overall flow, and resubmitted the manuscript.  Four months later, I received a letter indicating that the manuscript "can be publishable with major revisions".  To me, this decision sounds like the manuscript is farther from being accepted for publication than it was after the initial "accepted with conditions".  Am I interpreting the journal's decision correctly?
Comment: Did you also get reviews back in the second email? If not, I would reach out to the editor for clarification. It seems an incorrect button may have been clicked.
Comment: I did receive reviews in the second email, and I must say that this time they were much more detailed than what I received after the first submission.
Comment: I think the editor made a mistake by sending out an accepted paper for review.
Answer: The solution -- as in so many cases in life -- is to communicate. In this case, write to the editor in charge and ask what happened here and how they intend you to proceed. Like @Buffy mentions, it is likely that the second round of the paper went to different reviewers. This is not entirely uncommon, but awkward anyway -- the editor should have looked for substantive reviews the first time around already, rather than just go with the typo fixes. But it happens, among other reasons because a reviewer who promised a review just doesn't get it done, and the editor feels the need to go with what they have -- just to receive the missing review a week later.
Answer: It is likely that your paper got sent to a different reviewer (or several) who had different ideas bout the paper. I don't think your changes are to blame here, but I hope you are getting guidance as to the nature of the requested revisions.
I don't think this is entirely uncommon.

Publishable with revisions


Level 51 - Owl icon in top right

Question: At level 51 I saw this owl icon in the top right of my I-phone, and when I click on the owl I got a whole other set of levels to play beginning with Level 1 'Sleepy Slopes' then 'Funky Factory'. What is this new set of levels?
Comment: What game are you asking about?
Comment: A quick Google says it's Candy Crush.
Answer: The new set of levels is called "Dreamworld".  It was released in December 2013, but only becomes available after you've beaten level 51.  (since many folks who play regularly had already beaten 51, they probably thing it was just released to everyone).
It is a nearly identical set of levels to the first 65 levels in Candy Crush, with a few distinct differences:

Levels are the exact same layout, but some may have more possible candy colors than the original version.
Timed levels do no exist in Dreamworld.  They were replaced by regular "Moves" levels.
The new character "Odus the Owl" appears on the Moon Scale in each level.  The Moon Scale keeps track of two colors of candies and each candy you crush of one of those colors will make it tip one way or the other.
After a set number of turns, a "Moonstruck" even will occur.  This event will destroy one or more colors of candies, and it will prevent those colors from respawning for the duration of the event.  The Moon Scale is also permanently fixed during a Moonstruck even, so you can't fail from Odus falling, until it is over.
If you are interested in further details I wrote an article about Dreamworld tips and tricks here.
Answer: It is not on level 51 where you get this, it was implemented in December 2013 i believe. It is just candy crush on a different world. The owl "named Odus" himself adds some new mechanics where you have to match certain candies for bonuses, you actually have to balance him and matching the candies on both sides of the scale. When the meter is full you get a moonstruck if at that time the scale hinches to the side it will remove two candy types, if it is balanced only one type. It adds some extra elements to the regular game.

Level 51 - Owl icon in top right


What is the deep sound that buddhist monk make during meditation called

Question: I have often noticed buddhist monk make deep sound, something that feels might be coming from the naval or sometimes the throat. I want to know more details about the sound. What is the origin and if there is a specific name to it. Is it same as the "om" of Hinduism?
Answer: From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_chant

Tibetan monks are noted for their skill at throat-singing, a specialized form of chanting in which, by amplifying the voice's upper partials, the chanter can produce multiple distinct pitches simultaneously. Japanese esoteric practitioners also practice a form of chanting called shomyo.

From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone_singing#Tibet

Tibetan Buddhist chanting is a subgenre of throat singing, mainly practiced by monks of Tibet, including Qinghai (Khokhonor) province in the Tibetan plateau area, Tibetan monks of Nepal, Bhutan, India, and various locations in the Himalayan region. Most often the chants hold to the lower pitches possible in throat singing. Various ceremonies and prayers call for throat singing in Tibetan Buddhism, often with more than one monk chanting at a time. There are different Tibetan throat singing styles, such as Gyuke (Tibetan: རྒྱུད་སྐད་, Wylie: rgyud skad) – this style uses the lowest pitch of voice; Dzoke (Tibetan: མཛོ་སྐད་, Wylie: mdzo skad), and Gyer (Tibetan: གྱེར་, Wylie: gyer).
Answer: In Theravada meditation, there is no sound making during meditation.
In some forms of Pranayama, which is a Hindu technique, Bija Mantra sounds are made. Sometimes Gayatri Mantra is recited.


Difference between isnan and comparison to self

Question: In GLSL, what is the difference between isnan(x) and !(x == x)?
Comment: @NicolBolas comparison with self is the usual way to test for nan with standard conforming floats and glsl is, as far as I know, required to abide by them. Therefore I consider adding another function as superfluous (and confusing), unless (or especially if) it has a different behavior.
Comment: You mean, besides the fact that one of these is self-explanatory and the other appears to be gibberish?
Comment: "Usual" is in the eye of the beholder. C99 has `isnan`; C++11 has `std::isnan`. Java has `Java.lang.Double.isNan`. C# has `Double.IsNan`. IEEE-754 even has a specific predicate called `isNaN`. It seems to me that those relying on `!(x==x)` are due to using standard libraries that are deficient, not because it is "usual". An explicit function is always easier to understand than an idiom that must be learned.
Comment: I did not know that such functions were so common. Thanks for mentioning them.
Can I conclude that the behavior is indeed the same?

By one's personal experience, is it possible that the two methods behave differently on some devices?
Answer: IEEE-754 defines the isNaN property, which determines if a value is NaN. However, it is also defined to be a non-signaling operation; calling isNaN on an sNaN will never result in a signaled failure. By contrast, equality testing may signal when given sNaN values.
Now, GLSL explicitly states that signaling doesn't matter:

Support for signaling NaNs is not required and exceptions are never raised.

But of course, there's also the fact that isnan is a vector function, while !(x == x) only works on scalars. So if you want to test if any of the elements of a vec3 are NaN, you can do any(isnan(some_vec)), while the equality-testing equivalent would be even more obtuse and verbose: any(not(equal(some_vec, some_vec))).
And all of that ignores the simple usability reasons for having isnan. !(x == x) is an idiom which must be learned, while isnan is an easily looked up function whose name tells you want it does. After all, most users of floats tend to forget about NaN, so such an expression seems like a tautology, while "isnan" explicitly reminds such people that NaNs are a real thing and they are reading code where that fact is important.
Also, as previously stated, isNaN is a property defined by IEEE-754. It is also a function provided by the standard libraries of C99, C++11, Java, C#, Swift, Go, JavaScript, and I can keep going, but I think my point is clear.
Comment: Great!
So other languages actually have a difference between the two approaches.
And glsl has the function just to mimic those languages, even if there is no difference (apart from the readability point).
Thanks for the explanation :D


Garden hose pressure relief valve?

Question: For many reasons I have a long run of garden hose exposed to the sun. The  water source is always on but the outlet opens and closes intermittently. Some times the water doesn't flow for many hours.  On really bright hot days the hose sometimes bursts. Is there an inline pressure relief valve I can put into the hose to prevent the raised pressure from bursting the line?  This has happened several times to date.
Comment: So are you saying there is a valve at the house that closes trapping the supply pressure in the hose and the heat is causing the expansion to the point of rupturing the hose? Or the supply is always on? If the supply is left open and you add a pressure regulator the problem would be if the water pressure increased then it would just run on the ground until the system pressure was reduced possibly costing more than the hose. A bit more info would be helpful but there are "blow off" pressure limiting devices but they may cost more than a few hoses.
Comment: I've never had this happen even though I've regularly left my hose on in the sun.  Generally there is plenty of stretch in the hose to allow for expansion due to heating.  But unless the water is heated to boiling, I can't imagine that the pressure getting all that high.   Is your water supply pressure abnormally high to begin with?  I think it's more likely that you're starting out with excessively high pressure and then the heating of the hose softens it and causes it to burst.
Comment: Yeah, there's something else going on here. How is it that the hose is a closed container? The faucet at the house is presumably open, meaning that pressure can be released back upstream.
Comment: Have you tried a high quality hose ?
Comment: i would use a cheap short hose (3') as a sacrificial "fuse", maybe abrading it beforehand. you might also try shading the run of hose, even with dirt or leaves or old boards or something, it will make a big diff.
Comment: If the hose is black, paint it white. It won't get quite so hot.
Answer: Summing up some comments so this question has an answer.
If the hose valve is always on there's no way for pressure to build up inside the hose.  If there was an increase in pressure, water would back up into the house plumbing to equalize the pressure.  If there was a backflow preventing valve an increase in pressure would cause that valve to drain water until the pressure equalized.
So, the water increasing in pressure is not the issue.  The hose material heating up and becoming more flexible is probably the cause.  If that is the cause, installing a pressure regulator on the hose could help because it would reduce the starting pressure of the water.  In other words, if your hose pressure is at 50psi and that is fine for a cold hose but causes fatigue in a hot hose, then a regulator could bring that pressure down to 30psi.  Maybe a hot hose can deal with 30psi just fine.
This would mean less pressure at the point of use and probably less water flow but you didn't state what the hose is for.  The best solution is going to be to replace the hose with something more suited to heat and sunlight like an outdoor PEX or UV safe PVC.  Something like irrigation pipe is not that expensive.
Comment: Just to add to this, 100' of 3/4" pex is usually cheaper than high-end 100' hoses. But I wouldn't want to drag it around the yard all the time.

Garden hose pressure relief valve?


One lightning spell on two buildings

Question: If I use a lighting spell on two buildings at a time (both buildings in it's range), how much damage will the spell do to each building. Assume if the damage is 100, will the damage be 100 on both buildings or will it be divided say 50-50?
Answer: The lighting spell is most powerful at the center, but further out, it is random how the hits are distributed. This means that it might give a lot of damage to the right side of the center, but very low at the left - or some other distribution. You really wouldn't know. If you want to make sure to give the most damage to one prticular building, you must ensure that you center the spell on that building.
If you center the spell exactly between two buildings (for instance a mortar and a wizard tower), you can get lucky to take out both with 2 spells, or you can get unlucky, and take out none of them (just weaken them).
Answer: The farther the spell hits from a building's center, the less damage it deals to it. So, the damage won't be 100%, but higher than 50%.
Comment: Yes, because the Lightning Spell spawns multiple Bolts. Those Bolts Hit randomly inside the radius. If the Lightning is dropped on the center of the building, all the Bolts will hit it. If not, they may not hit it, dealing less damage. @MehravishTemkar
Comment: So you mean it would vary every time?

One lightning spell on two buildings


How to parse text from web content in java?

Question: i would like to parse web content and get only text from the web content. I am getting web content as HTML/java script. Now i need only text from the content.
Can some one help me in doing this? I am using HTML parser to do this.
For example i need the text content in the below file which is in bold.
The URLConnection class contains many methods that let you communicate with
the URL over the network. URLConnection is an HTTP-centric class; that
is,  many of its methods are useful only when you are working with HTTP
URLs. However, most URL protocols allow you to read from and write to
the connection. This section describes both functions.

can some one suggest me or provide some sample code to do this.
Thanks in Advance.
Comment: what is the problem if you are already using a html parser?
Answer: You could use an Html parser. A safe choise will be HtmlParser.
Comment: Thanku. I tried using that. Can any one help me in parsing text using Html parser?
Answer: An unorthodox method that i like to use is tools like HtmlUnit, which is basically for unit testing, but they have advanced xpath parsing capabilities, provides automatic login, session handling kind of capabilities too.
Answer: I recommend use HtmlUnit for web download and Jsoup as html/xml parser.
I use them to extract infos from websites (Google search too).


Why does cutting out part of Orochimaru's soul cause him to lose the use of his arms?

Question: When Orochimaru and the Third Hokage fight after the Chunin exam, the Third Hokage has the Shinigami cut out part of his soul, "taking away his jutsu" by making him lose the use of his arms. How does that work? Why does it specifically make his arms not work? Logically, it would pull from the part was the farthest from the chest where it was being pulled from, which would be the feet. Why is that not what happens?
Answer: I've just re-watched the scene in the anime where that happened, and it looked to me like the death god was clearly pulling on the part of Orochimaru's spirit that controls his arms(you can see hands at the end).  That just happens to be where the death god was pulling on, and it happens to only have been pulled out to his elbows or so.
Maybe the 3rd drew the arms out on purpose because he deemed that to be the easiest or most effective thing to pull out first in-case he only had to partially do the job.
There's really not much more to it than that.
Answer: If you believe in how a soul works, then it's linked to all bodily functions.
If you were to lose the use of your legs, as long as your soul isn't damaged you can one day use your legs regardless. In Orochimaru's case, because Saratobi (the Third Hokage) was nearing death and was losing strength to even hold Orochimaru's soul, and that by even using the jutsu Saratobi had ended his own life; so, all Orochimaru needed to do was get free from his grasp to be the victor. Thus, he aimed for Orochimaru's arms as a means to stop him from ever using jutsu again, which would be a death sentence for him because it would mean that he could perform whatever jutsu he uses to change bodies
Thing is, Kabuto must have came up with something to allow Orochimaru to switch bodies and repair the damage to his soul, because even if there was another way for Orochimaru to jump bodies, the damage to his soul would have prevented him using his arms. I'm quite sure when he fights Naruto, and Naruto uses the Nine-Tails' Cloak, he's using his arms (though I could be mistaken, it's been a few months since I watched it).
As for how cutting a blob removes the use of his arms, Saratobi must have been able to "feel out" Orochimaru's arms and pull them out. In some anime and games, the soul has the same shape as the physical body with it being anchored to the head and feet so when you pull from the chest it kinda looks like you're pulling on a bow string. This could be similar; I just passed that part off as a Kage just being awesome to begin with.

Why does cutting out part of Orochimaru’s soul cause him to lose the use of his arms?


Does there exist a decent monetary bounty system for open source software?

Question: I personally would be willing to pay $10 to someone who can offer to make microphone drivers work with one of my laptops under Ubuntu 10.10. I thought that other users could contribute to the same thing, and thus find a willing developer. Does there exist such a project(s)?
Comment: $10 for device driver work, to be paid on delivery? I think you might be underestimating the task complexity here.
Comment: @user16764, not to be paid on delivery. I am fully aware that it would probably cost several thousand had an institution paid someone to build a driver start to finish. I am thinking more of a Kickstarter model, where these $10 and $25 donations add up, there is no guarantee that projects will be finished, and yet many of them do.
Comment: This may interest you in regards to why these things don't usually work out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Comment: @Daenyth, I have watched this video a few times before. However, the professors and the creative types tend to need jobs that pay $$$, so they are not completely alien to the idea of doing something slightly other than what tickles their fancy when a monetary reward is involved. Just as a professor might interpret the fact that NSF is willing to pay for X but not Y type of project as 'there is more demand for X than Y', a programmer might interpret things similarly - not only is there a bug / lack of feature, but it is so severe, that people will pay for it. Finally, the total might be large
Comment: I found this related video: http://lunduke.com/?p=429
Answer: Such things have been tried, and generally were found wanting.
This sounds great in principle, but introducing bounties leads to conflict.  For instance someone comes up with a really bad way to solve a problem, and the patch won't be considered by the maintainer.  The maintainer's friend comes up with a better patch which gets accepted.
Who gets the bounty?  If you say that the first person gets it, then the maintainer will get annoyed at pressure to accept bad solutions, and the second developer will get annoyed that someone was paid for bad work.  If you say that the second person gets it the first person will cry "politics" and you've created bad blood.  Either way you've created conflict.
Comment: I'm familiar with the implications of forking projects. But if we talk about a scenario where maintainers refuse an idea some consider important. Should they give up on the idea? Quoting Linus Torvalds: "The whole point of open source to me is really the very real ability to fork (but also the ability for all sides to then merge the forked content back, if it turns out that the fork was doing the right things!)" - https://linuxfr.org/nodes/85904/comments/1230981
Comment: The person who places the bounty would probably decide who gets it. It doesn't really matter if the solution is not accepted to the main branch of the project. Part of the beauty of open source is that if a project doesn't go where you want it to, it can be forked.
Comment: @simoraman: Your response strongly suggests that you do not have a lot of open source experience.  People in the open source world don't like others creating conflict, and don't like long-lasting forks.  Maintaining a fork is expensive, and is a solution of last resort.  Think of it as being like filing a lawsuit - it is good to have the option, but you want to avoid actually doing it.  Really.
Answer: At present, it seems as though there are three (3) active sites that are worth considering:

COfundOS
FOSS Factory
PubSoft: Public Software Fund, Inc. (It could be defunct as there has been nothing new in the News section since 2007).

See alternativeTo for confirmation and further details.  There have been several others, like BountySource, that are no longer in service.  There is also some information in Wikipedia (but it really needs updating).
Comment: Good finds, mate!
Comment: Thanks for the up votes - I just added the additional links.
Comment: Just added PubSoft to the list.
Answer: Google Summer of Code appears to be doing a good job at it.  Other attempts have not been very successful.  Nothing comes off the top of the mind, but there were some attempts in that direction.
Foss Factory is another attempt but for GNU Hurd alone and not for open source projects in general.  GNU Hurd will beg to identify itself as a Free Software rather than Open Source Software.
For your case, if you can bring other users to an agreement, and you end up hiring a developer, go ahead.  Perhaps start off with the GNU Hurd style discussion and see where it takes to.
Comment: While GSoC works y projects giving a  bounty (which is payed by Google), not by users.


How to create range in Swift?

Question: In Objective-c we create range by using NSRange
NSRange range;

So how to create range in Swift?
Comment: What do you need the range for? Swift strings use `Range`, but sometimes it is necessary to work with `NSString` and `NSRange`, so some more context would be useful. – But have a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24092884/get-nth-character-of-a-string-in-swift-programming-language.
Answer: Updated for Swift 4
Swift ranges are more complex than NSRange, and they didn't get any easier in Swift 3. If you want to try to understand the reasoning behind some of this complexity, read this and this. I'll just show you how to create them and when you might use them.
Closed Ranges:  a...b
This range operator creates a Swift range which includes both element a and element b, even if b is the maximum possible value for a type (like Int.max). There are two different types of closed ranges: ClosedRange and CountableClosedRange.
1. ClosedRange
The elements of all ranges in Swift are comparable (ie, they conform to the Comparable protocol). That allows you to access the elements in the range from a collection. Here is an example:
let myRange: ClosedRange = 1...3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c", "d"]

However, a ClosedRange is not countable (ie, it does not conform to the Sequence protocol). That means you can't iterate over the elements with a for loop. For that you need the CountableClosedRange.
2. CountableClosedRange
This is similar to the last one except now the range can also be iterated over.
let myRange: CountableClosedRange = 1...3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c", "d"]

for index in myRange {
    print(myArray[index])
}

Half-Open Ranges: a..<b
This range operator includes element a but not element b. Like above, there are two different types of half-open ranges: Range and CountableRange.
1. Range
As with ClosedRange, you can access the elements of a collection with a Range. Example:
let myRange: Range = 1..<3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c"]

Again, though, you cannot iterate over a Range because it is only comparable, not stridable.
2. CountableRange
A CountableRange allows iteration.
let myRange: CountableRange = 1..<3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c"]

for index in myRange {
    print(myArray[index])
}

NSRange
You can (must) still use NSRange at times in Swift (when making attributed strings, for example), so it is helpful to know how to make one.
let myNSRange = NSRange(location: 3, length: 2)

Note that this is location and length, not start index and end index. The example here is similar in meaning to the Swift range 3..<5. However, since the types are different, they are not interchangeable.
Ranges with Strings
The ... and ..< range operators are a shorthand way of creating ranges. For example:
let myRange = 1..<3

The long hand way to create the same range would be
let myRange = CountableRange<Int>(uncheckedBounds: (lower: 1, upper: 3)) // 1..<3

You can see that the index type here is Int. That doesn't work for String, though, because Strings are made of Characters and not all characters are the same size. (Read this for more info.) An emoji like , for example, takes more space than the letter "b".
Problem with NSRange
Try experimenting with NSRange and an NSString with emoji and you'll see what I mean. Headache.
let myNSRange = NSRange(location: 1, length: 3)

let myNSString: NSString = "abcde"
myNSString.substring(with: myNSRange) // "bcd"

let myNSString2: NSString = "acde"
myNSString2.substring(with: myNSRange) // "c"    Where is the "d"!?

The smiley face takes two UTF-16 code units to store, so it gives the unexpected result of not including the "d".
Swift Solution
Because of this, with Swift Strings you use Range<String.Index>, not Range<Int>. The String Index is calculated based on a particular string so that it knows if there are any emoji or extended grapheme clusters.
Example
var myString = "abcde"
let start = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
let end = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 4)
let myRange = start..<end
myString[myRange] // "bcd"

myString = "acde"
let start2 = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
let end2 = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 4)
let myRange2 = start2..<end2
myString[myRange2] // "cd"

One-sided Ranges: a... and ...b and ..<b
In Swift 4 things were simplified a bit. Whenever the starting or ending point of a range can be inferred, you can leave it off.
Int
You can use one-sided integer ranges to iterate over collections. Here are some examples from the documentation.
// iterate from index 2 to the end of the array
for name in names[2...] {
    print(name)
}

// iterate from the beginning of the array to index 2
for name in names[...2] {
    print(name)
}

// iterate from the beginning of the array up to but not including index 2
for name in names[..<2] {
    print(name)
}

// the range from negative infinity to 5. You can't iterate forward
// over this because the starting point in unknown.
let range = ...5
range.contains(7)   // false
range.contains(4)   // true
range.contains(-1)  // true

// You can iterate over this but it will be an infinate loop
// so you have to break out at some point.
let range = 5...

String
This also works with String ranges. If you are making a range with str.startIndex or str.endIndex at one end, you can leave it off. The compiler will infer it.
Given
var str = "Hello, playground"
let index = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 5)

let myRange = ..<index    // Hello

You can go from the index to str.endIndex by using ...
var str = "Hello, playground"
let index = str.index(str.endIndex, offsetBy: -10)
let myRange = index...        // playground

See also:

How does String.Index work in Swift
How does String substring work in Swift

Notes

You can't use a range you created with one string on a different string.
As you can see, String ranges are a pain in Swift, but they do make it possibly to deal better with emoji and other Unicode scalars.

Further Study

String Range examples
Range Operator documentation
Strings and Characters documentation
Comment: My comment pertains to the "Problem with NSRange" subsection. `NSString` internally stores its characters in UTF-16 encoding. A full unicode scalar is 21-bit. The grinning face character (`U+1F600`) cannot be stored in a single 16-bit code unit, so it's spread over 2. `NSRange` counts based on 16-bit code units. In this example, 3 code units happen to represent only 2 characters
Answer: Xcode 8 beta 2 • Swift 3
let myString = "Hello World"
let myRange = myString.startIndex..<myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 5)
let mySubString = myString.substring(with: myRange)   // Hello

Xcode 7 • Swift 2.0
let myString = "Hello World"
let myRange = Range<String.Index>(start: myString.startIndex, end: myString.startIndex.advancedBy(5))

let mySubString = myString.substringWithRange(myRange)   // Hello

or simply
let myString = "Hello World"
let myRange = myString.startIndex..<myString.startIndex.advancedBy(5)
let mySubString = myString.substringWithRange(myRange)   // Hello

Answer: I find it surprising that, even in Swift 4, there's still no simple native way to express a String range using Int. The only String methods that let you supply an Int as a way of obtaining a substring by range are prefix and suffix.
It is useful to have on hand some conversion utilities, so that we can talk like NSRange when speaking to a String. Here's a utility that takes a location and length, just like NSRange, and returns a Range<String.Index>:
func range(_ start:Int, _ length:Int) -> Range<String.Index> {
    let i = self.index(start >= 0 ? self.startIndex : self.endIndex,
        offsetBy: start)
    let j = self.index(i, offsetBy: length)
    return i..<j
}

For example, "hello".range(0,1)" is the Range<String.Index> embracing the first character of "hello". As a bonus, I've allowed negative locations: "hello".range(-1,1)" is the Range<String.Index> embracing the last character of "hello".
It is useful also to convert a Range<String.Index> to an NSRange, for those moments when you have to talk to Cocoa (for example, in dealing with NSAttributedString attribute ranges). Swift 4 provides a native way to do that:
let nsrange = NSRange(range, in:s) // where s is the string

We can thus write another utility where we go directly from a String location and length to an NSRange:
extension String {
    func nsRange(_ start:Int, _ length:Int) -> NSRange {
        return NSRange(self.range(start,length), in:self)
    }
}

Answer: Use like this
var start = str.startIndex // Start at the string's start index
var end = advance(str.startIndex, 5) // Take start index and advance 5 characters forward
var range: Range<String.Index> = Range<String.Index>(start: start,end: end)

let firstFiveDigit =  str.substringWithRange(range)

print(firstFiveDigit)

Output : Hello
Comment: I see they have "Range" Datatype. So how can I use it?
Comment: @vichhai Can you elaborate more where you want to use ?
Comment: Like in objective c:
NSRange range;
Answer:
(1..<10)

returns...

Range = 1..<10
Comment: How does this answer the question?
Answer: If anyone want to create NSRange object can create as:
let range: NSRange = NSRange.init(location: 0, length: 5)

this will create range with position 0 and length 5
Answer: You can use like this
let nsRange = NSRange(location: someInt, length: someInt)

as in
let myNSString = bigTOTPCode as NSString //12345678
let firstDigit = myNSString.substringWithRange(NSRange(location: 0, length: 1)) //1
let secondDigit = myNSString.substringWithRange(NSRange(location: 1, length: 1)) //2
let thirdDigit = myNSString.substringWithRange(NSRange(location: 2, length: 4)) //3456

Answer: I created the following extension:
extension String {
    func substring(from from:Int, to:Int) -> String? {
        if from<to && from>=0 && to<self.characters.count {
            let rng = self.startIndex.advancedBy(from)..<self.startIndex.advancedBy(to)
            return self.substringWithRange(rng)
        } else {
            return nil
        }
    }
}

example of use:
print("abcde".substring(from: 1, to: 10)) //nil
print("abcde".substring(from: 2, to: 4))  //Optional("cd")
print("abcde".substring(from: 1, to: 0))  //nil
print("abcde".substring(from: 1, to: 1))  //nil
print("abcde".substring(from: -1, to: 1)) //nil

Answer: func replace(input: String, start: Int,lenght: Int, newChar: Character) -> String {
    var chars = Array(input.characters)

    for i in start...lenght {
        guard i < input.characters.count else{
            break
        }
        chars[i] = newChar
    }
    return String(chars)
}

Answer: I want to do this:
print("Hello"[1...3])
// out: Error

But unfortunately, I can't write a subscript of my own because the loathed one takes up the name space.
We can do this however:
print("Hello"[range: 1...3])
// out: ell

Just add this to your project:
extension String {
    subscript(range: ClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
        get {
            let start = String.Index(utf16Offset: range.lowerBound, in: self)
            let end = String.Index(utf16Offset: range.upperBound, in: self)
            return String(self[start...end])
        }
    }
}

How to create range in Swift?


Is complexity of the stories a factor in determining the sprint length?

Question: please substantiate the answers with valid data points, on why you feel that complexity of a project is a determining factor of sprint length
Comment: Your title and description don't match. Are you asking about when the project is complex, or the stories for that sprint are complex? Those are two very different situations.
Comment: Dynamic Sprint lengths are a framework anti-pattern. Average PBI size (which may include complexity considerations) is only [one factor among many](https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/30022/4271) that affect optimum Sprint length selection. Without more detail in the question, the OP is just a polling question, and should probably be closed unless it's edited to include more context about the specific problem to be solved.
Comment: Not sure why we'd re-open this question until the issues raised are addressed.
Answer: Each team chooses their own Sprint length depending on their particular context. The Scrum Guide only says that a sprint is one month or less.
So the team decides on what criteria to support their decision for choosing a particular length or another. And, yes, the complexity of the stories can be such a criteria.

Sprints are used to accomplish something. Each Sprint has a goal of what is to be built, a design and flexible plan that will guide building it, the work, and the resultant product increment.

If your stories are big and complex, they might not fit a small sprint. So teams might choose a larger sprint length for this reason. There are no rules defined in Scrum to say that this is a good or a bad thing. The team decides.
Most teams choose two weeks. Is that based on some careful analysis or best practices? Not necessarily. Many times it's because one week feels too short, while three or four weeks seem too long.
The question now becomes: is it a good idea to use complexity of the stories as a factor in choosing the sprint length?
Again, there are no rules, but in practice, shorter sprints tend to behave better (you have shorter feedback, delivery, and inspect and adapt cycles, etc). Teams (especially inexperienced ones) tend to chose a larger sprint length because they think they have more time available to do the work. Unfortunately, a longer sprint introduces more assumptions, more risks, and more uncertainties. Experienced teams know that they don't necessarily need more time, but a way to better decompose the work so that it fits within the sprint (of whatever length they chose).
See the following links for a more in depth explanation:

Determining Sprint Length

Who decides the length of a sprint?

How long should an Agile Sprint be?

Selecting the right iteration duration
Answer: No.
The length of the Sprint is determined by the Scrum Teams, considering the synchronization between the Scrum Team(s) and the stakeholders. The Scrum Guide states that a Sprint is at most 1 month in duration. This means that stakeholders should synchronize with each other at least once every month.
Aside from that minimum synchronization cadence, the factors to consider include how often customers and/or end-users can review and accept product Increments, the frequency of change in the marketplace, the frequency of change in schedule or budget, and the cadences of other teams in the organization. The complexity of the items in the Product Backlog is not a factor.
Although Sprint length can be changed, it shouldn't frequently change. This lets the team fall into a regular cadence and have a much more stable concept of capacity. It also reduces decisions, preventing decision fatigue regarding when to hold the Scrum Events.
Comment: @DJClayworth It does. The very first word answers that question. The second paragraph tells you what should influence the choice of Sprint length. The only factor to consider is stakeholder synchronization.
Comment: @DJClayworth I never said that the stakeholders decide the Sprint length, because they don't. The team decides the Sprint length. In a scaled environment (depending on the framework used), the teams may need to coordinate on Sprint length. The only thing that matters is the Scrum Team to synchronizing with stakeholders. You should not have a Sprint shorter than the synchronization period. In other words, how often can the stakeholders synchronize at the Sprint Review and be ready to review and accept a potentially releasable Increment? Story complexity has nothing to do with that.
Comment: You are correctly quoting the standard answers for basic agile, but not really considering the complexity. The synchronization frequency is rarely decided by a single factor. A given project may wish to trade a lower synchronization frequency for higher efficiency. Like many things its a balance, and complexity of story is at least conceivably a factor in that calculation. Anyway, that's my view. You are entitled to a different one.
Comment: @DJClayworth Since a Sprint length is generally fixed for an extended period of time, I'm not sure how you can consider story (or, more generally, PBI) complexity. The _only_ factor is how frequently you need to synchronize with stakeholders. How frequently can our customers or end-users review and accept Increments? How frequently is the marketplace changing? How frequently is the timeline or budget changing? What are the cadences of other teams? There may be more, but the complexity of backlog items is not one of them.
Comment: Ah, you mean "should the sprint length be changed during a project to accommodate story complexity". I don't think that is what the question means. I think it means should the story complexity expected in the project influence the *initial* choice of sprint length.
Comment: @DJClayworth I've edited the answer. But still, no. The complexity should not influence the initial choice of Sprint length.
Comment: You're entitled to your opinion.
Comment: @DJClayworth And that's in this answer. This is how I advise the teams I work with.
Answer: No. Complexity shouldn't determine the length of a sprint. Let me point out that you actually asked two questions. The title of your question asks about complexity of stories but the body of your question asks about the complexity of the project.
The point is that, irrespective of complexity, the team ought to be able to construct stories small enough to fit into a sprint. Assuming this is a software development project, the operating model (e.g. devops / deployment pipeline and the ability of the customer to review and use the product) has more influence on sprint duration. The size of the team may also be a factor. If in doubt, for a new piece of work start with a sprint of one or two weeks and use that as a good discipline to encourage the team to write suitably sized stories.
Comment: It is good to be able to break down stories small enough to fit in an arbitrary sprint length, but sometimes it either isn't possible, or more likely would result in significant inefficiencies, in which case you don't want to do it.


Google Playbooks is too huge - 1.4GB

Question: I am seeing that Google play books consumes 1.4 GB. I use Play Books only to view my PDF books and at most use 50MB of content. But I don't understand how it can consume so much space... Even a graphic game takes only 800MB. So can anyone point me out to why this happens??
Answer: I can't tell you why it's using this much on your phone in particular. I just looked at Google Play Books on my phone, which is using 224 MB, of which only 32 MB is the app itself, and the rest is data (downloaded books).
Some PDFs and e-books can be very big, because they can include large pictures. Some e-books are high-quality scans of every page of a paper book, which can be much larger than 50 MB.
Answer: Google Play Books can also store cache and your data (includes your books).
Try clearing the application's cache by going to the application's app info.

Google Playbooks is too huge - 1.4GB


How to skip kernel update?

Question: I am running Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS i686 on VirtulBox. Every time I check the updates, there's a new Linux kernel. If I install the new kernel, I have to install the Virtulbox Guest Additions again and reboot the server. I don't want to do this every week. I know I can manually uncheck the kernel packages from update manager, but is there a way to skip the kernel update automatically? I found an answer here, but it's for Ubuntu 10. Thanks.
Answer: APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) is the system that Ubuntu uses to manage all of the software installed on a system. It allows you to "pin" a package to a certain version, so that it won't be updated when you the Update Manager runs.
To pin your kernel packages, first you must determine what version your kernel is. One way to do this is to open the Synaptic Package Manager in System > Administration.

Type in "linux-generic" in the Quick search text field and hit enter.

Make a note of the number listed in the "Installed Version" column. We'll use it in the next step.
Next, we need to edit the file /etc/apt/preferences. Open it by pressing Alt+F2 to bring up the Run Application window and entering in:
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences

This will open up a gedit window. Most likely the window will be blank, unless you've played around with APT before.
In the window, type in the following, replacing the version number with the version number you found in the Synaptic Package Manager.
Package: linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-generic
Pin: version <insert version here>
Pin-Priority: 1001

Save the file and close gedit. If you open the Update Manager, you should see that the Linux kernel updates are now hidden!

Source
Blocking packages with APT/DPKG
Remember the package name of your kernel from above.
Open a terminal and run:
sudo -s

And hit enter.
Enter your password for sudo:
echo kernel_package_name hold | dpkg --set-selections

Replace kernel_package_name with the name of the kernel you want to pin.
Now run:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

To remove pin from Apt/Dpkg:
Open a terminal
sudo -s
echo kernel_package install | dpkg --set-selections

Replace kernel_package with the package you want to pin.
Now run:
sudo apt-get update &&  sudo apt-get upgrade

Source
What you're trying to do is called pinning. The sources I gave you above, have the essentials on what you must do to accomplish your tasks in hand.
Comment: Yes, Synaptic is no longer installed by default.
Comment: @LnxSlck, I installed Synaptic and followed your instruction. It works. Thanks.
Comment: Thanks for your reply. It seems that we are using different version. I don't have Synaptic Package Manager and /etc/apt/preferences on my Ubuntu 12.04.
Comment: @garconcn, you can install Synaptic and install the fix i told you, or read the question again, as i have put more info on it
Answer: In one line it is:
echo $(dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep image | awk '{print $2}') hold | dpkg --set-selections

This will set kernel's image state from install to hold and thus will prevent updates.
Answer: The one-liner by Christoph doesn't take the extra package into account (e.g. linux-image-extra-3.13.0-45-generic). Rather use this one:
for i in $(dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep image | awk '{print $2}'); do echo $i hold | dpkg --set-selections; done
Answer: In relation superlexx's suggestion: that line will miss the "headers" package:
dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep image | awk '{print $2}'
linux-image-3.13.0-48-generic
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-48-generic

So how about simply using the following:
dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep kernel | awk '{print $2}'
linux-headers-3.13.0-48-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-48-generic
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-48-generic

Comment: You guys could collaborate on a single one-liner instead of stacking 3 anwsers one on another. =P Just sayin
Comment: If the extras/headers/etc packages are not marked, are there issues? Or, are you suggesting marking them as well for completeness? I'd expect that Ubuntu would not attempt to install an updated headers package, until the linux-image was installed (headers being a dependency of image). I have yet to verify this.
Comment: It's unnecesary to invoke grep if you're already using awk: `dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*"  | awk '/kernel/{print $2}'`
Answer: This purges meta kernel packages that enable kernel updates:
sudo apt purge $(apt-cache rdepends -i --installed linux-{headers,image}-$(uname -r)|awk '!/[0-9]/ && /^[ ]/{print $1}')

(If you have just upgraded kernel, you have to reboot first with the new kernel, or find the latest kernel release and use it in above instead of "$(uname -r)".)
It is recommended to install kernels updates though since they are mostly security updates.
Answer: On Ubuntu 16.04.1, the following code works
for i in $(dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep image | awk '{print $2}'); do echo $i hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections; done

the is an improvement of Superlexx's code, the sudo is added
dpkg -l | grep linux-image

You will find:

hi  linux-image-4.4.0-34-generic ...
hi  linux-image-extra-4.4.0-34-generic ...

note that the tag now reads hi, not ii
to remove pin
for i in $(dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep image | awk '{print $2}'); do echo $i install | sudo dpkg --set-selections; done

Comment: Nice answer but you put `sudo` in the commentary not the command...
Answer: Shorter version: (Replace "hold" with "install" to remove pin)
 dpkg -l "*$(uname -r)*" | grep kernel | awk '{print $2,"hold"}' | sudo dpkg --set-selections

To see the state of all kernel images and headers, run:
 dpkg --get-selections | grep "linux-"

How to skip kernel update?


Can we run a report on what account team members were added and by who?

Question: I want to audit who gets added to the Account Team.
Answer: Account Team is very limited.  It is not like Opportunity Team where you can have custom page layouts and fields.  Account Teams can not even have triggered associated with them.  The options that I see are:
1) Create a custom "Audit" object for teams and a scheduled Apex job to query for newly created Account Team records and create the Audit records.
2) Create a custom coverage team concept that synchronizes with the standard team.  We have done this before, but it is VERY complicated to maintain.
Answer: You can use SOQL to query AccountTeamMembers. There are many tools that you can use to execute SOQL including developer console and workbench.
Here is a sample SOQL query:
<code>select User.Name, Account.Name, AccountAccessLevel, CreatedDate, CreatedBy.Name
  from AccountTeamMember
</code>