Does the Rinnegan have different abilities depending on the user?

Question: The pattern of the Rinnegan on Madara and Sasuke are different. Looks like Sasuke's Rinnegan have different abilities compared to Madara's. Likewise, Mangekyou wielders have their own special abilities.
Comment: IMO the Rinnegan powers don't differ from shinobi to shinobi but is rather experience and origin dependent . Although the case is very different when it comes to Kaguya. Since she is the progenitor of chakra itself.
Comment: Even Madara's eye... differs functionality with its wielder, nagato and obito. @EroSennin
Comment: sorry my bad, I completely forgotten the answer was provided. but if you have a diff better answer please proceed to post a new answer. @EroSennin
Answer: Madara's eyes were the first to awaken the Rinnegan. He then transplanted them into Nagato. Obito took one of the Rinnegan eyes and transplanted into himself.

The Rinnegan offers a vast array of techniques:

<code>Absorption Soul Technique
Amenotejikara
Animal Path
Asura Attack
Asura Path
Banshō Ten'in
Blocking Technique Absorption Seal
Chakra Receiver Manifestation
Chibaku Tensei
Demonic Statue Chains
Deva Path
Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability
Genjutsu: Rinnegan
Human Path
Indra's Arrow
Limbo: Border Jail
Naraka Path
Outer Path
Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique
Preta Path
Shinra Tensei
Six Paths Technique
Six Paths Ten-Tails Coffin Seal
Six Paths of Pain
Six Paths — Chibaku Tensei
Six Red Yang Formation
Summoning Rinnegan
Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path
Tengai Shinsei
</code>
First we look at Nagato's case.
Nagato inherited both the eyes through transplantation. Meaning: those weren't his original eyes. He was capable of using several of the above mentioned techniques.But not all. From Nagato's wiki article (emphasis by me):

Though he was not the eyes' original owner, being an Uzumaki allowed him to use the Rinnegan to their full potential

Obito took one of Nagato's eyes as a replacement. He was seen using several techniques too. From Obito Uchiha's wiki article (emphasis by me):

Although he used only one eye and was not its original owner, Obito nevertheless gained a great deal of power from it. He is capable performing all of the Six Paths Techniques with the Rinnegan, but he is only ever seen using abilities of the Outer Path: he can summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, create chakra chains to restrain targets, and use Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive the dead in exchange for his life.

Obito and Nagato were seen to have almost the same set of Rinnegan skills (Rinne-Rebirth, Six Paths of Pain Techniques, etc.), although Nagato was better experienced with their use.
From the above, it is safe to presume that the Rinnegan's abilities don't have different set of Rinnegan-based skills. Since Nagato and Obito aren't the original owner(s) of the eyes, there is a certain degree of extent to which they can use the Rinnegan eyes.
From the Rinnegan wiki article:

The various abilities of the Rinnegan remain intact upon being transplanted into another individual, but only when both eyes are wielded by the original owner can their full power be accessed.

Hence Madara-

Because Madara was the eyes' original owner, only he could use them to their fullest power.

This also explains how he was able to use Limbo, as he was the real owner and knows techniques of the Rinnegan better.
Coming to Sasuke's Rinnegan, it is practically the same as the standard Rinnegan .
Conclusion: The Rinnegan abilities don't differ from shinobi to shinobi. It is kinda like, the original owner has the complete mastery over it whereas the ones who borrow it have a piece of the action.
Note: Rinnegan and Rinne-Sharingan are not the same.
Sume-mase's answer is wrong because :

Kaguya and Sasuke's dojutsu aren't the same. Kaguya has the Rinne-Sharingan while Sasuke has a Rinnegan (evolved from a Sharingan).
Sasuke having the tomoe pattern on his Rinnegan has nothing to do with Kaguya. If it had been like that , Madara's Rinnegan would also have the tomoe pattern.
Comment: The Rinnegan user is said to be possess the ability to use all known ninjutsu abilities (including the list of jutsu's exclusive to it). I believe it comes down to the user on their preferences on what jutsu's they want to use and how they use it. Because a rinnegan user can use all ninjutsu this begs the question, are the jutsu's listed with Rinnegan truly unique or just another rare jutsu the user has access to?
Comment: @Quikstryke I agree with the preference part. But it also comes down to the experience the user has. And as for your question, IMO its both. The Rinnegan's jutsu are unique to the eyes and only the user of the eyes has access to it(which again depends on the origin)
Answer: Sasuke has a unique Rinnegan from my own point of view. I think Sasuke's Rinnegan is somehow between the usual Rinnegan and the Rinne-Sharigan. Here are my reasons:
First the person that ever awakened the Rinnegan was Hagoromo Otsustuki which is basically a mutation of Rinne-Sharigan and Byakugan which are his mothers original Doujutsu and Madara obtaining power from the combination of Indra and Asura's Chakra created Hagoromo's Chakra thus giving him the Rinnegan. The Rinnegan when awakened manifests in both eyes, if you recall after the battle between Madara and Hashirama, Madara died but he already foresaw his losing to Hashirama and made a time activating Izanagi at the cost of losing the sight in one eye but when he manifested the Rinnegan he regained sight in both eyes, therefore the eyes Sasuke has is not a Rinnegan and also not a Rinne-Sharigan but a mutation because he activates it in one eye and it looks like Rinne-Sharigan which has just one eye and he has six Tomoe in his Rinnegan while the Rinne-Sharingan has 9 tomoe i think the reason why sasuke does not have the full Rinnegan is because Hagoromo shared his power between him and Naruto and since he did not get Naruto's DNA or cells into him but a much tinkered cell of Hashirama perhaps that is why his Rinnegan mutated.


Longing for a past that never was

Question: I'm sure there's a word for this, but I don't know what it is. Specifically, the concept associated with nationalism - the glorification of a past time period as being better than the current one, which usually results in exaggerating that time period's positive aspects and downplaying its negative aspects. It's not quite nostalgia, I don't think.
Comment: Some form of *Utopianism*, combined with a *pining* or *yearning* or *nostalgia* for a putative "Golden Age". Medieval Europe did his for centuries, with Rome as its ideal, for *centuries* before the Renaissance. And the Romans did it with the Greeks. I agree this is a widespread enough human phenomenon that is must have been given a name. Perhaps the name came as a pair: one for describing conservatives who cast Utopian back into the mists of history, and another progressives who cast Utopia into the fog of the future...
Comment: Can you write an example sentence where the word or phrase would be used?
Comment: A specific type of nostalgia that idealizes the past?  Yes, there should be a word for that, but I'm not sure that there is.  Actually, maybe it's "nostalgia."  I'm hard pressed to think when nostalgia doesn't do exactly that.  Nostalgia seems to look invariably through rose colored glasses.
Comment: Is it about elders telling us *"back in my day,..."*? I'm sure it's a meme now. Also, maybe "back in my day disorder" in psychology.
Answer: Two words I often use when I'm doing that myself are:

romanticizing: transitive verb
:  to make romantic :  treat as idealized or heroic
intransitive verb
1
:  to hold romantic ideas
2
:  to present details, incidents, or people in a romantic way
glorifying: transitive verb
1
a :  to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration
b :  to elevate to celestial glory
2
:  to light up brilliantly
3
a :  to represent as glorious :  extol
b :  to cause to be or seem to be better than the actual condition
Answer: Try saudade, a Portuguese word I just learned about this year. It is a nostalgic longing for a past or a place or something that has happened, or maybe hasn't, but tinged with distinct melancholy and a sense of loss.
Saudade — ODO

noun (Especially with reference to songs or poetry) a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament
"her songs are based on love poems and evoke a melancholy known to the Portuguese as saudade"

See also: Saudade: An Untranslatable, Undeniably Potent Word
Answer: If you're longing for a past that never was you're likely deluding yourself :

impose a misleading belief upon (someone); deceive; fool –Google

"That's 'delude yourself', dummy."
See also, disillusionment (for what comes next).
Answer: People often refer to the Myth of the Golden Age for this kind of delusion. The term "The Golden Age" originally referred to a posited era of extreme wealth and prosperity in Greek mythology. However, nowadays it's often used in relation to crime, sociology, politics and many other areas to describe a supposed golden period which never actually existed, but is always cited by humbugging reactionaries.
Here are some examples from Google.
An excerpt from STREET DISORDER IN THE METROPOLIS, 1905-39
Stefan Slater:

When all is said and done, our perceptions of violence do indeed depend on where we
  look. That, if nothing else, should alert us to the possibility that, in our eagerness to
  dispel the myth of a conflict-free golden age, we may be exaggerating the tensions of
  [earlier societies] while overlooking the reality of violence in our own times.

A sub-title in a California Law Review paper:  Right to Marry, Martha C Nussbaum:

MARRIAGE IN HISTORY: THE MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE

From Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters:The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America
Victoria W. Wolcott:

The popular myth of a golden age of urban recreation does not include the reality of white violence and black exclusion.
Answer: if it's England there's a term Merrie or Deep England: ""Merry England" is not a wholly consistent vision but rather a revisited England which Oxford folklorist Roy Judge described as "a world that has never actually existed, a visionary, mythical landscape, where it is difficult to take normal historical bearings."" from Wikipedia.
Comment: Hi anna, welcome to EL&U! Please try to back up your answer with a source citation and expand your answer, as it is lacking in **length** and **content**. Thanks.

Longing for a past that never was


Flickering circuits

Question: any ideas on what would cause flickering on 2 circuits and buzzing on the breaker of a third circuit? I can hear a slight arcing noise at the breakers when the lights flicker. The buzzing on the third breaker stops when I shut the lights on that circuit. The flickering circuits are on one bus and the buzzing circuit is on the other bus. I tightened/checked almost everything in the panel and swapped breakers around, no change. I called the power company and they're going to check the supply line outside. It has been raining the past few days and I also have a transformer on the pole outside my house. I'll be calling an electrician if they don't find something definitive. Keeping the main off in the meantime. Thanks in advance.
Comment: What type of panel do you have? Zinsco and FPE panels do have some of these problems. Since you have called the power company they will be able to verify the service but a bad breaker or loose connection can cause this problem also.
Comment: Swap all those breakers out for AFCI breakers ASAP. You won't be able to do that for FPE or Zinsco panels.   Watch for pitting or arcing damage on the buses where they clip on.  You won't be able to do either on Pushmatic since Pushmatics *bolt down* and are obsolete (but safe).
Comment: Yeah, can we have a make/model on this panel? I suspect a busbar problem, but the degree of parts and work required to fix this depends on what you have.
Comment: I'll check the panel but I know there's GE breakers. Power company load tested and found no problems. They said they replaced all connections anyway. Problem still persists.
Comment: Panel is a Murray - LC120DF - 100 amp –
Answer: Breaker types are not interchangeable, even though they "fit"
The problem is you have brand A panel and brand B breakers.  That is not legal because it is not safe.  At this point you have probably wrecked the busbars on the otherwise quality Murray/Siemens panel.
They may "snap in", but they don't snap in with the correct amount of clamping force or with the correct mating on the bus bars - and so they arc.  If they had been arc-fault breakers, they would have tripped.

Look at the labels in the panel for which breaker series are actually allowed in that panel.
Inspect every breaker in the panel.
If it is not a Murray/Siemens breaker of one of those series, throw it in the trash.
Then, closely inspect the bus bar (warning: it's hot) and if the bus bar is chewed up by arcing damage, stop using that breaker spot and fill the hole with a blank cover.
Get proper Murray/Siemens breakers of one of the series actually specified by the labeling on the panel.

Very rarely, Brand X will make breakers specifically for Brand Y panels, but that's too rare to bother with and it won't save you any money.

Flickering circuits


Significance of blue flowers in What dreams may come

Question: In "What dreams may come", blue flowers are ubiquitous. What do they represent?
Answer: According to the "production notes" issued by the Director's own website, the Jacaranda flowers have a dual meaning, representing....

Annie's grief (at the loss of their children) made substantive as Chris walks through her paintings

When Chris (Robin Williams) dies he finds himself in an afterlife that
  emulates his wife Annie's work: She restored nineteenth century
  paintings, and in her spare time painted pictures which reflect
  elements of their life together. Now Chris finds himself walking
  within her living paintings.

Chris' grief at the loss of his family when Annie left him (and obviously their subsequent deaths)

"And I always imagined Chris, the last time he saw his children,
  standing there with the van going away, under these trees and the
  whole street covered in leaves, in these blue Jacaranda leaves. And,
  every time he would think of his children, from then on, through the
  rest of the movie, somewhere in that shot would be a color that was
  Jacaranda purple."
Comment: This is not strictly related to this movie, but there is an ancient precedent for flowers in the underworld, namely the asphodel.  William Carlos Williams wrote an interesting poem about it: *["So that I was cheered when I came first to know that there were flowers also in hell."](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/asphodel-greeny-flower-excerpt)*


Usage of sliders for non-commercial use

Question: So I know that sliders are bad and there's a thing called banner blindness and read couple of studies saying that people don't interact with them at all. However I'm working on an "About Us" page where the client would like to implement the idea of having a slider with qualities of the company. I proposed an idea to go with a simple animation instead like in this example. My question is which one is better for non-commercial use on a site without ads, banner or animation?
Answer: The "About Us" page on a website is a perfect section of a website to incorporate the views and goals of a company with the style of the page. I believe there is no 'best' with this but there is 'best/most suited'. I took a peek at your question history and I believe you have done your research regarding the goal(s) of the website.
What is the best here?
It has been proven that sliders do not work in most situations, it is mostly there to look pretty.
I believe your suggestion is a nice in-between, your boss wants to show multiple slides (I think it is because it 'looks nice' and fancy) and your suggestion looks nice as well.
My personal preference, without knowing more about the website will be an animation (for instance like the one you linked), mainly because in general they grab more attention then a static image/banner. Secondly they are important in the current webdesign trends (background animations / micro interactions etc.).
Comment: Yes I also incorporated those in my wireframes but those will go below that and will be with more detailed description. i was thinking putting the animation on top of the page with major keywords and later taking those and explaining them below in "timeline-ish" infographic. And yeah, I've done a little bit of digging here and there but it was mostly for our dashboard :D. Exactly that, but I explained him the thing with banner blindness and how is it bad for SEO, stuff like that so he took it. Thanks a lot for the reply! I needed to verify my design :)
Comment: Regarding some inspiration, Moz used to have a 'timeline about' page. Sadly they changed it but it looked great. [Here](https://undullify.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/about-page-inspiration-2-moz.jpg) is an image how it looked like.
Answer: In a private, non-commercial environment, bereft of you being required to take responsibility for the user experience, and wherein the client has a specific desire/demand, the client is right. Every.Single.Time!
Bill him more hours if he changes his mind later.
Comment: First off I don't really think that's a good approach as it's also our part of job to teach the higher ups about UX. Secondly I didn't say he said no to my proposition I just asked which one of those is better and how is it with banner blindness in non e-commerce use.
Comment: good luck with that.

Usage of sliders for non-commercial use


How come the Omega remains dead after time is reset at end of Edge of Tomorrow?

Question: After every reset in Edge of Tomorrow, Cage "wakes up" at Heathrow and everything is as it is (all the dead are alive like before). In the end Cage destroys the Omega's core, and its floating blood once again give him the power to reset time. He "wakes up" a day before en route to his first meeting (and why not at Heathrow like everytime?). But how come the Omega is not alive again? In other words, why are the events at the Louvre Pyramid not reset?
Comment: Possible duplicates [here](http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/26548/can-the-omega-in-edge-of-tommorow-be-killed) and [here](http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/20073/why-does-bill-cage-wake-up-in-the-helicopter)?
Comment: .. Because the movie had a 'Hollywood ending'?  There was really no logic to the fact that William Cage or Rita Vrataski had been resurrected from the final battle, or that William would have been thrown back in time to the nap he was having on the chopper.
Answer: Why is the Omega not Alive after the restart loop?
The Omega (Core) is the "Time Machine" that allows for Time Travel!
How could a dead Omega restart the time loop again? IT CANNOT.
If the Alpha is killed, the Omega simply restarts the day. If the Omega is killed, well...
That's it. Restarting of the day cannot be done because the thing that actually did it was destroyed.
Why did Cage not wake up at Heathrow like previous occasions?
We must establish a timeline:

Day of Beach Assault is D-Day

Day prior to Beach Assault is D-1 (D minus 1)

Day after Beach Assault is D+1 (D plus 1)

Cage wakes up at Heathrow on D-1. He spends the night in the base. On D-Day, he kills the Alpha and is covered in the Blood that gives him control of the restart loop that takes him back to D-1.
He receives the power on D-Day.

On Cage's "winning run", he actually went to go see the general on D-1. He lost his power on D-1. Furthermore, the attack on The Louvre also took place on the night of D-1.
He receives the power on D-1.

Since William Cage acquires the ability and activates it sooner than in his original first time, the restart loop must then also start at an earlier time as well.
Comment: Except frequently in training with Rita on D-1, Cage breaks his back, leg, etc, and she kills him on D-1. Until he fights the Omega, he resets at the same instant, no matter what day he died on.
Comment: @JeffFry he recovers the ability from the Omega after losing it earlier in the day - as such, theres a new reset point.
Answer: If you noticed the repeated events on the beach head, loop after loop, we never see the Alpha again. The Alpha cage killed stays dead on the following loops. Later on, when Cage is lured into a trap by the false vision, another Alpha is there, and they attempt to keep Cage alive, or atleast drain his blood. We are told that Cage absorbed the first Alphas power, and then told that Cage is the Alpha.
Cage killed and became the Alpha. That dead Alpha was removed from time/future loops.
That means the only explanation for the Omega not surviving the reset is that, like the Alpha Cage had killed, Cage has become and replaced the Omega in the time loops.
Comment: Hmm, maybe with that interesting viewpoint you could provide some input on [this monster of a question](http://movies.stackexchange.com/q/20073/49), too?
Comment: @NapoleonWilson Phil's answer is the closest to what I think, but it still has some holes in it.
Comment: That's actually what I googled for. I was wondering if cage became the new Omega, but got no results. The movie also didn't explain on that. He could literally be a new superhero with that power. lol.
Answer: Cage is the one who resets the day after he kills the Omega.
There are many Mimics, only a few Alphas and only one Omega.
The first time Cage gets some of the alien power is when he is covered in an Alpha's blood, not the Omega's blood. Cage aquires the power to reset the day, not the Omega. The Omega starts searching for Cage as it wants to find him to bleed him to take away his ability to reset the time loop and then kill him. As Dr. Carter says, it may be this ability of humans to get this power that is the creature's only weakness and humanity's only strength. It is Cage that resets the day back to Heathrow.
In the end when Cage kills the Omega he gets covered in the pure blood of the Omega, not Alpha blood, and Cage acquires the power of the Omega, which logically should be much stronger than the Alpha's. The Omega dies first, and its blood covers Cage and as a consequence again gives Cage the power to reset time. The Omega can not come back to life because once dead, it stays dead - it is humanity's ability, not the alien's, that allows the power transferrence to Cage. Cage is now in control and he resets the time to when he is in the helicopter flying to London, with all those he's learned to care about still alive.
This to me is the most interesting part of the plot, and why I love this movie so much, - that we are left to consider what other powers Cage has acquired, and how he might use them throughout the course of his life. Perhaps he never dies, but turns time back over the years to live countless experiences. And if another Omega reaches Earth, could he use his powers against it? Since it's Omega blood and not Alpha blood, is it possible that he may never lose the power? The possibilities are endless, and I never get tired of watching this movie.
Answer: Not going to do too much to say who I thought was right or wrong. I'll just say I agreed with most of you. I think multiple points of view are fun. I just wanted to add a couple of things, regarding how I see it:
The old Omega is dead. Cage is the new Omega. The Omega has the power to reset time, with or without Alphas, unless one of them is not on the same page as the rest of "the body." Cage was that exception. And when an Alpha dies, the Omega resets time… it's not a choice; it's the way its biology is designed. It gives the body another "planet's day" to recover from losing such a vital piece of its body and mimic control, and allows it the advantage of perfecting its strategy. Therefore, that first Alpha is gone. Cage is the new Alpha and, like someone mentioned before, context clues tell us that the body may have never experienced losing an Alpha and having its power replicated against it. So not only did it lose an Alpha, but it gave one to the Humans and also the automatic reset when Cage dies. Once Cage loses the power, the body retains its advantage.
I also think that the Alpha that Cage killed could still be alive and he just took the power, but still is a de facto Alpha. His death would still force the Omega to restart the day.
Now for when Cage kills the old Omega:
There are a few theories that could work here, but I only have one that I like. I think it's most viable that the Omega died from the explosion, its juice covered Cage, and he is now the Omega and the entire body, but obviously one piece instead of many. He reset time because he is the Omega and the only body because everything else is dead; and like a person already said, he got to save everyone he cared about, as well as everyone else in general.
To me, Cage is not just a de facto Omega, and the old Omega cannot possibly recover from dying, like an Alpha might, because the Omega is essentially the head. There is nothing to restart the day if it's dead, unless, and as we see, its juice ends up on a human, like it did Cage. And I believe the only way Cage could lose his power is if he dies and his "juice" ends up on a different organism that can hijack his time-changing abilities, that isn't a human. I feel like it's different now because he is not just an Alpha or a de facto Alpha, but he is THE Omega.
Answer: I took that it existed along the entire line of the temporal loop, which is why it was able to learn tactics, reset and still keep the memories.
If so then killing it anywhere along the loop kills it across the entire thing, so when Criuse returns to his start point it's dead
Answer: I assumed that it WAS the Omega that triggered the final reset in the movie as an act of desperation.
I further surmised that (a) this was the first time in the history of that species that it had ever encountered a species such as humanity, that could 'hijack' it's time-reset-ability,
and that (b) due to the Omega's decided lack of familiarity with any kind of experience in having its time-reset-ability hijacked, the Omega just assumed that if it reset the day after Jack Reacher... I mean Private Major Cage KAbOOmeD it into the next dimension, well, I expect that the Omega assumed that time would be reset and the Omega would return to life. However, as their race had never encountered any such thing as humans, it had no way of knowing what would actually happen. So, as I surmised/ guessed originally, I suspect that it was indeed the Omega who triggered one final time-reset, but that in doing so, the Omega itself was not affected/ not reset/ not regenerated, because of something to do with Cage being in control of the power now?
Answer: I think Cage has replaced the Omega and now has the power himself to reset time although perhaps he can't activate it without something similar to an Alpha. I'm uncertain in the end which of the two (i.e. Cage or Omega) resets the loop, but it could be either or both at the same time. Perhaps this conundrum is what causes the reset to happen earlier in the day with the Omega remaining dead and Cage alive. The reset happens right after Cage gets covered in the Omega's blood and the Alpha that was chasing him is already toast. So I think Cage both activates and resets to an earlier point in the day and because of whatever strange juicy time weirdness the Omega actually is... it remains dead as does the reset of it's organism. Cage receives this new power on d-day as they left to Paris an hour or so before the launch of the allied invasion, which is about right for the extra hour or so on the last reset.
As far as why the Alpha was not seen again on the beach, well the Omega knew it died there and it remembers everything as well but simply does not have the ability to activate the time reset. As Dr. Carter states "the Alpha is it's central nervous system" which sends/activates the response to reset time. So the Omega would not send the Alpha in to die again and again but instead holds it back to lay a trap for Cage. Perhaps the Alpha at the dam is the very same one from the beach as the omega would have had almost a full day to get it there.
It will be interesting to see how they script the sequel. Perhaps there's another alien Mimic asteroid in orbit that monitors the invasion and will come down or perhaps there already is an Omega seed that was already planted and growing somewhere in Europe. Will it be a battle of Omega cage vs. new Omega baby? Multiple time resets happening from two separate time controllers? It should be a wild ride if done as well as this movie.
Answer: Omega simply ran away for life after resetting the time, abandoning its army. This is why there was a "disturbance" at its residence after that the army ceased to fight.
There is nothing on the movie to support the assumption that Cage actually remembers that happened during the last attack. He may be in the same status as Rita that only remembers incarnations from when her power to reset the time was not yet lost.
Answer: Hollywood logic.
Cage is now the Omega.  When he killed the Alpha we learned two things.

The Omega loses its chronokenisis power.
The death of an Alpha triggers a reset.

Cage cannot control the power as he is bound by the system of Alpha death = triggers reset. With him absorbing the Omegas blood, he reset the day..since he was dying the same death trigger kicks in. The Omegas blood and the alphas blood is the same.. This is why the omega lost the power to both Riv and Cage.
Some hypnosis my help bring it from his subconscious.  Or the blood is passed via offspring and one eventually elvoles to control it.
Comment: But if the Alpha's blood is the same as the Omega's blood why does the reset happen differently this time?
Answer: Remember what happened with Rita, that the aliens had fooled her at VERDAN, that people were thinking that they had won at verdan.... But the aliens were testing out human power
I think that the same thing had happened with CRUISE too, maybe again the aliens aren't dead yet.


Can it be that Merus is the grand priest?

Question: Here I saw this line.
 "However, Merus tells him that his doubts are now gone and asks Goku to follow him as he heads inside a nearby pyramid. Behind the door lies the Galactic Patrol's Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Merus tells Goku that every day that passes in the real world amounts to three days in this room, but the main reason for heading inside is so that he can unleash his full power without anyone finding out about it."
which made me to wonder whether Merus can be the grand priest? (BTW Merus's eye shape matches to that of grand priest )
Answer: From Chapter 54 of the manga it turns out that Merus is not grand priest but rather an angel.


Who should be trained when introducing Agile?

Question: Should all team members be formally trained when introducing Agile methods into a company, or is it sufficient to train only a handful of key people? If the latter, who should they be?
Answer: You definitely want to train all team members.  You could potentially do a "train the trainer" type setup where a few key individuals get trained and then train the rest of the team, but your results will be much better if everyone gets trained.  You will also probably want to at least give overview training to anyone else that typically interacts with the team so they are familiar with the changes as well.
Our agile adoption process was doing alright before we brought in an external coach, but once we brought in an external coach to formally train and coach the entire team and provide overview training to others that typically worked with the team, the team really took off.  It made a world of difference just taking that time to get everyone on the same page, and having the outside perspective as well.
Answer: I found one company with about 80 devs who trained themselves after sending five of their members to a Scrum Master course. They got themselves to the point where they were releasing code to production several times a day, and several teams had started using Kanban instead to be able to visualise the flow more easily.
I went to see them because I was curious about how they did this. It turned out they had the right culture in place; particularly, an academic, open-minded culture in which they were more interested in trying things out and working out what failed than in blaming people for the failure. They were also self-motivated, and the company made time for learning, so they were willing to pick up books, read blogs and go to groups in the evenings to ask questions.
If you can find people who have enough influence (not authority!) to create a culture in which Agile can thrive, it's enough to train those people, provided they're given training on the principles as well as on the practices.
Otherwise, provide training or coaching for everyone.
Answer: As others have mentioned, train the whole team.  It is hugely valuable to build a common language and common perspective early on for any process transition.  Agile especially can be a cultural level change that takes months (12-18) to change everyone's core behaviors.  It isn't as simple as learn the ABC's of a process.
Also, train Sr. Management.  I can't stress this enough.  Having a single team in a company "go Agile" will create tension and conflict that needs to be managed by Sr. Managers.  If they don't know what to expect or aren't prepared, it will create problems almost immediately ("well, you can do Agile, but Product Management will keep working the way they always have...")  You can't send them to the same class, so I would strongly recommend a trainer come in and spend 2-4 hours speaking to a significant portion of the Sr. Mgmt team and tailoring a course specifically for them.
Also also, find a few sympathetic/interested/motivated members of other groups/teams and get them trained as well.  Once you get some success with your team, having those seeds planted early will really help solidify things.
Comment: +1 for the comment about training senior management. I guess that's the missing link in many organisations, where they just don't "get" the concept and are looking for a single delivery with hard estimates of time, quality and budget - the unholy trinity, as I have heard it described.
Answer: If you are starting from scratch then I think external training for all is a good idea.  You definitely want to have your training just-in-time and learners should be with the people they will be working with so I would advise training one team at a time.
Expecting a few key people to pass the word on may be risky.  Internal trainers have superior context but there are some intangibles to having an external trainer.  External trainers will usually be more accomplished facilitators and presenters.  External trainers will have experienced many different patterns that they can share with learners.  For whatever reason, learners always extend external people more courtesy and this can be valuable in the early stages of the learning curve - there are some who learn through challenging and questioning and this can throw an inexperienced trainer off-balance.
Good luck Iain


MS SSIS as good approach for two-way data synchronization

Question: We have SQL Server databases in every retail store, and one database in main office. We want to collect data from all stores and load the main DB (for BI), but we also want to sync data from main DB to retail DBs, when new product is awailable for selling.
The solution has to provide reliable and scalable mechanism for data synchronization, using transactions, tracking the data that is not synced.
I read about SSIS and tools, I was wondering if SSIS is good choice for this task.
Comment: I don't have much hands-on experience with database maintenance and setup beyond simple installation, but this strikes me as a very fragile setup and one likely to create many many headaches in your future if something should go wrong.  You might consider switching to Big Data for your database services, though depending on how the program is written, that may be somewhat straightforward or completely impossible to do.
Answer:
We want to collect data from all stores and load the main DB (for BI),

SSIS (or other ETL software) is often used for loading a "Data Warehouse" for business intelligence purposes. This sounds a lot like what you're trying to do. SSIS can have all sorts of transformations that will help you get the data in a good shape for conducting BI on it efficiently.

we also want to sync data from main DB to retail DBs, when new product is awailable for selling

This you can also accomplish with SSIS. Since this sounds more mission critical, it's important that you have good monitoring and tracking in place. You should know if a retail store wasn't updated for some reason and you may have to run consistency checks to make sure the product table for each retail store is complete.
A better architecture would involve the retail store software hitting a web service at your main office to see which products are available. This would guarantee that no products are sold that aren't supposed to be sold, and it would immediately reflect new products. But I understand this kind of architecture may not be possible because internet connections may not be reliable at the retail store.
Comment: Thanks for clarifying some things. I am exploring SSIS for all these purposes. Internet connection would not be a problem, all stores are in VPN.


What is the recommended way to upload husband and wife data from csv file

Question: csv file has name of both husband and wife as well as the same address field. Separate cell phone #s but same home #.
Answer: This is an excellent question, and it has more to do with how you want to use your data than with the technology.
Most CRM experts will tell you that the "right" way is to make the husband and wife each into their own contact, and create a "spouse" relationship between the two.  You could also consider using "address sharing" so that updating one address updates both, if you like - though I don't think there's a way to do that from an import.
Of course, the reality is that if it would be a ton of work to handle them separately (e.g. the spouses' names in the CSV aren't in separate columns) and you only deal with them together, you could "cheat" and upload them as a single contact.
Assuming you want to do it the "right" way, I would do the following:

Add a new column called "spouse identifier", which is a serial number: 1, 2, 3 etc.
Import the first spouse, with their name, cell #, address, etc.
For columns that belong exclusively to the spouse, use the "related contact info" to select "Spouse Of" (see screenshots 1 and 2 below).
Finally, do the same with "spouse identifier", setting the field to the "Spouse Of" "External Identifier".

When you're done with this import, you're almost there - you'll have both spouses imported, each with their own cell #.  The shared contact info will be on the first spouse but not the second spouse.
To add the shared contact info to the second spouse, import a second time.  However:

Only import the "spouse identifier" field and any shared contact info fields.  Don't import any other columns.

CiviCRM will use the external identifier to understand that you're adding additional contact info to the second spouse.
Comment: Thank you for such a detailed response. The first part went great. I got the names loaded and the individual fields. When i went to load the shared fields (home address & home phone) it did not update the record (even though it said that the records were updated.) The only thing i noticed was that the external identifier was not showing on the secondary contact. So for example if mr jones was external identifier 1, mrs jones external identifier was left blank. What did I miss?
Comment: It sounds like you set the "spouse identifier" to import as the "external identifier", rather than the "spouse of - external identifier".  Otherwise it would be appearing on Mrs. Jones' record, which was the intent.  If you have a way to roll back and redo, go ahead and do that!  If not, create a second column "spouse identifier 2".  Fill it with unique identifiers (e.g. instead of starting at "1", start at "10001" so there's no overlap).  Then reimport JUST "spouse identifier" and "spouse identifier 2" - set "spouse identifier 2" to the spouse ("Mrs. Jones").
Comment: Once you've done that, you can do the final import again - but use "spouse identifier 2" where you'd use "spouse identifier".  Note that you may have overwritten Mr. Jones' cell # with Mrs. Jones already, so you may need to reimport those!
Comment: Glad I could help Melinda!  If you have follow-up questions, find me at https://chat.civicrm.org, my username is "junglebird".


Salesforce Bulk API Upsert

Question: Iam using Salesforce Bulk API to upsert  records from my application to salesforce. I have a confusion in Upsert.Now I already have a account named XYZ in salesforce .I create an external id as myexternalid_c. Now I send my json data with XYZ account (Along with external ID) from my application.Will duplicate be avoided.If so can Any one explain the logic how salesforce deals with it
Comment: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/langCon_apex_dml_examples_upsert.htm
Answer: The records you are upserting can be matched against a Id or a external Id field.
Below is a excerpt from salesforce documentation:

Upsert uses the external ID to determine whether it should create a
  new record or update an existing one:

If the external ID is not matched, then a new record is created.
If the external ID is matched once, then the existing record is    updated.
If the external ID is matched multiple times, then an error is    reported.
When batch updating multiple records where the external ID is the    same for two or more records in your batch call, those records will
  be marked as errors in the UpsertResult file. The records will be
  neither created or updated.

Also, a nice blog has been written on the working. Hope this helps.

Salesforce Bulk API Upsert


How to test the Geo location in mobile, please explain with real time scenario

Question: How to test the Geo location in mobile, please explain with real time scenario and in during testing which location setting is good device location or high accuracy setting?
Comment: Use emulators. They allow to set up the location your app would detect in a real device
Answer:
How to test the Geo location in mobile

Your first question I believe was answered in How to test dynamic GPS location in mobile
But of course, real case scenario, when walking outside and inside with your phone(s) shall be carried out at least from time to time.

which location setting is good device location or high accuracy setting?

If you really want to test real case scenario, you should test both.
Device only mode relies solely on the GPS radio signal built into your phone. It works using the GPS-designated network of satellites to find your phone's location. This means it will work in places where you won't find enough Wi-Fi, cellular towers, and Bluetooth beacons to get a proper location.
When you select the High accuracy location service mode, you are allowing multiple networks to pinpoint your precise location (hence the name High accuracy). It calls for every service available: GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or cellular networks in whatever combination available to provide the most accurate location.
Because the device only mode is less accurate, especially in buildings, you should check that also how much reliable is your application-under-test in this condition.
Answer: You can test the Geo location by either taking the device for a walk within and outside perimeter or by spoofing the location in your device. Compared to device location, high accuracy setting would be more accurate.


Would a vampire bitten by Blade become a daywalker?

Question: Looking at the film I wondered if a vampire bitten by Blade would become a daywalker, or whether biting a vampire would cause Blade to turn into a full vampire, or would nothing at all happen?
Comment: In the films at least, Blade doesn't appear to be able to transmit the Hominus Nocturna virus.  He bit Karen in the first movie, and she didn't appear to exhibit any of the traits associated with "the turn".  It could just be that it's a more delayed reaction with him though, so I'm not posting as an answer.
Answer: As far as I know, the Blade series has never really delved into the concept vampiric cannibalism.  However, from what I understand of the Blade universe's version of vampirism, it's disease based rather than supernatural.
If we consider the TV series of Blade (its one season, that is) as canon, that would mean Blade's unique traits are differences in how the vampirism disease is expressed, rather than an actual mutation in the strain.  There are two pieces of evidence to support this from that series:
-The "Bad Bloods" gang that took Eric/Blade in as a child after running away from his father.  Blade fed on them, thus turning them into vampires.  When they later kidnap him in daylight, they are seen wearing heavy protective gear much like that used by motorcyclists.  Given their tactics to neutralize Blade (driving into him with a large vehicle), they're not overly concerned about being covert, which suggests they're shielding themselves from the sunlight.  Later in that same story sequence, Blade's normal weapons are just as effective against the Bad Bloods as any other vampire.  Therefore, they are not daywalkers despite being sired by a daywalker.
-Similarly, the episode deliving into Marcus's backstory shows him being turned over to a clan of Native vampires who are just fine in the daylight.  While Marcus is never actually shown to be vulnerable to the silver/garlic/UV weapons that Blade uses, he does demonstrate the same aversion to these threats that other vampires do.
This indicates that being a daywalker does not modify the disease itself; it is how the change is expressed in a fetus rather than a child (Charlotte, also from the series) or adult.  Thus, Blade and his foes carry the same strain of the vampirism disease.  In the case of normal diseases, a person who is exposed to the same illness they're already suffering from will not get any sicker.  (The same would not necessarily be true of 2 different diseases, though some more serious diseases (HIV, for instance) often have multiple strains infecting the same patient, as the virus evolves rapidly to survive the various treatments.
Furthermore, the series does contain a couple of references to Blade Trinity (Blade's escape from the psychiatric ward, for instance), so it is safe to say that the series is in the same continuity as the film trilogy.  I don't know of any examples in the film trilogy itself to support this analysis.
Therefore, I would conclude that a vampire feeding on Blade or vice versa would have no effect on either one's form of vampirism.
However, Blade is a Marvel property and thus the comic form is the true canon of the story.  As I am not familiar with the comic version of Blade, my conclusion may not apply to this version of the Blade story.
Comment: @Lord_Gestalter A sequel to a movie can also deviate but we still have put up with Phantom Menace and Clone Wars being canon!
Comment: I was hoping for a canon/comic answer. I'm not familiar with the series, but often series tend to deviate from the origins. Neitherless a good answer, I'll remember it in case of no canon answers
Comment: Not sure about changes since the film came out, but originally the comic form of Blade wasn't a vampire hybrid at all - he was basically just a human with a vast knowledge of vampires & monster-hunting. The whole "Daywalker" concept was added for the films.
Comment: One other comment - I'm pretty sure the tribe who turned Marcus were normal vampires, it was just low light conditions & overcast so they could be out in it at the time without any adverse effects. Didn't they all disappear somewhere once the sun came out fully? I'll have to go back and watch that episode again.
Answer: Blade is a dhampir. That means he is a half-vampire.  Blade CAN be turned into a full vampire. This has come up in the comic books many times and was even discussed in the very movie that TV series spun from.
Usually in Marvel comics a vampire has to drain you and then feed you some of his own blood to work the change.
As for Morbius, yes, Morbius was created with science instead of sorcery or a vampire bite but his vampirism works very much like the supernatural version (just no need for an invitation to enter a home, religious symbols have no affect on him, and he cannot turn into an animal the way Dracula can). However Morbius can make other people into vampires the traditional way.
Answer: According to the Marvel wiki blade is a dhampir and it more or less implies the vampirism is supernatural disease. Here is the link for your reading pleasure.
Also it seems can sometimes be changed by bites from certain vampires, such as after being bitten by Morbius the Living Vampire his powers increase. Although, Morbius isn't a normal vampire; he's a human that accidentally made a vampiric disease and is trying to fix himself. For more information on the vampires read the issues regarding Dracula as well.
So, to answer your question, in the comics, if Blade bites someone, it's up to the writer if they turn into a daywalker or not, but as far as I know, this hasn't happened yet in the comics.


How to keep admins at /admin.php and out of /system?

Question: When using admin.php to point to the /system folder, sometimes admins will end up redirected from urls with /admin.php to urls with /system.  This presents problems with various add-ons, and generally speaking if I set everything up with /admin.ph pI'd like to keep them there.  Is there an .htaccess rule I can use that will ensure that?
Answer: One thing I've noticed, which may not apply to your issue, is that if you create a Nav shortcut to a page in the EECP, and then later change the URL to your CP, those previously created Nav shortcuts will not be updated. This will cause missing pages should you click those shortcuts after the URL move.
The solution is to delete the shortcuts and recreate them. Maybe there's a way to edit them, but that's what I did to fix that particular issue.
Comment: Understood, but I don't think it's always those created links that cause this issue.  I'd like to figure out a way to be absolutely sure admins can't end up on the wrong URL.


Is ignorance eradicated after breakup of the physical body?

Question: Suppose an ignorant person dies in a car accident. Has ignorance come to an end for that person?
Comment: If that's the case, committing suicide would be the 4th noble truth. :) From where you get these ideas? xD
Comment: @beginner "secular-buddhism" is materialism sprinkled with cherry picked Buddhist elements
Comment: @SankhaKulathantille Here http://secularbuddhism.org/2013/05/29/a-secular-evaluation-of-rebirth/ .
Comment: Why not asking in regard of birth? Where does certain diversity of people, atributes, character, outlook, skill, tendncy... come from.
Answer: We don't know. The Buddha would in each case know if a person possible got rid of ignorance by death, would know the destiny of certain being.
Answer: Nope. Karma and rebirth are essential parts of Buddhism - one could have a long debate on it.
To put it (deceptively) simply: if nothing else does, ignorance surely does survive.
Answer: This question appears to believe there is a lasting "person" or "self". It is not Buddhist but, instead, 'Eternalism', as follows:

And how, bhikkhus, do some hold back? Devas and humans enjoy being,
delight in being, are satisfied with being. When Dhamma is taught to
them for the cessation of being, their minds do not enter into it or
acquire confidence in it or settle upon it or become resolved upon it.
Thus, bhikkhus, do some hold back. Iti 49

In Buddhism, this question is considered the question of the Evil One Mara (Satan), as follows:

Then Mara the Evil One, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and
terror in the bhikkhuni Vajira, desiring to make her fall away from
concentration, approached her and addressed her in verse:
By whom has this being been created? Where is the maker of the being?
Where has the being arisen? Where does the being cease?
SN 5.10

MN 2 says this question is inappropriate increasing suffering, as follows:

Through his attending to ideas unfit for attention and through his not
attending to ideas fit for attention, both unarisen fermentations
arise in him, and arisen fermentations increase.
This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not
in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having
been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I
not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in
the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else
he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not?
What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it
bound?'
As he attends inappropriately in this way, one of six kinds of view
arises in him: The view I have a self arises in him as true &
established, or the view I have no self... or the view It is precisely
by means of self that I perceive self... or the view It is precisely
by means of self that I perceive not-self... or the view It is
precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises in him as
true & established, or else he has a view like this: This very self of
mine — the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of
good & bad actions — is the self of mine that is constant,
everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will stay just as it
is for eternity. This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of
views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views.
Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is
not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain,
distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering &
stress.
MN 2

In Buddhism, "the person" ("puggalo") is merely a "name" (nāmo) that attaches itself conventionally to five aggregates. The Buddhist view is it is five aggregates that end in a fatal car accident rather than "a person".
"Death" ("marana") occurs not to those perished five aggregates but to the surviving loved ones (the "clan"; "gotto") of those perished five aggregates deceased in the accident because the survivors grieve over their loss to the idea of "a being" or "self" or "person" their minds have manufactured though ignorance.

At Savatthi…. There the Blessed One said this:
Bhikkhus, I will teach you the burden, the carrier of the burden, the
taking up of the burden, and the laying down of the burden. Listen to
that….
And what, bhikkhus, is the burden? It should be said: the five
aggregates subject to clinging. What five? The form aggregate subject
to clinging, the feeling aggregate subject to clinging, the perception
aggregate subject to clinging, the volitional formations aggregate
subject to clinging, the consciousness aggregate subject to clinging.
This is called the burden.
And what, bhikkhus, is the carrier of the burden? It should be said:
the person (puggalo), this venerable one of such a name (nāmo) and clan (gotto). This is called the carrier of the burden.
And what, bhikkhus, is the taking up of the burden? It is this craving
that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust,
seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual
pleasures, craving the be, craving not to be. This is called the
taking up of the burden.
And what, bhikkhus, is the laying down of the burden? It is the
remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the
giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on
it. This is called the laying down of the burden.
SN 22.22
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/66920/discussion-on-answer-by-dhammadhatu-is-ignorance-eradicated-after-breakup-of-the).


Does the letter "X" at the end of a line make that syllable long?

Question: In scansion, a vowel is long by position if there are two or more consonants between it and the next vowel.  Can a vowel be long by position if it ends a line and there is no next vowel?  E.g. is the "E" in "REX" long if it is the last syllable in a line?  I am particularly concerned with the case for dactylic hexameter if it makes a difference for the answer to the question.
Comment: Welcome to the site! Very interesting question. First, I think you mean "if there are two or more consonants". Secondly, I think the question that must be answered first is this: can a syllable in ancipital position (denoted by a cross: "can be either long or short") be long or short at all? Or does it have no decided length?
Comment: In general, though, what makes a syllable long is either a long vowel, or closure by means of a consonant. When you see *rex et*, the syllables are *rek-set*, and that's why the first syllable is long. In *cor et*, the syllables are *co-ret*; and the o itself is short, so the first syllable is short, because it is open and it doesn't contain a long vowel. Because *rex* can never use all of its ending consonants, it must always contain a long syllable.
Answer: In scansion, a vowel is long by position if there are more than two consonants between it and the next vowel.
This is the usual way of putting it, but it's inacccurate/misleading in a couple of ways.
First, it's not really the vowel that is long by position; it's the syllable that is long, or in a different terminology, "heavy". (Linguists these days speak of "light" and "heavy" syllables, to avoid possible confusion with "long" and "short" vowels.)
Second and relatedly, the reason that a vowel followed by two or more consonants is "long by position" is really that in such a case, the syllable ends with a consonant, and is therefore heavy: e.g. a word like centum gets syllabified cen-tum, and any syllable that ends with a consonant (like cen) is heavy, i.e. can fill a "long" verse position.
What this all leads to is that it doesn't matter whether the word is at the end of a line or not: a word like rex will always form a heavy syllable, so will always count as metrically long.
(That said, since you're asking about dactylic hexameter: in that meter, any syllable, light or heavy, can stand at the end of a line, so in that context, everything I said above actually doesn't matter. Even a syllable with a short vowel and no final consonant can stand at the end of a hexameter line.)
Comment: ...And additionally, "rex" had an actually long vowel, so the syllable would be heavy even without the final consonants.
Comment: @JoonasIlmavirta In such cases, syllabification in verse crosses word boundaries. So yes: *il-lu-da-best*.
Comment: Do you mean that a syllable ending in a (single) consonant is always heavy? I wouldn't scan so at the end of a word if the next one starts with a vowel. Consider the (mock-up) pentameter: *Illud abest mihi nunc excruciorque ab eo.* Or would you say that the second and third syllables are *lu* and *da* instead of *lud* and *a* (and similarly in *ab eo*)? *Rex* has a double consonant so it's different.
Comment: The last syllable of a verse is ALWAYS metrically long. This is true not only for hexameter, but for all metres.
Comment: @fdb That was actually the way I initially phrased it. But since the long/short contrast is neutralized in that position, I wonder if there's any good basis for calling such syllables "long" (rather than simply saying that the meter allows any syllable to stand in that position).
Comment: @TKR. Risking the danger of excessive pedanticism I would suggest that if the hexameter verse is analysed as six dactylic "feet", then the last foot of the line must be analysed as long+long, not as long+short, as the latter would not be a complete foot. You will find that the same is true of the other metres.


Why does only the hot water have low Water Pressure from my 2 handle kitchen faucet?

Question: My kitchen faucet is a two handle style with a single delivery spout.  The water pressure for the cold water and for ALL the other water sources in the home work fine.  The water pressure for the hot water in the kitchen has steadily been getting slower and slower. Today it is a VERY small stream.
Answer: Your kitchen hot water faucet probably requires replacement (or possibly repair). From your description it sounds like the hot water side has clogged up to the point that it is restricting the water flow. Most likely cause is heavy calcium deposit inside the faucet and/or the hot water piping leading to the kitchen sink.
Comment: Sometimes CaCO3 stones can break loose from the piping, and block entrance to the mix chamber/cartridge under the central faucet. Taking off the faucet piece, and any mixer cartridge, then running the hot (put a pot over it so water doesn't hit the ceiling) will sometimes fix that problem.
Comment: We had a water filter attached to the sink that was causing odd water flow restrictions at random times. I soaked the attachment in vinegar and baking soda overnight and the problem went away. Our water is pretty hard so I'm guessing it was a calcium buildup.
Answer: In the order of things I would check:

Faucet hose.  Some have filter rings that can get clogged.
Shut-off valve if you have one.  Maybe it is turned.  Sometimes there is build-up in these too.  Put a bucket under it and turn it on.  If it comes on full steam then you have a problem up stream.  If it trickles out then you have an issue with shut-off or in your pipes for this branch.
Replace faucet.  This is not usually what it is...  Try cleaning faucet with vinegar before doing this.
Answer: I once had a shower which had terrible hot water pressure (must have been for decades), and when I finally got ticked off enough to rip things apart (not decades), I eventually worked my way back to a sweated copper 90 degree elbow 3 feet below the tub which was almost completely blocked by excess (absurdly excess) solder. Process somewhat straightforward, if tedious and messy - take things off and see if the water pressure is still terrible, if so, work back further.
So, step one for you is whether there is decent hot pressure at the connection below the sink to the faucet or not. If so, look up to the faucet - if not, look back toward the hot water heater, and keep going until the pressure improves.
Comment: Great process for "debugging" any source of water - thanks!
Answer: I had the same problem with all the faucets in the house.
After cut out the hot water pipe in pieces to check for inside blockage, they were looking very clean from inside.
Looked inside the heat trap nipple on the hot water outlet, I found the ball was stuck and created a blockage.
The hot water pressure went back normal after replacing the heat trap nipple.


Why won't the U.S. move more rapidly towards modernizing its army?

Question: Why won't the U.S. move more rapidly towards modernizing its army? By that, I mean why, for instance, the U.S. won't replace conventional fighter jets with attack drones and replace big and inefficient aircraft carriers with carriers specifically made to carry drones? Is there any reason they seem to be reluctant to rapidly move towards a more modernized army?
Comment: I wonder, are the satellites used to communicate with drones safe from anti-satellite weaponry? I'd think they'd the the first target in a war between major powers.
Comment: Depends on what you consider "rapidly". [Wikipedia page on drones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAVs_in_the_U.S._military) lists the number in use (As of 2014) and states "The military role of unmanned aircraft systems is growing at unprecedented rates.". As for the aircraft carriers, that probably has to do with the amount of investment that would be wasted from scrapping one: [~$11 billion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_F._Kennedy_(CVN-79)) for one that is taking 8 years to make.
Comment: Can you elaborate why that would be needed? Don't conventional carriers allow both drones and jets, should it be needed? In general though, they can fly very long (no pilot needing rest) and maybe some can refuel in the air. So I don't really see the benefit other than having using drones, which the US does extensively.
Answer:
It's expensive to replace working (if old) machinery with new machinery.  And the United States already has the most expensive military in the world.
There are times when drones are less effective than on-board pilots.  In particular, what if the US were to go to war with someone with the capability to jam the drone control frequency?  The drones would then be useless.  Meanwhile live pilots could just proceed with their mission under the same circumstance.  Or return to base.  It would depend on the parameters of the mission.
US drones are currently designed to require human intervention to actually fire.  The military is somewhat reluctant to allow drones to operate autonomously.  There are concerns that they might be compromised.
Pilots expect to recognize the voices relaying orders.  Automated systems do not.  As such, in a real war, drones are subject to compromise in a way that pilots are not.

Why are drones becoming more prevalent at all then?  Because the US is currently mostly fighting opponents with a large technology gap.  And it is much safer to use drones for surveillance and fighting someone who can't compromise them.  After all, it keeps the pilots from being at risk.
Answer: Since the end of the Cold War America has had no serious rivals.  American technology, even though it is decades old, is still some of the most advanced military hardware in the world.  Furthermore, the lifetime of this hardware is often extended by digital upgrades or material upgrades.  This kind of upgrade does not require a hardware redesign, it just means specific components will be replaced or added.
The nations which American forces are most likely to tackle; Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, have large militaries whose hardware is technologically behind America's, and whatever quality exists does not have consistent quantity.  Both Gulf wars went a long way to prove that American forces remain unparalleled globally, in part owing to the supremacy of western military technology.
This in turn increases the value of established hardware brands by becoming battle tested.  The Abrams tank, or the Apache attack helicopter, demonstrably work very well.  The value of future hardware is low while the value of present hardware is high.
Given all this, there is no justification for large orders of completely new things, like drone aircraft carriers.  Successive projects have been cancelled, like the Comanche attack helicopter or XM8 rifle.  As defence budgets have shrunk since the end of the Cold War funds have been allocated to maintaining current military-industrial infrastructure.  It's more cost effective to spend money keeping a factory open than creating a new one to supply unproven technology.
American politicians have a preference for supporting corporations and thus jobs which already exist to supply proven goods.  Even if the Pentagon keeps telling them to stop buying stuff it doesn't need.  There isn't budget, need, or niche for massive modernisation programs.  Present hardware fills all possible combat roles.
If anything, more hardware is being phased out than added.  For example, we have gained a need for drones, but have lost a need for ground-attack planes and multiple rocket launch systems.
It would be a different story if the USA faced a technologically equivalent foe with equivalent ability to project power globally.  Especially if present American hardware was inadequate or obsolete.  Especially if there was a political need for more manufacturing jobs.
Answer: The US is rapidly modernising its armed forces, it's just that for defence contracts 'rapid' is not as fast as in the civil space.
Look at the development of the F35, they started the production in 1992 and it's only just starting to be used in the last year or two
To get a UAV with similar combat capabilities is going to take a long time, as the state of the art AI is just not that capable yet.
It's very difficult to tell what will be required for the future, will combat aircraft still be a threat if Laser weapon platforms becomes effective?
The introduction of a new weapon systems like this could make all current military hardware obsolete, in which case the US would lose its incumbent advantage and it would be a race to build the new weapons as happened when the UK developed the dreadnought triggering an arm race that is considered one of the causes of world war one.
TL;DR: The US is already introducing new weapons as fast as it needs to to keep itself the top military in the world


Are hand/insole warmers readily available in the airport/local markets in Amsterdam and Trondheim?

Question: I have traveled to South Korea before and these hand/insole warmer packets could be bought at a cheap price in convenience stores and markets. I was wondering if it would be the same in Amsterdam and Trondheim?
They look like this one:
Answer: These are easily available in many stores in Trondheim. You'll have most luck in shoe shops and sports shops.
XXL, one of the largest sports shops in Norway sell these for both hands and feet for 15 NOK (links are in Norwegian).
Other sports shops (at least the larger ones) will have similar products.

Note: I'm not affiliated with XXL in any way, they just happen to have a very good website (unfortunately not available in English).
Answer: This answer is for Amsterdam, as the question read originally.
Trondheim is in a different country and has a very different set of shops.
I have seen some handwarmer in shops, of a chain that also has shops in Amsterdam, but not recently and not very cheap.
I have never seen any that are insole warmers.
This does not mean that they are not for sale, just that I think they are rare or mostly in speciality shops (out of doors sports,) or are mostly short term offers in the cheaper shops which I might just have missed.
Amsterdam, the whole of the Netherlands, does not get very cold. Mostly the average winter temperature is around freezing and while people do dress warm in winter, they do not need to prevent freezing hands and feet.
Also most people are used to the temperature, not needing extra heat items.
People are not likely to use them often in the Netherlands, but Dutch do travel and might want them for holidays.
I have done an internet search and found them more easily available than I expected.
I see they are on sale for people who go skiing or to the southpole on a cruise, easily available online.
But non of the selling sites shows a shop address in the Netherlands.
This makes me feel that they might be on offer at some of the cheaper brand shops as well as in ski-gear shops, but likely only on offer for short times or rather expensive in speciallity shops.
Answer: Hands, insole and body warmers are readily available (and reasonably cheap, although I have no idea how much they cost in South Korea by comparison) from camping/outdoors/sports shops in the Netherlands, including Bever and Decathlon (which both have a presence in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the country).
I don't know about supermarkets and convenience stores, I never noticed them but I haven't actively looked for them there. Will update if I see some.
I haven't checked but I assume the same must be true in Trondheim, because they would seem especially useful there. They might be more expensive in Norway (because pretty much everything is).


computing second cohomology $H^2(O_a,\mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}^n$ of a generic coadjoint orbit

Question: Let $G$ be a compact , connected and simply connected Lie group  and $a\in\mathfrak{g}^*$ (dual of Lie algebra of Lie group $G$). Then let $O_a$ be a generic coadjoint orbit then can we say $H^2(O_a,\mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}^n$ for some $n$. Is there any counter example?
Answer: No, there are no counter-examples. Note that a generic coadjoint orbit is $G$-equivariantly diffeomorphic to $G/T$, for a maximal torus $T\subseteq G$. However, $G/T$ (also known as the full flag variety of $G_{\mathbb{C}}$) has a cell decomposition into even-dimensional cells (the Bruhat decomposition). Therefore, $G/T$ has vanishing integral cohomology in odd degrees, and each even-dimensional integral cohomology group is a free $\mathbb{Z}$-module. In particular, $H^2(G/T;\mathbb{Z})$ is a free $\mathbb{Z}$-module, so your statement is true in general.
Comment: Sure. If we choose a Borel subgroup $B$ of $G_{\mathbb{C}}$ containing $T$, then we obtain a $G$-equivariant diffeomorphism $G/T\cong G_{\mathbb{C}}/B$. The latter space can be given the structure of a cell complex, in which each cell is even-dimensional. (In fact, these cells are indexed by the Weyl group.) We can therefore compute its integral cohomology using cellular cohomology. In the cellular cochain complex, every group in odd degree is 0. So, all differentials in the complex are 0, and $H^i$ is the same as the cochain complex group in position $i$. Everything in the complex is free,
Comment: so that every $H^i$ is free.
Comment: Can you explain more this part :"$G/T$ (also known as the full flag variety of $G^C$) has a cell decomposition into even-dimensional cells (the Bruhat decomposition). Therefore, $G/T$ has vanishing integral cohomology in odd degrees, and each even-dimensional integral cohomology group is a free $Z$-module"
Answer: The cohomology of regular coadjoint orbits of a compact Lie group can be computed using Morse theory.  This approach is due to Bott and Samelson (1955).  Let $A \in \mathfrak{g}^{*}$ be a regular element, $\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle$ the Cartan-Killing form, and consider the coadjoint orbit $\mathcal{O}_{B}$ of a regular element $B \in \mathfrak{g}^{*}$, then $\langle A,\cdot\rangle: \mathcal{O}_{B}\to\mathbb{R}$ is a Morse function whose critical set is the Weyl orbit of $B$, and the index of a critical point $w(B)$ turns out to be twice the number of root hyperplanes crossed by traversing the line from $A$ to $w(B)$.  This gives a cell decomposition concentrated in even degrees, so the cohomology vanishes in odd degrees and in particular $H^{2}(\mathcal{O}_{B},\mathbb{Z})$ has the form you suggest.


If acid releases proton then how can a proton react with another proton to form hydrogen gas?

Question: As we know that acid releases proton (H+ ion) when dipped in water hydrogen has a proton and electron only . To form H+ hydrogen releases 1 electron and it becomes proton. But when Acid reacts with metals hydrogen ion reacts with another hydrogen ion ( which is nothing but proton ) to form hydrogen gas then how can it be possible that one proton reacts with another proton to form hydrogen gas?
Comment: They can't, of course. One proton is positively charged, and so is another. There must be something else to it.
Answer: A proton does not react with another proton, as you state. It reacts with a metal. And this metal gives one electron to one proton. This makes a Hydrogen atom, then a Hydrogen molecule. Finally the metal becomes a positively charged cation, which passes into solution
Answer: Usually there is some form of a redox reaction happening there, for example like
$$\ce{M(s) + 2H+(aq) \to M^{2+} (aq) + H2(g)}$$
where $M$ is just some metal (like copper, iron, etc...) reducing hydrogen to its elemental/gaseous form.


Must my command-line tool be an extension?

Question: I have made a standalone tool which i start with the command-line to see possible updates in the database to use the actual translations, and a program to compare an existing database with a new installation.
Now you can use the sql-files in the localization-files only with a new installation and i use the new po-files to find possible updates after the normal upgrading in CiviCRM. The translated strings in the database are now never upgraded with new Transifex translations.
After making the programs i looked how extensions work, but this is not really an extension for users but may be something for the system administrator.
Are there other kinds of extensions?
Answer: If the tool is command-line only, it probably shouldn't be an extension.
If you need to bootstrap CiviCRM from the command line, and you can presume that the cv tool is in the path, and your tool is PHP-based, you can add the line:
eval(`cv php:boot`);

or just:
cv php:boot --level=classloader

This should give you the ability to call CiviCRM classes without creating an extension.
Comment: Thank you for your answer. It is command-line online, but I think exentions can also be used as a way to distribute the program (with upgrades) if i created a project in Github and manage to add that to the https://civicrm.org/extensions.
Comment: This is an interesting use case!  I would discuss it with the extension team lead, Allen.  His username is @twomice on https://chat.civicrm.org, I would join the `~extensions` channel.


How to start Architect and build the test infrastructure on Azure Cloud?

Question: I am working on a product, we are building a Mobile application for Android & iOS platform, In the first phase, we are planning to use some web services & serving process content to end user. My company want to set-up Test Environment & help to design the Architecture of backend design so that Testing team can manage the Test Environment on the cloud, frankly speaking, I am new to cloud technology as a Tester. Our product architect says that architecture will be different from the developer environment. So I need your help How can I start Architecture and building the test infrastructure on the Azure cloud as a tester?
Comment: What do you mean by " test team can manage the test environment on the cloud"?
Comment: Testing team will be responsible for test configuration & infrastructure. test team will take care of it.
Comment: Ideally test teams should be responsible for testing only , not for the configuration & management of  environments.
Comment: Although they may provide their inputs  if required.
Answer: You need to provide more details, or come up with more specific questions over time. We don't even know what type of product do you have.
In the meanwhile I can add some points from experience, some of it is from AWS but the general ideas are the same.
Cloud Services are like Lego blocks for adult engineers, you can achieve things in many way by connecting different types of blocks.
For example if you need a CI server you can install Jenkins on a VM, use the Cloud's builtin solution or use something else like Lambdas. The same applies for deployment tools (CLI vs. SSH for example), databases (installed on a VM, pre-configured etc.)
What it means is that you need to start learning and get to know your platform, read, ask questions and try things out to find what best suites you- it's usually cheap and quick to hack a crude solution as proof of concept.
Security could limit your solution space, for example what can run where or when. Get to know the architecture and the reasoning behind it.
Finally remember to separate the Test version of the product (aka test environment) from the where the test code runs. For example if you are testing a web service you will need a test copy of the server, database and networking but also a server (or Lambda) that runs tests for you.
TLDR; do some homework, learn, test and ask then come back with more specific questions
Comment: Sorry @Rsf I know it is a very ambiguous, incomplete question but I can't disclose product information on a social platform, In general, We are building a Mobile application for Android & iOS platform, In the first phase, we are using some web services & serving process content to end user. what sort of resource is required to set up a working test infrastructure? Question updated
Comment: For your test product you would need the same things as your product, basically duplicate it and simplify if needed (a smaller DB for example). Some cloud provider provide virtual mobile device for testing, Azure might have xamarin devices available from the cloud, it's worth checking
Comment: They have given me the authority to decide the test configuration of the resource they want to know what testing team want and at this point, I am feeling blank from the test infrastructure point of view. I no voice on test infrastructure. I am not sure, where to start?
Comment: DevOps team is giving KT but I don't think so it's working anymore.
Answer: Go to portal.azure.com make a free account and start from there.
If your organisation has msdn licences then you may be on a plan that allows you to provision with some restriction.
I'd suggest you go look at plural sight or even youtube on videos on azure.


Is there a spell that creates a treant?

Question: Is it possible for a PC to create a treant without using a spell like wish or miracle or an epic spell?
Comment: Are you explicitly looking for Conjuration (Creation) or Conjuration (Summoning) spells?
Comment: @Chemus -- sorry about that, Maiko went off a wee bit half-cocked when I asked him about this in chat :)  the answer to your question is *yes*.
Answer: Spells that create a treant…
The 7th-level druid spell changestaff [trans] (Player's Handbook 208) allows the caster to turn a specially prepared walking stick into a virtual treant. Similarly but less portable, the 6th-level druid spell liveoak [trans] (PH 248) creates an ersatz treant guardian when a druid's near a sacred space.
More frighteningly, the 9th-level wu jen wood spell arboreal transformation [trans] (Complete Mage 95) for 1 day/level changes a creature into a treant that obeys the wu jen's commands; when the duration expires, the creature becomes a normal tree.
…And, as alternatives, magic items that produce a treant
The sapling club (Arms and Equipment Guide 115) (32,450 gp; 3 lbs.) is a +1 club that the wielder can command to become for up to 12 rounds/day a treant, and the seeds of the treant (AE 136) (15,300 gp; 0 lbs.) brings forth from the planted seeds instantaneously a for-reals treant… over whom the planter has no control. (Apparently the Guide had a serious thing for treant-themed items. I mean, also see the staff of trees (AE 127) (120,000 gp; 4 lbs.). Who knew?)
Comment: Awaken also does the job, to some extent.
Comment: @BenBarden Balderdash! An awakened tree is just a big animated object not a true treant! (Although you're right that it may look like one.) And, I guess the spell *polymorph any object* could make a treant, too, but the spell *polymorph any object* is kind of a cop-out when other spells exist that actually do *specifically* create a treant rather than a spell that can create a treant or a mailbox or a 5-course meal or the caster's heart's desire. (Also, thank you for the opportunity to use the word *balderdash*. `:-)`)
Answer: Liveoak (Druid 6):

Liveoak must be cast on a healthy, Huge oak. A triggering phrase of up to one word per caster level is placed on the targeted oak. The liveoak spell triggers the tree into animating as a treant.

Changestaff (Druid 7):

You change a specially prepared quarterstaff into a Huge treantlike creature, about 24 feet tall. When you plant the end of the staff in the ground and speak a special command to conclude the casting of the spell, your staff turns into a creature that looks and fights just like a treant.

Is there a spell that creates a treant?


Three variable correlation with one categorical variable

Question: I'mI'm trying to make an analysis of increase in sales vs promotion (kinda correlation). And want to see the results segregated by Males and Females. I can segreate data by males and females, find correlation independently and then can compare. But I want to know if there is any standard way to test this at a single test.
Answer: As I understand, you want to check, whether promotion can be predicted by some continuous variable, while additionally accounting for gender for any possible differences. This sounds like a task for (multinomial) logistic regression, depending on whether your promotion variable is binary or has multiple outcomes.
You can use your continuous variable and gender as your predictors, perhaps adding an interaction term.
Comment: If sales are increasing with increase in promotion money spent and R&D costs and IF it's better with Male salesman or a female salesman. If this does not form a valid hypothesis, Kindly help me formulate one. Im a little new to this field. Thanks in Advance :)
Comment: Thanks.. But lets say, I have gender as independent variable along with multipe other continuous variables like promotion money spent, R&D Cost etc... to find out the impact on Sales, what test can be used??
Comment: @sriharshaKB Again, you might be able to formulate your problem as regression analysis. Could you maybe elucidate your hypothesis or make your goal more explicit? What are you trying to find out? What do you mean by "impact"?
Comment: @sriharshaKB That sounds like a legitimately formulated hypothesis which might be tested using linear regression - of which a correlation coefficient is a small part when testing the relationship between two variables. It might be a good idea to read through a basic text on the subject (and worry about the logistic/multinomial part later), such as [this one](http://www.statsoft.com/Textbook/Multiple-Regression). For studying the effect of gender, see [interaction](http://www.theanalysisfactor.com/interpreting-interactions-in-regression/).
Answer: I have successfully used the Mini-tab's General Regression Model. In newer versions, it is just Regression Analysis' Linear Fit Model. I can add both categorical and numerical variables here. The result equation came individually for each categorical variable like
a. Regression line for Male
b. Regression line for Female
For noobs like me, best article I found to decide which test you wanna run is here


ISA — Clone ARM Legally — identical functional specs, but different op-code?

Question: We want to implement a processor that is functionally identical to ARM, but the op-codes it accepts are completely different. Hence, it cannot run an ARM binary directly. However, we can apply a simple translator, that translates from ARM op-codes into our op-codes. After translation, our processor will run the translated binary flawlessly. Does this violate ARM patent and/or copyright protections?
Answer: The ISA is in fact the bit that's not protected. The opcodes themselves are mere numbers, without a lot of meaning. A function like "add R2 to R3" needs to have a unique number, to distinguish it from "multiply R2 by R3", but this is essentially an arbitrary number.
Now ARM's idea to throw in a "free" shift instruction as part of the opcode is non-trivial, and not an arbitrary number. And by your description of the translator, you did copy that part.
So, in essence you copied the bits that are protected, and changed the bits that aren't. Exactly the wrong way around.
Comment: I see..  so, if I understand, you're saying that there are protected functions in _some_ of the instructions.  So, if we cherry pick, and remove the few instructions that have protected functionality, then we're fine, yes?
Comment: To put it another way, the ISA is copyrighted, but not patented.  Copyright does not cover functionality, but only the bit patterns of the opcodes.  We would only violate the instructions that invoke patented functionality.  So, if we don't include those few instructions, we're fine.  We would, instead, translate the patented instructions into several of our instructions that accomplish the equivalent function.  That, seems like it can't be protected, or else no could run any code without violating :-)
Comment: @seanhalle: Last time I looked, the vast majority of operations supported such a "flexible second operand". I'm not claiming that's still patent protected (you'd need to check that with a proper lawyer) but it would make copying the remainder pointless. And no, your idea about "into several instructions" breaks computed branches.


Sliding window minimum and maximum filter in MATLAB

Question: I'm trying to apply a sliding window minimum and maximum filter to an image of a certain window size. Actually, I'm trying to find the optimum window size for it. But I really haven't gotten the hang of it. I presume that I should be using blockproc to implement the sliding window, but not really sure how to find the maximum and minimum filter. As to the implementation itself, should I use loops to slide the window across the entire area of the image ?
Answer: ordfilt2 will do this for you:
N=5;
filtered_img = ordfilt2(img, 1, true(N));

for minimum and
filtered_img = ordfilt2(img, N*N, true(N));

for the maximum.  You can also use imdilate and imerode to perform maximum and minimum filters.
Comment: The N is for the window size ? The above commands would mean a 5x5 window size ?
Comment: Yes, N is the size of the window in one dimension.
Comment: How would I pad the borders with 1 for the minimum filter and 0 for the maximum filter ?
Comment: Basically, I am attempting to correct an image with uneven illumination by applying a sliding window minimum filter on the image and then finding the illumination or shading function, by applying sliding window maximum filter on on the output of the minimum filter. Later, I'm trying to find the 'perfect image' by dividing the original image with the illumination function.
Answer: old question, but here is an answer in C (not MATLAB)
an efficient sliding maximum algorithm that has computational cost that is $O(\log_2(L))$.  in the code below below window_length is $L$.
algorithm comes from:

Brookes: "Algorithms for Max and Min Filters with Improved Worst-Case Performance" IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—II: ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 47, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2000

C code is mine.
#define A_REALLY_LARGE_NUMBER 3.40e38

typedef struct
   {
   unsigned long window_length;         // array_size/2 < window_length <= array_size
   unsigned long array_size;            // must be power of 2 for this simple implementation
   unsigned long input_index;           // the actual sample placement is at (array_size + input_index);
   float* big_array_base;               // the big array is malloc() separately and is actually twice array_size;
   } search_tree_array_data;

void initSearchArray(unsigned long window_length, search_tree_array_data* array_data)
   {
   array_data->window_length = window_length;

   array_data->array_size = 1;
   window_length--;
   while (window_length > 0)
       {
       array_data->array_size <<= 1;
       window_length >>= 1;
       }
   // array_size is a power of 2 such that
   // window_length <= array_size < 2*window_length
   // array_size = 2^ceil(log2(window_length)) = 2^(1+floor(log2(window_length-1)))

   array_data->input_index = 0;

   array_data->big_array_base = (float*)malloc(sizeof(float)*2*array_data->array_size);        // dunno what to do if malloc() fails.

   for (unsigned long n=0; n<2*array_data->array_size; n++)
       {
       array_data->big_array_base[n] = -A_REALLY_LARGE_NUMBER;        // init array.
       }                                                              // array_base[0] is never used.
    }

/*
 *   findMaxSample(value, &array_data) will place "value" into the circular
 *   buffer in the latter half of the array pointed to by array_data->big_array_base .
 *   it will then compare the value in "value" to its "sibling" value, takes the
 *   greater of the two and then pops up one generation to the parent node where
 *   this parent also has a sibling and repeats the process.  since the other parent
 *   nodes already have the max value of the two child nodes, when getting to the
 *   top-level parent node, this node will have the maximum value of all the samples
 *   in the big_array.  the number of iterations of this loop is ceil(log2(window_length)).
 */

float findMaxSample(float value, search_tree_array_data* array_data)
   {
   register float* big_array = array_data->big_array_base;

   register unsigned long index = array_data->array_size + array_data->input_index;        // our main buffer is in the latter half of the big array.

   while (index > 1UL)
      {
      big_array[index] = value;

      register float sibling_value = big_array[index ^ 1UL];        // toggle LSB, the upper bits of the sibling address are the same.

      if (value < sibling_value)
         {
         value = sibling_value;                        // use maximum of the two values
         }

      index >>= 1;                                     // parent address is index/2 (drop remainder or "sibling bit")
      }

   array_data->input_index++;
   if (array_data->input_index >= array_data->window_length)
      {
      array_data->input_index = 0;
      }

   return value;
   }

Comment: I'm surprised that this was published in 2000, given that van Herk published an O(1) algorithm (3 comparisons per output pixel, independent of the window length) in 1992, and Gil and Werman published (independently) the same idea in 1993. Maybe this paper has a specific application where van Herk is not applicable? [PDF](pdf-s3.xuebalib.com:1262/26eDyOxu65M.pdf).
Comment: Thanks for the link @CrisLuengo .  I cannot believe that it can be as general as the Brooks alg and be $O(1)$ and not require more computation for longer windows.  I am certain, that for a totally general real signal and to **always** find the correct max (or min) value, that it must cost $O\big(\log(L)\big)$ where $L$ is the window length.  At least that is better than $O(L)$.  But I am reading this Herk paper now.


Is it better to make a provisional patent or a regular patent first

Question: I am trying to patent something. Should I write a provsional patent first or write a patent first?
Answer: You have specifically asked about writing an application, in the sense of drafting. In this case, I would suggest there should be no difference between the two. While provisional applications have somewhat lower formality requirements, you would generally be best placed to draft it as if it was a non-provisional. This is because if you file a rough sketch on a napkin as your provisional, your redrafted non-provisional that you file 1 year later will likely differ so much that the provisional will not give you any real priority claim. It would be as if you never filed the provisional.
If you meant to ask about filing, then there is little downside to filing a provisional patent application first. This is the cheapest option to ensure you get a full 21 year term (the 20 years of a patent plus the 1 year of priority). You could achieve this with a non-provisional patent application, but the filing fees are slightly more expensive.


How to credit images with no author?

Question: I am a developer working on a not-for-profit project and wanted to use an image that I found off google, I've searched around but can't find anything about the author/illustrator. Can I use this is in my project and if so, how do I give credit where its due?
Comment: See [Safety of using images found through Google image search](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/q/78290/52050)
Comment: No you can not.
Answer: Giving the author of a work credit does not excuse you/your organisation from copyright infringement.  This is a commonly held belief, but it's false nevertheless. Not knowing, or being unable to find who the author is, or being unaware of the copyright status, doesn't excuse you from copyright infringement either.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.  If you want to take risks like this, then consult your lawyer/legal team.
Regarding the non-profit thing, I have a true story to tell you. . .
I did some voluntary work for a non-profit community theatre company once.  They used the name Peter Pan for a poster for a production based on the story of the work Peter Pan by JM Barrie, without seeking permission, and the copyright owners threatened to sue them. Despite being a non-profit organisation, they had to pay up. The theatre company didn't have enough funds to fight it in court.
Comment: I wish I could upvote that answer twice. Spot on answer. As an illustrator, I wouldn't be pleased to find someone exploiting my work and hear a "but I found it on Google and couldn't find you". It doesn't matter whether the person was able to find the creator or not, it doesn't void the owner's copyright claim.
Answer: When citing sources it is important to follow citation guidelines. Some of the most widely accepted guidelines are from MLA, OWL, and APA.
I believe because your project is Not For Profit you can display the work of others. The specific legality needs to be looked farther into.
To answer your question about how to cite:
How to cite a digital image found on a website in MLA 8:
To create a citation for a digital image found on a website in MLA 8, locate the following pieces of information:
The name of the creator of the digital image
*The title of the digital image
The title of the website that the image was found on
The names of any other contributors responsible for the digital image
Version of the image (if applicable)
Any numbers associated with the image (if applicable)
*The publisher of the image
The date the image was created or published
*The location of the image, such as a URL
*Notes:
If the digital image does not have a title, include a description of the image. Do not place this information in quotation marks or italics.
If the picture was found using Google Images, do not cite Google Images as the publisher. Instead, click on the picture and use the information from the website that is hosting the picture.
When including the URL in the citation, omit "http://" and "https://" from the site's address. In addition, if the citation will be viewed on a digital device, it is helpful to make it clickable. This ensures that readers will be able to easily access and view the source themselves.
Structure of a citation for an image found on a website in MLA 8:
Creator's Last name, First name. "Title of the digital image." Title of the website, First name Last name of any contributors, Version (if applicable), Number (if applicable), Publisher, Publication date, URL.
Examples of citations for digital images found on websites in MLA 8:
Vasquez, Gary A. Photograph of Coach K with Team USA. NBC Olympics, USA Today Sports, 5 Aug. 2016, www.nbcolympics.com/news/rio-olympics-coach-ks-toughest-test-or-lasting-legacy.

How to credit images with no author?