Did Swedenborg see himself as a prophet?

Question: The Wikipedia article on Emanuel Swedenborg mentions his revelations, but doesn't use the term "prophet" even once. Did Swedenborg not see himself as a prophet? What is a prophet, according to Swedenborg, other than someone receiving divine revelation and preaching it?
Answer: Introduction
Swedenborg did not refer to himself as a prophet, nor did he see himself as a prophet. Indeed, he saw a clear distinction between himself and the biblical prophets, based on at least three significant factors:

Manner of inspiration
Style of writing
Purpose of the message

In general, Swedenborg saw prophets as biblical figures, and did not recognize prophets outside of the narrative of the Bible.
1. Manner of inspiration
Swedenborg saw the biblical prophets as being inspired by God right down to the very words they spoke. He wrote:

The prophets through whom the Word was written . . . wrote exactly as the spirit from the Divine dictated, for the actual words which they were to write were uttered in their ears. (Arcana Coelestia #7055:3)

When the prophets were engaged in various representative actions, according to Swedenborg these were inspired into them through spirits sent by the Lord who possessed their bodies during the time they were engaged in this type of prophesying. Swedenborg stated that he himself was given an experience of what it was like for the prophets when they were being possessed by spirits in this way:

It is well known from the Word that the prophets received influx from the world of spirits and from heaven. It came to them partly through dreams, partly through visions, and partly through utterances. With some prophets it also entered into their own speech and gestures, thus things of the body; and when this happened neither their utterances nor their actions were their own but were those of the spirits who occupied their bodies at the time. Some behaved as though they were insane, as when Saul lay down naked, some inflicted wounds on themselves, and others wore horns; and there are many other examples of the same thing.
Having the desire to know how spirits led them to do those things, I was shown through actual experience. So that I might know, I was possessed for a whole night by spirits who occupied my bodily powers so fully that I could not feel it was my own body except in a very vague way. . . .
This state which lasted through the night until morning taught me the way the prophets through whom spirits spoke and acted were possessed. The spirits occupied the prophets' bodies so thoroughly that the prophets were left with hardly anything more than an awareness of their existence. There were particular spirits assigned to this function who had no wish to obsess men, only to enter a person's bodily affections, and having entered them they entered all things of his body. The spirits normally present with me said that I had not been with them while I remained in that state. (Arcana Coelestia #6212)

Swedenborg's experience of inspiration was very different. Though, as here, he was occasionally given experiences of what dreams, visions, and prophecies were like for the biblical prophets, this was not his usual ongoing experience. Rather, he remained fully in possession of his own mind and body. Further, though the prophets often did not understand the meaning of the words they were speaking or writing under divine inspiration, Swedenborg's inspiration was into his thinking mind. He wrote:

The Lord cannot manifest himself to everyone in person, as has been shown just above, and yet he foretold that he would come and build a new church, which is the New Jerusalem. Therefore it follows that he is going to accomplish this through the agency of a human being who can not only accept these teachings intellectually but also publish them in printed form.
I testify in truth that the Lord manifested himself to me, his servant, and assigned me to this task; after doing so, he opened the sight of my spirit and brought me into the spiritual world; and he has allowed me to see the heavens and the hells and to have conversations with angels and spirits on a continual basis for many years now. I also testify that ever since the first day of this calling, I have accepted nothing regarding the teachings of this church from any angel; what I have received has come from the Lord alone while I was reading the Word. (True Christianity #779)

For our current purposes, we will set aside Swedenborg's concept of the Second Coming. Suffice it to say that he did not believe himself to be the Second Coming of Christ. Only a means by which the Lord accomplished that Second Coming, which Swedenborg saw as a spiritual coming, not another physical one.
The key point here is that unlike the prophets, who were possessed by spirits and heard words spoken to them which they were to pass on to the people, Swedenborg was not possessed by spirits, but fully conscious and aware of his own mind. His mode of inspiration, as described briefly here, was that the Lord inspired his mind to see the truth while he was reading the Bible.
In summary, Swedenborg's mode of inspiration was entirely different from the mode of inspiration of the biblical prophets.
2. Style of writing
Swedenborg saw the style of writing of the biblical prophets as entirely symbolic—or "correspondential," to use his term. Everything they wrote had a deeper spiritual significance, even where the literal meaning of their words is quite obscure to present-day readers. In Arcana Coelestia #66, he describes four different styles of writing in the Bible:

The mode of people of the earliest church
The narrative mode
The prophetic mode
David's psalms (i.e., the style of the Psalms)

The prophetic mode draws on the mode of the earliest church, which Swedenborg describes in this way:

The mode of [the people in] the earliest church. Their method of expressing themselves involved thought of the spiritual and heavenly things represented by the earthly, mundane objects they mentioned. Not only did they express themselves in words representing higher things, they also spun those words into a kind of narrative thread to lend them greater life. This practice gave the earliest people the fullest pleasure possible. (Arcana Coelestia #66)

Based on this, here is how he describes the prophetic style:

The prophetic mode. The inspiration for this was the mode used by the earliest church, a manner of writing [the authors] revered. But the prophetic mode lacks the cohesiveness and semi-historical quality of the earliest church's mode. It is choppy, and almost completely unintelligible except on the inner level, which holds profound secrets forming a well-connected chain of ideas. They deal with our outer and inner beings, the many stages of the church, heaven itself, and—at the very core—the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia #66)

In short, the prophetic style of writing is one of embedding spiritual symbolism within the words in a continuous sequence. Not that the prophets themselves understood this; as covered above, the words were given to them by God.
Meanwhile, Swedenborg used three main styles of writing in his theological works:

Exegetical
Doctrinal
Narrative

Swedenborg's exegetical style is one of explaining the spiritual meaning of the Bible, often verse-by-verse, as in his exegesis of the books of Genesis and Exodus in the eight Latin volumes of Arcana Coelestia, and in his exegesis of the book of Revelation in his book Apocalypse Revealed.
His doctrinal style is one of orderly, point-by-point explanation of Christian doctrine, most notably in his final work, True Christianity, in which he provides an extensive presentation of his Christian theology in the form of a traditional Lutheran catechism or summa theologica.
His narrative style is one of telling stories of his experiences in the spiritual world. Though some of these have extensive symbolic elements, this style is generally one of simple story-telling of events that he experienced first-hand.
Unlike the symbolic prophetic style of the biblical prophets, none of these styles are intended to be symbolic or correspondential in nature. They are all meant to provide explanation and understanding of the Bible, Christian doctrine, and the nature of the spiritual world.
Another way of saying this is that Swedenborg's style is generally meant to be read literally, such that the meaning is in the plain words he wrote, whereas the style of the biblical prophets is meant to be read spiritually, for its deeper metaphorical meanings.
3. Purpose of the message
More briefly on this point:
In the Bible, though prophets do sometimes predict the future, and this has become the popular understanding of the meaning of "prophecy," the primary purpose of the prophets' message was to call God's people to repentance, and to re-committing themselves to living according to God's commandments and God's way.
Swedenborg's theological writings, by contrast, contain few direct calls to repentance, worship, and so on. They are focused on explaining the meaning of the Bible, genuine Christian theology, and the nature of the afterlife. It is left to the reader to use this information as the reader sees fit.
In other words, in Swedenborg's writings there is no ringing prophetic call to repentance and a changed life. Swedenborg instead explains how to repent, and how our spiritual rebirth happens. His writings are not prophetical, but informational.
Conclusion
Swedenborg saw his own mission as very different from that of the biblical prophets—so different that he did not think of himself as a prophet, nor did he refer to himself as a prophet. The reasons for this can be seen in the above explanation of the differences between the prophets and Swedenborg in their very different manners of inspiration, their different writing styles, and the different purposes of their respective messages.
Answer: Swedenborg indeed engaged in activities normally associated with prophets but there is no evidence that he actually claimed this title. According to the Swedenborg Foundation:

Swedenborg himself expresses no desire to be revered as a prophet or
to be the founder of a new religious movement; when he talks about the
"new church" or the "new Jerusalem," he is referring to a shift in the
way that humanity as a whole experiences and practices religion.

Two reasons present themselves as to why Swedenborg did not wish to claim the prophetic mantle: 1) to do so would draw attention to himself rather than his teachings and 2) to claim to be a prophet would escalate his already precarious position skating on theological thin ice. From the same source as above:

All of Swedenborg's theological books were written in Latin and
published outside of Sweden, most often in London or Amsterdam. This
was doubtless a deliberate strategy to avoid running afoul of Sweden's
strict censorship laws, which forbade publishing anything that
contradicted the teachings of the Lutheran state church. Although
Swedenborg was never the direct target of an investigation, two of his
followers were charged with heresy in 1769 after publishing books and
articles about Swedenborg's ideas in Swedish. During the course of the
trial, Swedenborg's published theological works also came under
question. When a royal ruling was finally rendered in 1770, it was
decreed that Swedenborg's books contained errors of doctrine, but were
not heretical. Swedenborg's books were banned, and the two followers
were forced out of their teaching positions.

Swedenborg apparently thought of himself more as an interpreter of scripture and prophecy than as a prophet himself. This article provides various excerpts from his writings about the prophets. Although he indeed saw some of his interpretations as divinely revealed to him, the important thing for him was the teaching itself, which should stand on its own merit rather than to an appeal of prophetic authority.
Conclusion: Swedenborg may have seen himself a prophet in some sense, but his main mission was to teach rather than prophesy. Living in Lutheran Sweden, he risked charges of heresy and probably wished to avoid further controversy by drawing attention to himself.
Answer: The only person who can answer that is the man himself, for how a man sees himself might not be divulged in his writings or conversations. And it appears that he never stated such a view of himself.
Last year, when trying to find out what he taught about the Last Judgment, I went to the official web-site but had to send an e-mail to the office for a particular point. This was the e-mail reply to me on 26/11/22 @ 01.49 -

"Concerning the Last Judgment, in brief, Swedenborg wrote that the
Last Judgment took place in the spiritual world in 1757. In fact, he
witnessed the event! The Bible is a book about spiritual events, not
physical events, so the book of Revelation was predicting events in
the spiritual world rather than events in the physical world…"

This indicates less of a prophecy, more a relating of something he saw at the time.
Searching further back to events he wrote about prior to 1757, I found this information:

"From 1743 to 1745, Swedenborg experienced a protracted emotional
crisis, during which he asserted he had received three direct
disclosures of Christ. He kept a diary during the next sixteen years,
recording his visions, dreams and extra-sensory perception
experiences. He also wrote Heavenly Secrets [published by Swedenborg in eight volumes from 1749 to 1756, one volume per year] in which he told of the visitations of the "spiritual world" and
gave his own interpretation of various Scriptural material. A series
of writings followed, all claiming to take precedence over Christian
doctrine, and rejecting such traditional orthodoxy as the Atonement
and the Trinity (causing his books to be banned in Sweden)." Church of
the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgians) from Who's Who in Church History,
William P. Barker, p. 267, Baker Book House, paperback ed. 1977

Swedenborg always maintained that his revelations were given to restore Christianity to its original pristine purity and to bring enlightenment. Again, others might be inclined to view such revelations that he had as being prophetic, but apparently he never did.
Some related information is in the answer by Lee Woofenden to this question, Besides Paul, have there been any other Christians who had both a scholarly background and overtly supernatural experiences?
Although the matter of whether Swedenborg ever claimed to be a prophet is not directly raised, the parallels between the Apostle Paul (whose prophetic ministry is clearly shown in the New Testament) and Swedenborg's claims are strikingly similar. Those who know the conversion account of Saul on the road to Damascus, and how Christ then commissioned him, will note the following: Swedenborg began having spiritual experiences in 1743,

"including several visions of Christ in which, he said, the Lord
called him to leave behind his scientific career and begin a new
spiritual career. In support of this, Swedenborg said, the Lord opened
Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that he could be fully conscious in the
spiritual world at will even while he continued to live in his
physical body in the material world. Swedenborg said that at the same
time the Lord gave him a commission of explaining the spiritual
meaning of the Scriptures, not based on anything taught to him by
angels and spirits, but under the Lord's direct guidance as Swedenborg
read the Bible." [quote from that Stack answer ends.]

If that is not laying claim to a divinely appointed prophetic ministry, I don't know what is. If Swedenborg never claimed to be a prophet (and there were many reasons why he might have avoided stating, or writing that), that is hardly here or there. It's academic. He could have viewed himself as a prophet, but kept his views to himself. Or he could have viewed himself as being on a par with first century Apostles such as Paul, but – again – there appears to be no written statements to that effect.
Comment: Thank you for this answer. One correction: The quotation from *Who's Who in Church History* states, "He also wrote Heavenly Secrets, published posthumously in 1783." *Heavenly Secrets* (commonly known by its Latin name *Arcana Coelestia*) was not published posthumously. It was published by Swedenborg in eight volumes from 1749 to 1756, one volume per year.
Comment: Ok, maybe one more thing to make this answer even better: Did he want to restore Christianity out of his own volition, or did one of his revelations include the mission to do so? As in, did he just claim to have revelations, or did he also claim a mandate to make them public?
Comment: @kutschkem "Swedenborg said that at the same time the Lord gave him a commission of explaining the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures".
Comment: @Lee Woofenden Thank you for the correction. I have inserted it into the text of my answer.
Comment: @kutschem  My last quote is from Lee Woofenden's Stack answer. He is something of an authority on the subject. You will see from it the answer to your query. Swedenborg claimed to have been directly commissioned by the Lord to start a new (spiritual) career and to explain the revelations given to him. He did that in his writings. Others read them and believed he'd had those visions and that his explanations were given directly to him by the Lord. Even today, some people believe likewise.


Are all plastic compression fittings interchangeable?

Question: I need to rework the plumbing under my kitchen double sink. Currently, it consists of one brass drain pipe along with all ABS pipe and compression joints. Can I replace the pieces I need with their PVC counterparts or will there differences in diameters not allow this.
Answer: My experiance in the UK is that compression waste pipe fittings are pretty tolerant about pipe sizes. For example a "40mm" compression fitting will clamp down on a pipe that is anywhere from about 40mm to 43mm in diameter.
I don't know if compression fittings sold in other countries are similar or not.
Answer: I've done something similar; if you can get the threaded ferrule and gasket onto the old pipe, the change of materials won't be a problem as it's the gasket in the compression fitting that does the sealing.


Why do some stores have card-only self-checkouts?

Question: In the UK self-checkouts in big stores (such as LIDL or ASDA) are very popular. Many of them are card-only. What is the benefit of providing such checkouts over cash-or-card checkouts? Paying with a card doesn't seem to be faster, unless it's a contactless.
Answer: There are a couple of advantages that I can think of.

Since the machines are less complicated because they don't have to handle cash, they are less expensive and require less maintenance. Machines that handle cash require lots of moving parts.
Cash machines require lots of employee interaction. The machines need to be stocked with cash each day, and at the end of the day the cash needs to be taken out and counted. With a cashless machine, the computer does all the work.
Comment: Also, frequently take up less space.
Comment: @richardb, I don't agree, they look exactly the same. Ben Miller, I think the employee interaction is a valid point!
Comment: SCOs are supposed to be able to operate with minimal employee intervention, which explains the "no cash". However my previous employer's store also doesn't accept magswipe (swiping your card on the reader) on SCOs purely due to the same thing as cash.


Compiling Swift 2 code

Question: I have an app which is written in Swift 2.1. Is it possible to build it in Xcode 9?
If not, how do I build it?
Answer: It will not be possible to build Swift 2 code in Xcode 9. You have two options:

Use the compatible version of Xcode (Xcode 7.x.x) and macOS (OS X El Capitan 10.11, or macOS Sierra 10.12) to build the app.
Migrate the codebase to a more recent version of Swift (3.x or 4.x) using the migration assistant built into a recent version of Xcode. Xcode 8 can migrate your code from Swift 2 to Swift 3.

It will not be possible to build Swift 2 code with Xcode 4 as it does not support Swift 2 (doesn't have the compiler).

Compiling Swift 2 code


My flight HEL=>PRG was delayed. Scheduled aircraft was not able to leave AMS due to weather. Am I eligible for compensation?

Question: I am a bit new to compensations, but after spending 9 hours between flights, and then 4 more hours due to delay, I am wondering about my situation.
When aircraft finally arrived to HEL, airline told us that delay was caused by weather conditions in AMS, and scheduled aircraft was not able to leave airport. Thus, airline assembled another crew and aircraft, which arrived to take us to our destination.
Taking into account that weather conditions is something that airline cannot control, I wonder it is important that it was weather in third airport, not in HEL or PRG.
Comment: See the following answer which may help: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/107788/flight-canceled-due-to-shortage-of-crew-caused-by-bad-weather/107807
Answer: The operative language in the EU air passenger rights regulation is:

An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

So in order to get out of paying compensation, the cause does not only have to be outside the airline's control -- it also has to be "extraordinary circumstances".
The European Court of Justice has taken a quite limited view of what counts as "extraordinary".  Major (Eyafjallajökull-scale) disruptions probably will be, but ordinary weather conditions that don't make the news (except very locally where they occur) probably won't. Weather trouble is viewed as an ordinary risk of doing business for airlines.
Thus, go ahead and claim compensation.  If the airline refuses, you will then have to decide whether to take them to court to enforce your rights. There are several specialized legal agencies that will generally take these cases on a "you win or it's free" basis, in exchange for a cut of the compensation you get.
Comment: Very similar to another answer I gave elsewhere - the EU261 rules state "meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned" which several British courts have interpreted as only *your* flight. If your flight is delayed because of weather not at the departure or destination airports or en route between those points, then you are due compensation as the airline should have mitigated that disruption as part of its normal planning.
Comment: @Moo: Yes, that earlier answer has better references than I could find.


Is there a way to incorporate new data into an already trained neural network without retraining on all my data in Keras?

Question: I have already trained a neural network on my data. In the future, I will receive some more data. How can I incorporate this data into my model without rebuilding it from scratch?
Comment: I don't know about NNets, but Bayesian models can updated using new data, without rebuilding from scratch and without loosing the information they learned from the previous data.
Answer: In keras, you can save your model using model.save and then load that model using model.load. If you call .fit again on the model that you've loaded, it will continue training from the save point and will not restart from scratch. Each time you call .fit, keras will continue training on the model. .fit does not reset model weights.
I would like to point out one issue that might arise from training your model this way though, and that issue is catastrophic forgetting. If you feed your model examples that differ significantly from previous training examples, it might be prone to catastrophic forgetting. This is basically when the neural network learns your new examples well and forgets all the previous examples because you are no longer feeding those examples to it. It arises because as optimizers get more efficient, the neural network will be get more efficient at fitting new data quickly - and the best way to fit the new data quickly might be to forget old data. If your future data is very similar to your current data, then this won't be a problem. But imagine you trained a named entity recognition system to recognize organizations. If in the future you feed it a bunch of data that teach it how to recognize people names, it might catastrophically forget how to recognize organizations.
Answer: The model will continue to learn each time you call model.fit.
You can save a model using model.save and load it with load_model.
Here is a simple example:
from keras.layers import SimpleRNN, TimeDistributed

model=Sequential()
model.add(SimpleRNN(input_shape=(None, 2),
                    return_sequences=True,
                    units=5))
model.add(TimeDistributed(Dense(activation='sigmoid', units=3)))
model.compile(loss = 'mse', optimizer = 'rmsprop')
model.fit(inputs, outputs, epochs = 500, batch_size = 32)

model.save('my_model.h5')

from keras.models import load_model
model = load_model('my_model.h5')

# continue fitting
model.fit(inputs, outputs, epochs = 500, batch_size = 32)

Comment: It's possible to just train the model on the new data. But what assumptions does this make? Is this different than training a new model on all of the data, new and old together? Does the model that's trained for one epoch on the new data have the same predictions as the model trained with new and old data together? Why or why not?
Comment: when you call fit the second time is the model building upon what was previously learned? Or, is it starting over and learning from scratch?
Comment: see here: https://github.com/keras-team/keras/issues/4446


Ac on 2006 jeep liberty

Question: Does the ac system have to be empty to change high pressure switch on 2006 jeep liberty. I have tested everything on the system electrical and I have power ac is full of Freon but clutch will not engage. Jumpered low pressure switch and still no ac
Comment: Yes, you'd have to as it, just like the low pressure, plugs the hole where it resides. Pulling it will cause a huge leak in the system. With that said, why are you assuming it's the high pressure switch? Could it be that the system is over pressurized and the switch is just doing its job?
Answer: Before tearing into the AC system I would cross all my t's and dot my I's.
The fastest way to check a big chunk of the system is by using the clutch relay. Most relays (not all) can be opened and plugged back in. By pushing on the contacts with your finger the fuse and wiring is checked if the clutch comes on and off. If it does not come on then check the fuse and wiring. If the relay can't be disassembled then unplug the relay and jumper across the load side of relay.
If all that checks out ok then explore the control system. If you think that it might be a high side switch issue then jumper the switch (carefully) to verify first before replacing things.

Ac on 2006 jeep liberty


Content type hub choice column

Question: We are working with a content type hub. There are content types on the "hub" site which are using "choice columns".
Something it is necessary to add on a special subsite a new choice attribute. Because is not necessary for every subsite, we don't add it on the "hub" content type. After publishing the hub content type again, it will delete the new choice attribute from the subsite.
Is it possible to exclude columns by publishing a hub content type?
Answer: I think that's the default behavior of publishing content types (as a whole, I think that's the idea), I don't know a way to publish the content type excluding columns, so my recommendation is unsubscribe your special subsite from the Content Type Hub or everytime you publish your content type it'll erase your special choices and you'll have to recreate it and this is not maintanable
Answer: The neatest way to do this is probably with content type inheritance.
Start with your base content type that you want to be used in most sites. Then create a "sub" content type which inherits from the base content type, but add in the extra choice fields that you want to use in only in some sites.
The just use your base content type on sites that only need that, and use the "sub" content type as required.

Content type hub choice column


Black screen after wake up

Question: I know this is a spread out problem out there. 3 days ago i installed el os (loki) on my computer and i noticed that after suspension, when i had a wake up the screen remained black. no pointer, anything, moreover the screen power button shows me a red light (like there's no signal). I've looked for out there and some of the solutions i found don't work (typing password, ctrl alt f1, f7 or something like that).
Any advice?
Comment: Are you running TLP? Could be the problem. TLP causes all kinds of wake up issues.
Comment: Did you find anything? I'm having this on at least 25% of my sleep/wakeup cycles.
Comment: I hadn't time to fix the problem (and i had some others), so i decided to remove the os and return to windows :)
Answer: Upgrading the kernel works for me. I guess it works if having newer cpu is your problem.

Black screen after wake up


How can I create a bridge to eth0 with the following network configuration?

Question: I followed this tutorial so I have a network with two wireless interfaces, wlan0 working as a access point and wlan1 working as a client from another router. How can I bridge wlan1 to eth0 without installing any extra software if possible? I'm using raspbian buster.
Comment: What do you want to achieve? Bridging **eth0** with **wlan1** seems not to make much sense in this context, is not easy and needs hardware WDS support on the USB/WiFi dongle. Bridging **eth0** with **wlan0** is no problem. Then all devices connected wired and wireless to the access point are on the same subnet (same ip address range) and are connected to the internet. Is it this what you want?
Comment: Yes, I want to connect a device to the eth0 port to give it access to the Internet.
Answer: You are asking how to bridge eth0 with the uplink  connection wlan1. This is not an easy task because bridging a client connection can only be done with WDS mode and must be supported by the hardware. The built-in device of the Raspberry Pi does not support it. For further information about this issue you can look at Raspberry Pi WiFi to Ethernet Bridge for a server?. But you could use the USB/WiFi dongle if it supports WDS.
But according to the clarification in your comment this does not solve your problem. To solve it you have to bridge eth0 with the access point interface wlan0. This is not a problem and can easily be done by following setup Using an additional WiFi dongle to create WAP and switch.


What is "USB storage app" under Storage of App Info?

Question: When I moved an app to the Storage Card on my HTC One V, I found some data moved to USB Storage App. The Storage Card is still showing not used. What's "USB storage app"? Why apps are not moving into the Storage Card, instead moving into the "USB storage app"?

Before moving the app to the storage card
(Click image to enlarge)

After moving the app to the storage card
Comment: I uploaded two screenshots to clarify it.
Comment: Can you clarify what you mean by "The Storage Card is still showing not used"?  Are there no files on it?  If it's Android showing no used space, have you tried rebooting?
Answer: I guess you have to read the "USB Storage App" as the USB storage used by the app itself. So the code of the application.
If your application would for instance start generating cache information, saved pictures etcetera. And if it would save that information on your Storage Card, then the information will be showed under Storage Card.
So under "App" and "Storage Card App" is only the information and code of the application itself, not the information or data it generates. So in most case these 2 numbers will not change over time. And then under "Data" and "Storage Card" information generated by the application can be found. Either on the Storage Card or the internal memory (depending on the application I guess). This is the information managed by the application (local databases etc), so this will probably change over time, depending on the application in question of course.
This is my interpretation of those 4 terms. And if I check for some applications I use, it looks like my interpretation is correct. It is certainly correct for the applications I created myself, so for these apps I know where what information is saved on the phone.
Comment: This is an excellent answer you gave. I think the user should accept this answer. The only part that puzzles me is why after moving the application from USB storage (internal memory) to SD card (external SD card), some of the code still remains under App (the code part of the application on internal storage). Is there some reason why some of the code could not be moved? Thanks.
Comment: @JohnSonderson I don't really know, but my guess would be that it is because you still need some kind of pointer to the external app part. So maybe the main class of the application remains and points to the other part of the application on the external storage. That way the internal workings of Android stay the same (they can just list all the applications on the internal file system), but some of the code is placed externally.
Comment: I have given it a second thought. Perhaps your interpretation is not entirely correct. Please see my answer below.
Answer: "USB storage" is the "internal" SD card i.e. the partition on the phone's internal memory that is treated like an SD card for general data storage.
"Storage card" is your actual physical microSD card.
The latter is where the stuff moved via "move to SD" or "move to storage card" gets put.
As for why it does this, Android's system for storing app stuff in user storage hasn't caught up with the concept of having more than one section of user storage.
Comment: @JohnSonderson - Are you sure your suggested edit is correct?  The last time I had a device running ICS, the "move to SD" function moved the app to the internal "SD card" partition, not to the actual SD card, as my answer currently states.  Is your edit reflecting the status of ICS (which this question is about) or a later version of Android?
Answer: The answer posted by @ndsmyter seems almost correct. The applications under Application manager -> SD CARD are those applications which can, at least in part, be moved to the SD card (and this happens where the checkbox next to the application's entry is checked). At first sight it may seem like "Application" and "SD card app" are for code on internal storage and on external storage, respectively, whereas "Data" and "SD card data" are for application data generated by the application on internal storage, and external storage, respectively.
However, upon further inspection I realized that on my Samsung Galaxy SIII I don't have an external SD card inserted, and despite this, while none of the applications listed under Application manager -> SD CARD have the SD card app field displaying anything but 0.00B, the example below, and many others, shows that SD card data is nonzero even though I don't have an SD card (click the image to enlarge):

So, the only thing I am able to conclude is that these values are not the number of bytes taken up by the application and its data on internal and external storage, but rather how the data would be distributed among these four locations should the user decide to transfer the application to the external SD card (and some portions would still need to reside on internal storage for technical reasons).
Also note that on my device the field names are different. What on the original poster's post is called USB storage app on my system is called SD card app, very confusing.

And just as confusing is the fact that when I change the UI language to Italian, what in English was called "SD card app" now becomes "SD card applications" (applications: plural), which means not even the people that localized the system could figure out what these fields represented.
Regards.
Comment: I don't think that because you have no external SD card, you don't have and external partition on your phone. Most phones use different partitions to seperate access to different parts on the system (that's the case on my phone). They are probably just talking about "SD Card" in case you do have an external SD card. The conclusion you've made is almost the same as mine, but how you get there doesn't seem completely correct to me. But it is indeed very confusing :-)
Comment: @ndsmyter, on my phone internal memory, referred to as USB storage in the user interface, is mounted on `/mnt/sdcard` (symlinked `/sdcard`), and there is also a `/mnt/extSdCard` directory which is empty, and I think is where the SD card would get mounted if I were to get mounted. Perhaps external SD card counts as USB storage as well, hence the field USB storage in the UI in the OP's post. There seem to be inconsistencies regarding how these fields are labeled across devices.
Answer: It seems to be the .android_secure folder on your SD card.
Comment: So "USB storage app" presumably manages encrypted/protected apps on the SD card?  Is there a way to have unprotected apps on the SD card?


Can non-https assets be tampered with?

Question: Why load assets such as images, javascript, css etc, over HTTPS? Is it possible for these assets to be tampered with if I use HTTP? The only way I could conceive of tampering with HTTP loaded assets is to ARP poison the network and then inject packets for certain requests, but that kind of goes over my head. Can someone give me a clear example of how/why HTTP can be tampered with?
Comment: Why use https for anything if you embed http javascript?
Comment: @CodesInChaos This is like cleaning your dishes,  and then right before you serve the meal you go around smearing feces on every dish.
Answer: If you have a https page, but load some assets (JavaScript) over plain http, then:

Many browsers (recent Chrome versions, maybe also Firefox) won't
even load the script by default
an attacker can intercept the script, and replace it with — for
example — another script that will simply copy the entire
contents of your https page, rendering https useless if the first
place. Or they can redirect the visitor to an entirely different,
attacker-controlled site. Most visitors wouldn't notice the change in the URL and continue interacting with the attackers site, potentially giving away their password or other sensitive information.
Comment: I have noticed that about recent browsers. Caused some very annoying and silent CSS loss for a brief period
Answer: Anyone that can become a man in the middle can perform http manipulation. Check out mitmproxy for an example of how scripts, css, java applets etc can be inserted into an insecure connection.  This is possible because http is a plain text protocol and as such can be manipulated by anyone that controls a transit point on any network used to reach your destination.  SSL provides end to end encryption thus mitigating against such an attack.  ARP cache poisoning is one way that an attacker that shares a network with you could pull of such an attack.  In this type of attack the malicious party sends out arp packets that appear to be from the IP address of the next hop router.  It causes your PC to send packets to the attackers machine where they have the ability to intercept and change data in transit.  This would allow the attacker the ability to perform such an injection attack on an unsuspecting user.  Any router that is between yourself and your destination could perform such an attack as well, but is unlikely unless it has also been infiltrated by an attacker.
Also check out ettercap this tool has been designed to perform ARP attacks and when combined with mitmproxy you can simulate this type of attack rather easily.

Can non-https assets be tampered with?


Proxy - Some general questions

Question: Is it possible to accomplish the following scenario with a proxy server?
We are having one internet facing server that we want to put behind a proxy for some reasons. We want everything to work as before. When they do a request all connections will be forward to the internal server which will send back the information through the proxy.
We want to be able to change to proxy to show an maintenance page whenever we are doing maintenance and change it back to forwarding traffic when we are done.
We do also want to be able to keep forwarding all users that are using the sites but show an maintenance page for all new users for a time before showing the maintenance page for everyone in order to give the users some time to finish their work before kicking them out.
Answer: You can accomplish this with nginx if you just want to proxy requests to your internal server (using proxy_pass on nginx), nginx is available at http://nginx.org
If you wish you would also have some cacheing on top of those rules you with to accomplish have a look at Varnish (available at http://www.varnish-cache.org/).
Both will give you exactly what you want, nginx won't cache your requests but varnish will do, it just depends on what you wish to acomplish.

Proxy - Some general questions


Orphan process's parent id is not 1 when parent process executed from GNOME Terminal

Question: I start a new process from GNOME Terminal and then this process fork a child.
But when I killed the parent process the orphaned process's parent id became something other than 1 which represent init --user pid.
When I do this in virtual terminals, the parent pid is 1 which represent init process.
How can I execute new process from GNOME Terminal so that when it is died, the child process's parent pid became 1 and not pid of init --user process?
Thanks a lot.
Comment: Please do not vandalize. If you really must delete, go for it, but there's a very good answer here, and it would be to no one's benefit.
Comment: why have you edit the title and question? to this crap?
Comment: @mikeserv But how I can delete it?
Comment: Oh no - you won't get that answer out of me *(though, honestly, I only **assume** you can anway)*. I will say, though, that if you did a little more legwork for yourself you might find yourself less likely to ask embarrassing questions. Still - you should be pleased - the answer here is excellent, and offered by someone who has been frequently doing it very well for many years. My two cents - if you really want to avoid the the user session namespace so badly, then just don't launch it. Or else go the other way - and [start your own PID 1](http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/181249/52934).
Answer: I already answered a similar question a few months ago.  So see that first for technical details.  Here, I shall just show you how your situation is covered by that answer.
As I explained, I and other writers of various dæmon supervision utilities take advantage of how Linux now works, and what you are seeing is that very thing in action, almost exactly as I laid it out.
The only missing piece of information is that init --user is your session instance of upstart.  It is started up when you first log in to a session, and stopped when you log out.  It's there for you to have per-session jobs (similar, but not identical, to MacOS 10's user agents under launchd) of your own.
A couple of years ago, the Ubuntu people went about converting graphical desktop systems to employ upstart per-session jobs.  Your GNOME Terminal is being started as a per-session job, and any orphaned children are inherited by the nearest sub-reaper, which is of course your per-session instance of upstart.
The systemd people have been, in recent months, working on the exact same thing, setting up GNOME Terminal to run individual tabs as separate systemd services, from one's per-user instance of systemd.  (You can tell that your question is about upstart, not systemd, because on a systemd system the sub-reaper process would be systemd --user.)

How can I execute a new process from GNOME Terminal so that the child process's parent PID becomes 1 and not the PID of the ubuntu session init process?

This is intentionally hard.  Service managers want to keep track of orphaned child processes.  They want not to lose them to process #1.  So the quick précis is: Stop trying to do that.
If you are asking solely because you think that your process ought to have a parent process ID of 1, then wean yourself off this idea.
If you erroneously think that this is an aspect of being a dæmon, then note that dæmons having parent process IDs of 1 has not been guaranteed (and on some Unices, not true across the whole system) since the advent of things like IBM's System Resource Controller and Bernstein's daemontools in the 1990s.  In any case, one doesn't get to be a dæmon by double-forking within a login session.  That's a long-since known to be half-baked idea.
If you erroneously think that this is a truism for orphaned child processes, then read my previous answer again.  The absolutism that orphaned children are re-parented to process #1 is wrong, and has been wrong for over three years, at the time of writing this.
If you have a child process that for some bizarre reason truly needs this, then find out what that bizarre reason is and get it fixed.  It's probably a bug, or someone making invalid design assumptions.  Whatever the reason, the world of dæmon management changed in the 1990s, and Linux also changed some several years ago.  It is time to catch up.
Further reading

"Session Init". upstart Cookbook. Ubuntu.
James Hunt, Stéphane Graber, Dmitrijs Ledkovs, and Steve Langasek (2012-11-12). "Respawning user jobs and PID tracking".  Ubuntu Raring upstart user sessions.  Ubuntu.
Nathan Willis (2013-04-17).  Upstart for user sessions.  LWN.
systemd.  systemd manual pages.  freedesktop.org.


Attach WYSIWYG to Drupal Form

Question: With a custom Drupal form, how can you attach WYSIWYG functionality to a textarea with the WYSIWYG module?
Comment: I found the solution submitted by moon.watcher and Dylan Tack works perfectly.
Answer: The wysiwyg module is tied to the input format system.
Use '#type' => 'text_format' when defining your text area.
Answer: You should use type = 'text_format' instead of text area. and format = 'editor_format'. The code will look like this.
$form['description'] = array(
  '#type' => 'text_format',
  '#title' => t('Description'),
  '#format' => 'full_html' //the format used for editor.
);

Comment: This is the correct option. But i can't get safe_value in form.
Answer: Here is mine:
$form['my_module_my_form_my_field'] = array(
  '#type' => 'text_format',
  '#title' => t('Awesome title'),
  '#format' => isset($edit['format']) ? $edit['format'] : NULL,
  '#base_type' => 'textarea',
  '#default_value' => variable_get('my_module_my_form_my_field', '')['value'],
  '#description' => t("Awesome description."),
  '#required' => FALSE,
  '#maxlength' => 500,
);

I had to add the ['value'] to the #default_value cause it wasn't being loaded after saved.
7x Form API Reference
Comment: Wow indeed, the `variable_get('foo', '')['value']` suffix is really necessary.
Answer: review this indication to Drupal 7 (with a little indication to drupal 6) http://drupal.org/node/1031160. specifically is about how to display an editor inside textarea in drupal 7, so I guess that could be useful to start (seems that the last comment have a tested way).
may be could be an alternative to do this instead/with WYSIWYG.
Answer: The WYSIWYG module is only a way to use one of the many wysiwyg editors out there. Once you install the wysiwyg module (http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg), go to the configuration for the module (admin/config/content/wysiwyg). There will be installation instructions for many Wysiwyg editors available. For example, for FCKeditor, it says the following:

Extract the archive and copy its contents into a new folder in the following location:
  sites/all/libraries/fckeditor
So the actual library can be found at:
  sites/all/libraries/fckeditor/fckeditor.js

So, download the editor, extract the archive to the given directory. Once you do this (assuming you've done it correctly), you will be able to change the editor for given input formats on the Wysiwyg config screen. You will then need to assign different operations for each type (filtered HTML, full HTML, etc.). Click "Edit" under operations within the admin/config/content/wysiwyg in the row for whichever input format you're interested in. From here, check which buttons you want.
Comment: The CKEditor can also be installed "stand alone", without using the WYSIWYG editor. See http://drupal.org/project/ckeditor .
Answer: It doesn't seem it is possible with Wysiwyg version 7.x-2, but the form builder for the profile settings uses the following array:
  $profile['settings'] += array(
    'default' => TRUE,
    'user_choose' => FALSE,
    'show_toggle' => TRUE,
    'theme' => 'advanced',
    'language' => 'en',
    'access' => 1,
    'access_pages' => "node/*\nuser/*\ncomment/*",
    'buttons' => array(),
    'toolbar_loc' => 'top',
    'toolbar_align' => 'left',
    // ...
  );

The "access_pages" array index would allow to set for which pages the editor is shown, but the module doesn't provide any form field to change that code, nor does any function uses that value.
It could be that value was used in previous versions, and the code to handle it is still being ported, or that option is being introduced within the next versions of the module.

Attach WYSIWYG to Drupal Form


Spikes while observing my obd2 scan tool

Question: I have a 2005 chevy avalanche 1500 4wd automatic. I bought this last summer and ever since I got it, it has had problems one after the other. I recently bought a OBD2 scan tool and started observing live data with it. When I look at my readings I get spikes in all of the readings that all go negative. Like when I watch fuel trims they spike down to -93.8 randomly going from one to the other. Spark advance showed 15-22 jumps to -60 degrees. IAT shows 82 degrees then jumps down to -26. It does this kind of thing on everything that can be checked with this tool. I had at first thought maybe it was the tool but had replaced it with another of the same brand. I also tried it another vehicle without any issue. My belief is that there is a wire issue somewhere but do not know how to begin with this type of tracking down the problem. The only time I can observe this is with the engine running and scan tool hooked up. Another thing that happens is when I connect to my DLC my tool only goes to 23 percent then stops. I have to turn key off then back on to get my codes. The truck runs good but with these spikes happening, one thing after another keeps happening.
Answer: This sounds like an issue with the ECM, or the harness between the DLC and the ECM. I've never heard of a fuel trim going anywhere near that -93.8. Even a -20 would be indicative of a problem.
Going back to first principals, we have a few possibilites:
The data for the IAT flows from the sensor, over the harness, to the ECM, then back through the harness to the DLC, to the scan tool.
Fuel trims are controlled by the ECM and (duh) reported back through the DLC to the scan tool.
Spark advance is controlled by the ECM and reported in the same way as the other items.
Common components here are the scan tool, the DLC, harness from the DLC to the ECM, and the ECM. (Assuming that you don't have a big section of your engine harness that is missing a bunch of insulation and shorting out somewhere, which would drive the ECM nuts.)
Make sure that the pins in the DLC aren't pushed back into the connector, which may cause an intermittent communication and/or power issue for the scanner. This happens more than you might expect, typically due to some over-zealous probing of the DLC (and pushing pins back into the connector with a multimeter probe).
Examine the harness for any obvious signs of damage. Damaged insulation, exposed wires, breaks, wires that aren't connected to anything, etc. Engine wiring harnesses are pretty resilient, but sometimes things get messed up.
If the connector and the harness are in good shape, then the next item on the list is the ECM. A flaky ECM can cause all of these problems, and may still do a halfway decent job of running the engine. I suspect this is the root of the issue.
A bad ECM and/or a faulty harness would also account for your tool disconnecting from the ECM.
Another possibility is a bad ECM ground. This could be due (again) to a faulty wiring harness, or even potentially to a failing battery. Batteries have an average life expectancy of 3-5 years, though some have gone much longer.
You can get a used replacement ECM pretty cheaply, but:

It should be from a vehicle that has the same engine AND transmission as your truck, and preferably with the same options. (Though, most of the "options" will be handled by the BCM rather than the ECM, so there is some wiggle room here.)
It will likely have to be re-flashed with your truck's VIN. Dealers can do this, but I'm not sure how much they'll charge. Note that some dealers may refuse to flash a used ECM that did not come from them. Call around before buying anything. Small shops that have a Tech II can do this as well, but it requires a subscription to GM's online service.

Even without flashing a replacement ECM, you would be able to connect your scanner and see data from the car. The IAT readout, for instance, will still report roughly ambient temperature without the engine running. That would give you some feedback about whether the ECM is the problem.

You'll have to reprogram your keys. On most GM vehicles, this can be done by you in your driveway in about 30 minutes.

Good luck!
Comment: I have thought of the computer. As well as the Data link connector. The thing is I have cleared the codes I had which was 20 or 21 of them in enhanced mode. I later checked codes again and got different codes all together. As well as a third time. I think it just would be best for me if I were to take it to the dealer to check my DLC. You haven't mentioned about checking the splice for the CAN bus system but I will get the dealer to have a look at that as well. I think if they do not see any problem in the CAN bus system then I'll think about the computer again. Thanks for the info.
Comment: Haven't taken it anywhere yet. Wanted to check my DLC. I did and got a funny reading between pin 4 and pin 5. I did hear what a reading of 1mv or more was but....I got a reading of negative 2.4 mv. Would you know what that would indicate.


Windows server backup keeps failing after upgraded my OS from Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2012 R2

Question: I've got 2 hard disks installed on the server, one of them is specifically for backup purpose. Everything is fine before I upgrade my OS to Windows Server 2012 R2...
And the problem is that after OS upgrade, everytime I perform a full backup, it failed with errors on "C:" and "Bare mental recovery" items. Error messages below:

Backup of volume C: has failed. Backup failed as shadow copy on source volume got deleted. This might caused by high write activity on the volume. Please retry the backup. If the issue persists consider increasing shadow copy storage using 'VSSADMIN Resize ShadowStorage' command.

Meanwhile, during the backup process, there are a bunch of errors recorded on event viewer including:
<code>ID      Source      Message

51      disk        An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\DR4 during a paging operation.
157     disk        Disk 2 has been surprise removed.
153     disk        The IO operation at logical block address 00 for Disk 1 (PDO name: \Device\0000003b) was retried.
14      volsnap     The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because of an IO failure on volume C:.
140     Microsoft-Windows-Ntfs  The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: C:, DeviceName: \Device\HarddiskVolume4.
519     Microsoft-Windows-Backup    The backup operation that started at '2014-01-11T12:52:56.634161000Z' has failed to back up volume(s) 'C:'. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.
</code>
Each of the error/warning throw more than 10 times during the backup process, and finally a 519 warning ended the whole backup.
I've tried run chkdsk /r on all disks, no error has been reported. I''ve also tried reformat the backup disk to clean all existing data. But the problem is still happening.
One thing worth mention is if I use another USB external portable disk as the backup target disk, the backup process can be performed successfully with no errors. Although warning with ID:157 was captured like 4-5 times during the process.
Update 1: There is also a VSS related error occurred every time when the server is reboot.

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine RegOpenKeyExW(-2147483646,SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Diag,...).  hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied.
  .
Operation:
     Initializing Writer
Context:
     Writer Class Id: {35e81631-13e1-48db-97fc-d5bc721bb18a}
     Writer Name: NPS VSS Writer
     Writer Instance ID: {17e952e4-6c26-4c8b-8e56-087055256c7c}

Update 2: I purchased a brand new SEAGATE disk to replace the old WD disk and tried backup the whole system to that disk. Just to verify it's caused by an hardware issue. But unfortunately the errors are still the same.
Update 3: Then I added back the original WD backup disk to my server but connected with a different cable "HDD3". Then surprisingly when I perform backup of my main drive to the old WD disk, all works very well except some warnings through out like 51 (An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk3\DR7 during a paging operation.) and 157 (Disk 3 has been surprise removed.)
I also tried defragment my drives. All of them can be performed successfully except C:, which has reached 52% of fragments but the process was terminated in the middle with error 257 - The volume (C:) was not optimized because an error was encountered: The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)
My current server configuration:

Dell PowerEdge T320
RAID Controller: PERC H310 Adapter
Main Disk: DELL ST1000NM0001
(SAS, 1TB, connected to HDD1 cable, raid-0 layout with only 1 disk attached)
Old backup disk: WD WD1001FYYG-01SL3 (SAS, 1TB, connected to HDD2 cable, non-raid disk)
New backup disk: SEAGATE ST1000NM0033-9ZM173 (SATA, 1TB, connected to HDD3 cable, non-raid disk)
Answer: Have you tried replacing the backup disk in the server with a different disk?
This sounds like a hardware or driver problem to me.  If you're 100% sure that the errors started happening at the same time as the upgrade, perhaps you should look for updated device drivers from the hardware vendor.  Either way, it could be a disk that's trying to die.
If you replace the backup disk and update the drivers and the problems persist, you might want to check to see if your vendor has any diagnostic software for the hard drive controller.
Good luck!
Comment: Thank you for the answer. The backup disk I used is pretty common which is WD RE (SAS) 1TB 7200rpm (WD1001FYYG). I really hope I have a spare disk to test this.
Comment: @Kathierine, I've purchased another disk and tried a backup for C: Un fortunately it failed with the same errors...


Are there presentations of set theory in terms of lambda-calculus?

Question: I am planning to implement in software a set theory language, based on a binary function, which in set theory is the so called adjunction operation: $f(x, y) = x \cup$ {y}. Therefore, a presentation of set theory in terms of lambda-calculus will really help. Are there such presentations or attempts to do it?
Comment: You are looking for Church's type theory, and what you're planning sounds like a toy version of the HOL proof assistant, which is based on Church's type theory. And this isn't research-level.
Comment: If you look at denotational semantics they do this sort of thing all the time; or rather they use lambda terms where they mean set theoretic functions. This might not be what you are looking for however.

It is also important to know what kind of set theory you are looking for. Lambda calculus is limited to the computable  but set theory in general is not. The set of lambda terms is countable so you can't possible define the set of reals with lambda calculus. So depending on your set theory lambda calculus may just not be powerful enough. Martin Lof type theory might offer an alternative.
Comment: this seems like a similar query [A lambda calculus with arbitrary set primitives](http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3992)
Comment: maybe some leads in survey [Lambda-Calculus and Functional
Programming](http://people.uleth.ca/~jonathan.seldin/Article.pdf) / Seldin. eg see p26 "For some logicians, the interpreting of logic and set theory in combinatory logic or lambda-calculus was much less important than interpreting the type-free lambda-calculus in set theory."
Answer: There is a really interesting approach to a set theory-like foundational system that I am rather fond of: Grue's Map Theory. The basic idea is to take the (untyped!) $\lambda$-calculus as a base foundation, and to represent a set $S$ as a term $f$ such that
$$ S=\{f(x)\mid x\in\Phi\}$$
where $\Phi$ represents the well founded functions ($x\neq\bot$ in the Scott semantics). It doesn't look like there is any proof assistant based on it though, so I have no idea how it would work in practice.
Comment: This sounds to be a great approach. I have lots of reading to do before I can ask my next question. Thank you!


Is there a good Valgrind substitute for Windows?

Question: I was looking into Valgrind to help improve my C coding/debugging when I discovered it is only for Linux - I have no other need or interest in moving my OS to Linux so I was wondering if there is a equally good program for Windows.
Comment: Maybe you can test the code on a virtual Linux machine inside your Windows, just when you need to check it. you can share the development folder between the virtual and non-virtual machine. that is, if the code is portable enough.
Comment: What kinds of debugging are you looking to do? Valgrind is quite a rich toolset, and the answers below point in all kinds of directions. With an emphasis on memory leak/allocation debugging.
Answer: As jakobengblom2 pointed out, valgrind has a suit of tools. Depending which one you are talking about there are different windows counter parts. I will only mention OSS or free tools here.
1. MemCheck:
Dr. Memory. It is a relatively new tool, works very well on Windows 7. My favorite feature is that it groups the same leaks' allocation stacks in the report.
http://code.google.com/p/drmemory/
I have also used UMDH( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268343 ) and found it quiet useful and easy to setup. It works from Win2000 to Win7.
AppVerifier is a must have swissknife for windows native code developers, its "memory" checker does similar job
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371695%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
2. Callgrind:
My favorite is verysleepy ( http://www.codersnotes.com/sleepy ) It is tiny but very useful and easy to use.
If you need more features, AMD CodeAnalyst™ Performance Analyzer is free:
http://developer.amd.com/documentation/videos/pages/introductiontoamdcodeanalystperformanceanalyzer.aspx
Windows Performance Analysis tools is free from Microsoft, not very easy to use but can get the job done if you are willing to spend the time. http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/sasha/archive/2008/03/15/xperf-windows-performance-toolkit.aspx
Download:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/performance/cc752957
3. Massif:
Similar(not quite exact match) free tools on windows are:
VMMap from sysinternals : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd535533
!heap command in windbg : http://hacksoflife.blogspot.com/2009/06/heap-debugging-memoryresource-leak-with.html
4. Cachegrind:
Above mentioned Windows Performance Tools has certain level of L2 cache miss profiling capability but not quite as good and easy to use as Cachegrind.
5. DRD:
Haven't found anything free and as powerful on Windows yet, the only free tool for windows I can find that is slightly close is the "lock" checker in
AppVerifier:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371695%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Comment: There's also [gperftools (formerly Google PerfTools)](http://code.google.com/p/gperftools/). It's not a valgrind replacement (what is really) but it has a new malloc, cpu profiler, heap profiler and checker. Worth a look as it's support on Linux and Windows (inc Mingw) and other unices.
Answer: Why not use Valgrind + Wine to debug your Windows app?  See
  http://wiki.winehq.org/Wine_and_Valgrind
(Chromium uses this to check the Windows version for memory errors; see
  build.chromium.org
and look at the experimental or memory waterfalls, and search for wine.)
There's also Dr. Memory, see
  dynamorio.org/drmemory.html
Comment: No need to recompile in Wine.  Just transfer your .exe and .pdb over to a Linux box.

And you wouldn't be debugging a Linux app; you're debugging your exact Windows app.
Comment: Because then you wouldn't be debugging a Windows app - you'd be debugging a Linux app.
Answer: Some more good commercial tools:

Purify
Insure++
Comment: Insure++ takes forever to instrument your code, and forever to execute your code at runtime.
Comment: Purify: venerable but still useful, as shown by how many changes of corporate ownership it has survived!
Answer: For Visual C++, try Visual Leak Detector. When I used it, it detected a memory leak from a new call and returned the actual line in source code of the leak. The latest release can be found at http://vld.codeplex.com/.
Comment: It does not seem to work for me. I even tried creating a simple project that did basically nothing other than to allocated some memory and not free it. VLD did not detect it. :-|
Comment: @Synetech inc. I had the same problem in VS2010... Using the newest version of VLD solved my problem
Answer: Development environment for Windows you are using may contain its own tools. Visual Studio, for example, lets you detect and isolate memory leaks in your programs
Comment: It is of very little practical use. It will log the filename/linenumber for offending allocations, but it's only informative if you call malloc directly. When using new/delete, it will unhelpfully pinpoint new.h as the "offending" code.
Comment: It works correctly for me, pointing the right line even new/delete are used.
Comment: Valdrind does a _lot_ more then find memory leaks, I mainly use it to find use of freed and uninitialized stack and heap memory which can be incredibly hard to debug otherwise.
Comment: @user9665 Visual Leak Detector (http://vld.codeplex.com) provide full callstack for each memory leak with minimal souce code changes. Check example on site
Comment: But will it work if a library function allocates? E.g. strdup.
Comment: The Debug CRT, which is what you are trying to describe is useful for C code. Getting it to work for C++ code is more problematic.
Answer: i would like to list some tool , hope will be useful
read this article for more detail

Purify
Bounds Checker
Coverity (basically its a code analyzer but, it will catch memory leak in static )
Glow Code
dmalloc
ccmalloc
NJAMD
YAMD
Valgrind
mpatrol
Insure++
Answer: Try DUMA
Answer: There is Pageheap.exe part of the debugging tools for Windows. It's free and is basically a custom memory allocator/deallocator.
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286470
Comment: Pageheap/gflags have helped me get to the bottom of some nasty heap corruption problems.
Comment: I found `gflags` + `gdb` (from mingw) helpful in diagnosis.
Answer: In combination with Visual Studio I generally use Visual Leak Detector or simply _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks() which is a win32 api call. Both are nothing fancy but they get the job done.
Answer: I had the chance to use Compuware DevPartner Studio in the past and that was really good, but it's quite expensive.
A cheaper solution could be GlowCode, i just worked with a 5.x version and, despite some problems in attaching to a process i needed to debug, it worked quite well.
Comment: Expensive yes.
It paid back in one weekend, just using the profiler piece.
Answer: I've been loving Memory Validator, from a company called Software Verification.
Answer: Viusual Studio can help detecting memory leaks itself. See Microsoft Visual C++ Tips and Tricks -> "Memory Leaks" section.
See also this post in SO
Although real tracing is only possible with the Team Edtion of Visual Studio.
Answer: See the "Source Test Tools" link on the Software QA Testing and Test Tool Resources page for a list of similar tools.
I've used BoundsChecker,DevPartner Studio and Intel V-Tune in the past for profiling. I liked V-Tune the best; you could emulate various Intel chipsets and it would give you hints on how to optimize for that platform.
Answer: How about the Purify?
Comment: Not really free... but I guess you could find a test license for testing purposes.
Comment: Dead link as of 2011-02-04 for BoundsChecker.
Answer: Does Jochen Kalmbach's Memory Leak Detector qualify?
PS: The URL to the latest version is buried somewhere in the article's comment thread.
Answer: LeakDiag, UMDH, App Verifier, DebugDiag, are all useful tools to improve robustness of code and find memory leaks.
Answer: The Boost Test library can detect memory leaks.
Answer: Try Intel's Inspector XE product which can help you detect both memory and threading issues: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-inspector-xe/
Answer: Perhaps CodeSnitch would be something you're after? http://www.entrek.com/codesnitch.html
Answer: If you are developing with Borland/CodeGear/Embarcadero C++ Builder, you could use CodeGuard.
Answer: More or less all Profilers include checking for memory leaks and show you the stack when the memory was allocated.
I can recommend Intels Parallel Inspector. Simple to use and no recompilation needed. The trial version runs for 30 days.
GlowCode and AtromatedQA also include such capabilites. They all offer free trials.
Compuware DevPartner (aka BoundsChecker) in Contrast needs a slowed down "instrumentation" recompile and the application also runs slower when checking for errors. And BoundsChecker can not work with 64 Bit evsrions at all. We gave up on that tool.
Comment: I'd defintitely recommend glowcode.  I've used it in the past to find an memory leak within a dll being called by my app.
Comment: There were complaints of major slowdowns while using DevPartner at my last workplace. They do everything to avoid using it because of how slow it would be.
Answer: The best tool I ever used is DevPartner BoundsChecker - it's not free but it has an evaluation period.
Answer: Another memory tool for your list: Memory Validator.
Not free, but nowhere near as expensive as Purify or Boundschecker.
Answer: If you're not afraid of mingw, here are some links (some might work with MSVC)...
http://betterlogic.com/roger/?p=1140
Answer: We are just completing a Memory Safety checking tool for Windows, that handles GCC and Micrsoft Visual C (not C++ yet), and are looking for Beta testers.
EDIT June 12, 2011:  Not Beta anymore, now production for GCC and Microsoft Visual Studio C.
Answer: I found this SF project today:
http://sourceforge.net/p/valgrind4win/wiki/Home/
They are porting valgrind to Windows. Probably in several years we will have a reliable valgrind on windows.
Answer: Check out this question: Is there a good Valgrind substitute for Windows? . Though general substitute for valgrind is asked, it mainly discusses memory leak detectors and not race conditions detections.
Answer: Definitely Purify! I've used that to analyze some massive code bases (>3,000 kSLOC) and found it to be excellent.
You might like to look at this list at Wikipedia.
By the way, I've found memwatch to be useful. Thanks Johan!
Answer: I used Insure++ which does excellent job in finding c++ memory leaks/corruptions and many other bugs like uninitialized variables, pointer errors, strings etc., It also does visual "Code coverage" and run time memory usage etc.. which give more confident on your code.. You can try it for trail version..
Answer: The user-mode dump heap (UMDH) utility works with the operating system to analyze Windows heap allocations for a specific process. That's a pretty good tool for free from Microsoft. Here is a mini tutorial "How to use Umdh.exe to find memory leaks".
Answer: You might want to read what Mozilla is doing regarding memory leaks. One tool in their toolbox is the Hans Boehm garbage collector used as memory leak detector.
Answer: You can give a try to RuntimeChecker trial ot to IBM Purify trial..
A free solution would be to use the following code in Visual Studio:
#ifdef _DEBUG
#define new DEBUG_NEW
#endif

Just write this in the top of all your cpp files.
This will detect memory leaks of your application whenc stopping debug run and list them in the output window. Double clicking on a memory leaks line will higlight you the line where memory is allocated and never released. This may help you : http://www.flipcode.com/archives/How_To_Find_Memory_Leaks.shtml
Answer: The free tool DebugDiag will help find memory and handle leaks.
You don't need to augument your program for DebugDiag to work.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=28BD5941-C458-46F1-B24D-F60151D875A3&displaylang=en
Although it is not the easiest or most intuitive program to use! Make sure you google for tutorials and instructions on how to use it.
Answer: You can take a look to the article Design and Implementation of an In-Game Memory Profiler in the book "Game Programming Gems 8".
It shows how to implement a low overhead semi-intrusive real-time memory profiler, source code provided in the CD-ROM.
Answer: Clang supports the Address Sanitizer plugin (-faddress-sanitizer option), which can pretty much detect most bugs that Valgrind can find (does not support detection of uninitialised memory reads and memory leaks yet though). See this page for a comparison against Valgrind and other similar tools. An official Windows port is currently in progress, see Windows ASan port.
I attempted to build it myself on Windows a couple of months ago and gave up, see my related question. Things may have changed for the better now if you want to give it another go.
Answer: Just an idea, you could also implement a memory allocator and track all calls to malloc and free. However this might be too much for some projects.
Comment: That's how most games do it. But it's a huge undertaking and a lot of instrumentation.
Answer: Parasoft Insure++ has always been reliable:
http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/insure.jsp?itemId=63
Answer: Finding Memory leak in C++ Application on Windows


Can you/should you be blessed by an ignorant/non-orthodox Kohen?

Question: Let's say you are part of a minyan during a holiday like Sukkot. There is only one Kohen present, so he goes up to perform the birchas kohanim. However, you know - either from reliable sources or even from seeing it yourself - that this kohen is either ignorant (i.e. he doesn't know how to daven properly, and can barely say the proper words of the blessing) and/or is not orthodox (e.g. he came to the shul in his car). What is the procedure here? Should you allow yourself to be blessed by this kohen? Should you walk out just before birchas kohanim?
Comment: If only learned kohanim could bless, I wonder why we would need to feed the blessing to them one word at a time.
Comment: @MonicaCellio An excellent question. A similar question can be asked why we feed them the first word (something not all opinions hold of). One answer could be that conceptually the tzibbur is supposed to be an active part in the blessing, sort of like a conversation. This also fits with some other rules such as the tzibbur and kohanim need to be facing each other, and the kohanim have to pronounce the blessing in a speaking voice not a whisper.
Answer: Shulchan Aruch O.C. Siman 128 discuses the qualifications of a Cohen to recite bircas kohanim. Disqualification include having consumed too much alcohol, having a severe speech impediment, blindness, having taken a human life, having married a disqualifying wife (such as a divorcee) and the recent death of a close relation. The Shulchan Aruch (Sif 39) writes that in absence of aforementioned disqualifying factors, any Kohen may (and is in fact obligated) to recite the blessing, even if he is not scrupulous in his Torah observance as other sins do not invalidate him. The Mishna Berura (S"K 143) writes that this extends even to serious sins such as sexual misconduct. The Shulchan Aruch Harav (S"K 52) brings in parentheses that an exception to this is one who publicly desecrates Shabbos who has the status of a gentile and is thus disqualified from recited bircas kohanim.
Comment: I'm told there's some Zohar out there about non-Sabbath-observant Cohens not doing the blessing. I know of a few such individuals who would step out before the congregation reached that point. I think it's a call for the local rabbi to make. Regardless, the most Joe Congregant should be doing is privately making the rabbi aware of the issue. As for the Cohen's pronunciation -- if it's really so horribly awful as to be a distraction to the congregation, then the rabbi will realize that after the first time, and determine whether to approach the Cohen about it.
Comment: Although I agree with you (as per [@MonicaCiello's comment](http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/20527/can-you-should-you-be-blessed-by-an-ignorant-non-orthodox-kohen#comment48523_20527)), these are the conditions under which a kohen is obligated to bless.  AFAIK, the kahal is never required to accept the blessing.
Comment: @Michoel Interesting--so Moshe Rabeinu would have been disqualified from birkas kohanim?!
Comment: @Michoel (possibly three times over? wife/taking life/speech impediment)
Answer: The Rambam addresses your concern directly, in Hilkhot Birkat Cohanim, chapter 15, law 7:

ואל תתמה ותאמר, ומה תועיל ברכת הדיוט זה--שאין קיבול הברכה תלוי
  בכוהנים, אלא בהקדוש ברוך הוא:  שנאמר 'ושמו את שמי, על בני ישראל; ואני,
  אברכם' --הכוהנים עושים מצוה שנצטוו בה, והקדוש ברוך הוא ברחמיו מברך את
  ישראל כחפצו
"Do not be perplexed and say, 'What effectiveness can the blessing of
  this ordinary/not-scholarly/not exemplary person have?' For the
  receiving of the blessing is not contingent on the Cohanim but on the
  Holy-One-Blessed-is-He. As it says 'And they shall put my name upon
  the children of Israel; and I will bless them.' The Cohanim do the
  commandment they were given and the Holy-One-Blessed-is-He, in his
  compassion, blesses Israel, according to his desire."

I.e., the section of the Torah that explains the commandment of Birkat Cohanim concludes (Numbers 6:27): "ושמו את שמי על בני ישראל ואני אברכם" "And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." God is the "I" who is speaking; it is always God who blesses. Birkat Cohanim is a mitzvah like any other: the purpose of performing a mitzvah is to perform a mitzvah.


Couldn't get a display on the screen when using the RPi

Question: I had a long time I didn't get my hand on the RPi. I got the Emlid image burned on a 8gb micro sdcard using the dd command. I have the pi connected to a the screen using HDMI to VGI cable, but I get no display. I changed the RPi (2B and 3B), the SD card, the OS (Emlid and wheezy) and also the HDMI to VGI cable, I even tried the cable to display the screen of my laptop and worked but I don't understand why it doesn't work with the RPi.Any help will be appreciated, Thank you.
Comment: I'd suggest getting it working with the latest 'Raspbian Stretch with Desktop' and if possible a TV/Monitor that has hdmi input.
Comment: I don't think I can afford a monitor that has hdmi input. but i tried to output my laptop screen and it worked
Comment: You don't already have a TV with hdmi? At least try 'Raspbian Stretch with Desktop' https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ with your hdmi to vga cable, wheezy is out of date. Use Etcher https://www.balena.io/etcher/ to flash to the sd card.
Comment: I did what you asked me to do but still not working. can you suggest for me some more tests to see where is the probleme
Answer: In the config.txt file you will probably need to set hdmi_force_hotplug.  It's possible that the Pi doesn't recognise that it is plugged into a hdmi device due to the hdmi/vga conversion.  By default it only activates the hdmi output if it recognises an hdmi connection.
The config.txt file is in the /boot partition (this is the fat32 partition) so you can edit it from Windows on the sdcard.  You'll probably find the lines:
<code>#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
#hdmi_drive=2
</code>
in the config.txt file. (if you don't then create them).
Uncomment (remove the '#' from the beginning of the line) the line for hdmi_force_hotplug. So it looks like:
<code>hdmi_force_hotplug=1
</code>
This will tell the Pi to activate the hdmi output even if nothing is connected (bypassing the detection routine).
If that still hasn't worked are you absolutely sure that your PSU is sufficient? An insufficient power supply can also be responsible for lack of hdmi output.
Comment: Some docs about all that: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md
Comment: Thanks for the answer, I uncommented that line but still not working. for the power supply I tried with both the charger and the cable plugged to my PC. My Pi flashing so I don't think there is a wrong with it. Is there anyway to do it with ethernet cable using ubuntu!!!.
Comment: Try adding the setting 'hdmi_safe=1' to the config.txt See the documentation on video options for the RPi here https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md
Comment: I bought a new RPi, I reburned the image in the SD card using Etcher but still can't display on the monitor, I was thinking that it might be the image burned so how can I check if I burn it correctly


A man is converting to Islam for me but I don't like him

Question: So at work there is this guy that I work with. We have been working together for years. Last year he proposed to me. I didn't want to hurt his feelings so I said that the reason I didn't say yes was because he wasn't Muslim. Other then the fact that is true, I really don't like him that way. Then about a month ago he brought in many Quran books and put them on his desk and said that he is learning about Islam. I was very happy that someone was interested in reading and learning more about the religion, but then about a week ago he said, "Now that I'm converting to Islam we can get married". I didn't know how to react so I smiled, nodded and walked away. I know it's wrong to not tell him, but I don't know how. And I don't even know if he believes in Islam at all, or if it is just for the marriage. I need help, What do I do?... I want him to convert, but I don't want to be stuck with him for the rest of my life. How should I tell him, but still make sure he will convert.
Comment: If you don't like him don't marry him. If his conversion was for the sake of Allah he will remain on the right path and you will gain reward for guiding him. If his conversion was an act that will wane when you reject him then Allah does not require his conversion and you don't deserve such a hypocrite either.
Answer: It sounds like this man doesn't know you enough to ask you for marriage in the first place, so you should not lead him on or let him believe he has a chance when he does not. If you cannot face him at least write him a letter or something. But try to be gentle because you don't want to stop him from converting. Tell him how you feel don't hold back, you'll just make it harder.


What kind of (acacia) tree is this?

Question: It's some sort of acacia, but I am not sure which. Nilotica?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4N4fXk4aMpZPWMUo6
Comment: Boris, please add the photos in your question, instead of sending us off-site.  For desk top app - In Google photos, select a photo, on the upper right side of the page, you will see three dots.  Right click these dots.  One of the options is to download.  Download the photo, then upload it onto this question.   The symbol for uploading a photo is a square with a mountain and a sun.  Select that option.  You can follow the prompts from there.
Answer: Looks more like Acacia dealbata to me - the individual leaflets are a little long to be Acacia nilotica, but seeing the flowers would confirm one way or the other. Acacia nilotica produces individual, yellow, ball shaped flowers, whereas A. dealbata produces much smaller, ball-shaped flowers held in clusters. Many Acacia do not have leaves like the one in your photo does, having instead lots of thorns or modified petioles instead. That narrows the range of which one this might be, but seeing flowers would have been helpful. Some varieties of Acacia featured here https://www.thespruce.com/twenty-species-acacia-trees-and-shrubs-3269672
Answer: Unfortunately there are more species of acacia than you could shake a stick at. A lot more detail than fuzzy photos of seedlings will be required to narrow down an identification. It will probably be some time before your specimens produce a flower; and it is the flower and other characteristics of maturity that will be needed.
One thing to do is to look up at the surrounding mature trees. Acacias produce lots of seed and put up volunteer seedlings from those mature specimens close by. Adding photos or descriptions of the acacias found there might give you some strong evidence to get closer to a working identification.

What kind of (acacia) tree is this?


Why is 'the' before winter season?

Question: In my opinion, 'the' is a definite article. It emphasis saying "that one only".
Why then 'the' before winter season. There is only one kind of winter season. There cannot be different kind of winter season. For example, the food means that specific food, food - means general. The winter seasons means specific, whereas winter season is not specific, it is general only. I am confused here because someone has corrected me to use the before winter season. Please help.
Comment: It all depends on context.  Can you tell us the sentence you have questions on? Also, you may be interested in http://ell.stackexchange.com/ which may be more suitable for this question.
Comment: "In my opinion, 'the' is a definite article"? *The* is a definite article by definition. You don't need to have an opinion on it, and even if you do it does not matter.
Answer: Rather than seeing the definite article in this usage as indicating a particular winter, I see it as (at least usually) referencing the particular season that is winter.
The hunting season. The holiday season (is when most hoteliers make their money).
The diesel locomotive (can mean 'as opposed to the horse, the electric 'locomotive', the steam locomotive – ie a particular type of motive power – or 'the actual piece of metal I'm talking about').
The floribunda rose (was introduced by the Danish breeder Dines Poulsen in 1907).
Answer: This is not a question of semantics, but of syntax.
The word season does not fall in any of the classes of noun which can be used without an determiner (plurals, mass nouns, proper nouns) and so requires a determiner (an article, a demonstrative, a possessive, a quantifier etc). Having a modifier such as Winter before it makes no difference.
Winter itself is different, having some of the characteristics of a proper noun (not all of them: it may take the, whereas typical proper nouns don't).
Comment: @ Colin Fine  I think the same applies to 'university'. Yes, it is interesting that, in the UK, doctors and nurses work in a/the hospital, but only patients are 'in hospital'. Similarly lecturers teach at a/the university but students go 'to university'. It is almost as though the term 'in hospital' is a sort of compound adjective describing a state of being of the individual; similarly being 'at university' as regards a student.
Comment: So why do we not use 'the' in front of 'hospital' as do the Americans? Does that have 'characteristics of a proper noun'? See my exchange below with Kristina Lopez.
Comment: I hadn't thought of that analysis before, but yes, I think _hospital_ etc is a quasi-proper noun. Note that it can't be pluralised or even modified; and that it has a particular meaning: _in hospital_ means _as a patient_, not just visiting. I think it's only _hospital_ where we differ from the Americans. We agree about _college_, _jail_ and _school_ (though we say _at school_ and they say _in school_).
Comment: Also, of course, only prisoners are 'in jail/prison' The prison officers work 'at the prison'. But as you have noted this form is accepted by Americans too.
Answer: Typically this is used to describe a particular instance of the season, rather than a particular type of season:

The squirrel here is collecting nuts in preparation for the winter.

In this context, "the winter" means the (unique) next winter season.
There are multiple instances of winter occurring, so the is justified. The indefinite article can also be used in such phrases as:

The crops were ruined by a particularly bitter winter.
Comment: In this instance, it is worth pointing out that you could (in Queen's English) dispense with the definite article and say 'The squirrel is collecting nuts in preparation for winter'. (Americans may disagree)  But if you used 'winter season' it would require a 'the' in front of it. This is for the reason to which you refer in your question. Winter is a recurring event. Whereas the next 'winter season' is something more specific. It must seem confusing!
Comment: @WS2, not sure why you'd think that but Americans agree that 'in preparation for winter' is acceptable. :-)
Comment: @Kristina Lopez  Sorry if I have got that wrong. I know that you will use the definite article in situations where we have abandoned it; e.g. you talk of being 'taken to "the" hospital', where we would say 'taken to hospital'. I just had the idea that 'winter,summer etc' would be in that category. I know there are other instances.
Comment: @WS2, you're absolutely right - we still use the definite article in cases of "the hospital", "the university", etc. It's tricky to second-guess the nuances of each others' version of English, isn't it? :-)
Comment: @Kristina Lopez  See my exchange above with Colin Fine. I don't know if he can supply any clue as to why we have dropped the identifier for hospital, university, school etc. Presumably because these are quasi-proper nouns.
Answer:
In my opinion, 'the' is a definite article. It emphasis saying "that one only".

You can get into trouble learning a rule of thumb about an article, and then going through life assuming that the word is always used in that way, and in that way only.
When I look up the in NOAD, I find six definitions. Surely, then, the article has a wider scope than what was initially expressed in your "opinion." For example, the third definition reads:

the (article) used to make a generalized reference to something rather than identifying a particular instance : he taught himself to play the violin | worry about the future.

I suspect your use of winter season might have been similar: We need to get some firewood before the winter season. I wouldn't exclude the article in that sentence.
When a word is used by a credible source, and that usage doesn't jibe with your preconceived ideas about that word's meaning, there's a good chance the word can be more widely applied than you initially thought. This seems to be especially true with articles and prepositions, which are mightily flexible little imps.
Answer: Winter in 'the winter season' is being used as an adjective not a noun. Hence the need for the definite article. 'The' refers to season not winter here.

Why is 'the' before winter season?


Is it ok to ask for opinions?

Question: I'm designing a complex robot and I've got some ideas that I want to get opinions on before beginning development. Is that OK, or should I make the question more answerable?
Answer: Questions asking for opinions tend to get closed as not constructive on most Stack Exchange sites.
The not constructive close reason says:

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

Much better would be to ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.
Ultimately though, many answers on stack exchange are more opinion than fact, and design choices are often informed more by convention and belief than by experience and experimentation, so we have to accommodate answers less rooted in fact. We do however prefer poeple to back it up. See the Stack Exchange Blog post Good Subjective, Bad Subjective.
How your question is phrased could very much impact on the perception of your question. For instance

What sort of arm should I use for my Robot?

implies that you want opinions. Whereas

What design considerations do I need to take into account when selecting an arm for a robot used under these conditions?

would be much more likely to be answered and voted up. Especially if you explain what options you have considered and what your concerns are about those options.
Comment: *"Ultimately though, many answers on stack exchange are more opinion than fact, and design choices are often informed more by convention and belief than by experience and experimentation"* ... this is a key point, but is really poorly handled by the prevailing opinion in the SE meta community (that there is some magical dividing line between allowable fact-based questions, and unallowable subjective ones).  SE sites would be much better if this small percentage of users just entirely stopped trying to police this.  It's the *war on drugs* of the SE system.
Comment: +1 This is a great, concise answer to an oft-encountered issue...
Comment: I wish I could triple up vote this. You have cleared up so much for me, thanks heaps.
Comment: @Nate - I'm sorry but I disagree. If we don't have rules like *back-it-up* and reminders such as [Good Subjective, Bad Subjective](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/) then we degenerate into a pointless free-for-all which is no better than your average *web forum*! The *war on drugs* is pointless, but it is the Raison d'être of a good stack exchange site to strive for *good questions* and *good answers*, and unlike many places on the internet, SE sites give the tools to the community to moderate themselves.

Is it ok to ask for opinions?