Baggage policy Etihad or American Airline?

Question: I'm travelling from Lahore to America with my stops being at Abu Dhabi, Rome, Dallas with my final destination being Manhattan, Kansas. I'm flying on Etihad till
Rome and will change my airline to American Airline afterwards. All flights are on one single ticket. Can someone tell me which airlines baggage policy will apply to me, Etihad or American Airline?
Comment: Probably both, Etihad's policy on the leg to Rome, AA's after that.
Comment: Isn't it stated on the booking? Otherwise, I'd call Etihad or the agent you booked through (if you used one).
Answer: As your final destination is in the US, the US DOT Regulation 14 CFR 399.87 applies:

For passengers whose ultimate ticketed origin or destination is a U.S. point, U.S. and foreign carriers must apply the baggage allowances and fees that apply at the beginning of a passenger's itinerary throughout his or her entire itinerary. In the case of code-share flights that form part of an itinerary whose ultimate ticketed origin or destination is a U.S. point, U.S. and foreign carriers must apply the baggage allowances and fees of the marketing carrier throughout the itinerary to the extent that they differ from those of any operating carrier.

So if your itinerary does not contain any codeshare flights, it will be the baggage allowance for the first leg that is relevant. In your case, Etihad's rules for the trip from Lahore to Rome are the ones to apply. (On the return trip, it would be American's allowance for the journey from Manhattan to Rome.)
If your itinerary contains codeshare flights (e. g. if the American flights are showing with EY flight numbers), then the marketing carrier's (here Etihad) allowance applies throughout. This is important as Etihad's allowance from Pakistan to the US is more generous than their allowance from Pakistan to Europe.
However, I think all of this is only valid if your baggage is checked through to MHK. If, for example, you have to pick up and re-check your baggage in Rome, then American might apply their own policies for the remaining two flights.
For the sake of completeness: If the origin or destination is not in the US or Canada, then the baggage allowance of the most significant carrier according to IATA Resolution 302 applies, but this is not important for you.


How can i accept Bitcoin donations or payments on my website?

Question: I have seen all these other posts on how to do it, but they are all so complicated, what is the quickest, easiesy way to accept Bitcoin payments or donations on my website? Why is it all so difficult?
Answer: BitPay is an electronic payment processing system for the bitcoin currency. It enables online merchants to accept bitcoins, as a form of payment, just as they accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal.
BitPay is available in every country, and you can set your prices in over 30 different currencies.
Merchants choosing to keep the bitcoins can be anywhere in the world. Merchants in some countries can choose to receive a direct deposit into their bank account.
Answer: Well - the easiest way would be to just put your wallet address up on your site so people could send you Bitcoin directly.  You could also use sites like Blockchain.info or follow this tutorial (http://bitcoinmoney.com/post/9678390130/wolfram-alpha-qr-code-generator) to create a QR code from your wallet address as well.
Alternatively, Coinbase (https://coinbase.com/merchants), BitPay (https://bitpay.com), and Mt. Gox (https://www.mtgox.com/merchant/checkout) all offer tools for merchants to offer Bitcoin payments.  Also - Shopify.com recently announced that they would allow merchants to collect payments via Bitcoin.


Is it possible to run a stackR like arcade game from raspberry pi 3?

Question: I was wondering if it is possible to create a STACK'R clone (the arcade game) and load it to raspberry pi 3 for my new arcade cabinet I'm creating.
Answer: Of course it is! You can use python with PyGame.
You will have access to your arcade controls on your GPIOS through the RPi.GPIO library in python as well.
They have great tutorials and examples on their website.
However, if you want to use RetroPi than you just need to get the original rom and load it into the appropriate emulator.


Successor to School Mathematics Study Group (SMSG)

Question: From reviews on Amazon of the various high school math texts by Mary Dolciani et al of the SMSG, I assume that there might be a successor to the approach (referred to as "the new math") taken by the SMSG. Does anyone have any insight into this, and whether there really were "math wars" when the SMSG series was introduced in the 1960s in response to the Soviets' launching of Sputnick?
Comment: Regarding new math, see my answers to [Where can I find primary sources from the New Math movement in the 60s?](https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/13106/745) and [Different Kinds of Variables](https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/19065/745), the latter of which I sometime need to revise to more specifically answer the question asked and also to move the more detailed book information to the former answer, but of course this is not relevant for what you're interested in. In the U.S., after new math there was "return to basics", **(continued)**
Comment: and then the more problematic calculator concerns began arising in the late 1980s and early 1990s (especially graphing calculators and beginning calculus instruction), which led to calls for less emphasis on algebraic manipulation, which led to "wars" (and the term "new new math"), especially in California. Right now I don't have time to write anything worth putting as an answer, however.
Comment: Heh, I just found out I spelled "Sputnik" incorrectly.
Comment: You might find this post relevant: https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/7231/267
Answer: There was indeed a great deal of pushback to the New Math.  You can find a brief summary of this on pp. 12-16 of my textbook, from which I will quote liberally:

To say that these curricula were ambitious would be a dramatic
understatement. Inspired by the mathematicians of the Bourbaki
movement, New Math curricula stressed mathematical structures as a
key topic. The language and notation of sets was introduced as early
as 1st grade; students were told to distinguish the word number
(referring to a quantity) from numeral (referring to the
representation of a number in written form), and to focus on properties such as order and equivalence. In upper elementary grades,
students wrote numbers in different base systems (i.e. base 6 and base
2 in addition to the familiar base 10). At the middle-grades level,
students were taught to distinguish between an "open sentence" (like
$3x + 5 = 17$) and an "equation" (such as $2 (3 + 5) = 6 + 10$). So strong
was the emphasis on set theory and precise language that some felt the
New Math went too far. Richard Feynman, who served on the California
State Curriculum Commission in 1964, objected to what he saw as the
excesses of the New Math's emphasis on language:

In regard to this question of words, there is also in the new mathematics books a great deal of talk about the value of precise language — such things as that one must be very careful to distinguish a number from a numeral and, in general, a symbol from the object that it represents... For example, one of the books pedantically insists on pointing out that a picture of a ball and a ball are not the same thing. I doubt that any child would make an error in this particular direction. It is therefore unnecessary to be precise in the language and to say in each case, "Color the picture of the ball red," whereas the ordinary book would say, "Color the ball red."... Although this sounds like a trivial example, this disease of increased precision rises in many of the textbooks to such a pitch that there are almost incomprehensibly complex sentences to say the very simplest thing. In a first-grade book (a primer, in fact) I find a sentence of the type: "Find out if the set of the lollypops is equal in number to the set of girls" — whereas what is meant is: "Find out if there are just enough lollypops for the girls."...
If we would like to, we can and do say, "The answer is a whole number less than 9 and bigger than 6," but we do not have to say, "The answer is a member of the set which is the intersection of the set of those numbers which is larger than 6 and the set of numbers which are smaller than 9."
It will perhaps surprise most people who have studied these textbooks to discover that the symbol $\cup$ or $\cap$ representing union and intersection of sets, and the special use of the brackets $\{\}$ and so forth, all the elaborate notation for sets that is given in these books, almost never appear in any writings in theoretical physics, in engineering, in business arithmetic, computer design, or other places where mathematics is being used. I see no need or reason for this all to be explained or to be taught in school. It is not a useful way to express one's self. It is not a cogent and simple way. It is claimed to be precise, but precise for what purpose?...

It will come as little surprise to anyone who has lived through the more recent waves of mathematics (and other curriculum) reforms over the past several years, and the sometimes intense political controversies that have accompanied them, to learn that the New Math met with an intense and prolonged backlash from parents, teachers, politicians and other stakeholders. Critiques ran the gamut, from the gentle mockery of comedian Tom Lehrer's song New Math and whimsical references in Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon, to the no-holds-barred attack of the best-selling 1973 book Why Johnny Can't Add: The Failure of the New Math, written by New York University mathematics professor Morris Kline...
It would probably be giving Kline's book too much credit to claim that it single-handedly ended the New Math, but it is certainly correct that it served as a punctuation mark at the end of the era. By the late 1970s the New Math had virtually disappeared from classroom use. The era of the New Math had given way to what came to be known as the Back to Basics movement.

That last sentence contains the answer to the question in the title:  Yes, there was a successor to the New Math movement, and it was generally known as the Back to Basics movement.
Comment: In high school back in 1963-77, we used all four of the Dociani series from Houghton-Mifflin (two algebra texts, one geometry, and one on "modern introductory analysis"). I notice that there is an emphasis therein on "structure", which is to be interpreted as "set". And, yes, a "numeral" was not the same thing as a "number", but I really don't believe that we were thrown off-course to the point where we failed to see the forest for the trees. I'm using this set of texts as my reference for the pre-calculus course I'm currently teaching for a local CC. But thank you for answering my question.


Is unbiased maximum likelihood estimator always the best unbiased estimator?

Question: I know for regular problems, if we have a best regular unbiased estimator, it must be the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). But generally, if we have an unbiased MLE, would it also be the best unbiased estimator (or maybe I should call it UMVUE, as long as it has the smallest variance)?
Comment: The real issue is more that the MLE is rarely unbiased: if $\theta$ is the unbiased estimator of $\theta$ and the MLE of $\theta$, $f(\hat\theta)$ is the MLE of $f(\theta)$ but is biased for most bijective transforms $f$.
Comment: Interesting question. MLE is a function of the sufficient statistic, and UMVUEs can be obtained by conditioning on complete and sufficient statistics. So if MLE is unbiased (and a function of the sufficient statistic), the only way possible for it to not have minimum variance is if the sufficient statistic is not complete. I tried to find an example, but was unsuccessful.
Comment: And [here](http://www.randomservices.org/random/point/Sufficient.html) is some brief information about sufficient and complete statistics.
Comment: +1 for Xi'ans comment. Best estimator means minimal variance, unbiased means something else. So I'm not sure that you can start trying to prove that, since one has little to do with the other. But before I'd even start my own derivation, I'd like to see some serious effort in the (try of a) proof. I'd say that even the proof of the first statement (MLE is optimal for certain cases) is not trivial.
Comment: Is this relevant?
"An almost unbiased estimator of population mean" Vyas Dubey
Pt.Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, India
Comment: Are you assuming that a UMVE exists?
Answer:
But generally, if we have an unbiased MLE, would it also be the best
  unbiased estimator ?

If there is a complete sufficient statistics, yes.
Proof:

Lehmann–Scheffé theorem: Any unbiased estimator that is a function of a complete sufficient statistics
is the best (UMVUE).
MLE is a function of any sufficient statistics. See 4.2.3 here;

Thus an unbiased MLE is necesserely the best as long as a complete sufficient statistics exists.
But actually this result has almost no case of application since a complete sufficient statistics almost never exists. It is because complete sufficient statistics exist (essentially) only for exponential families where the MLE is most often biased (except location parameter of Gaussians).
So the real answer is actually no.
A general counter example can be given: any location family with likelihood $p_\theta(x)=p(x-\theta$) with $p$ symmetric around 0 ($\forall t\in\mathbb{R} \quad p(-t)=p(t)$). With sample size $n$, the following holds:

the MLE is unbiased
it is dominated by another unbiased estimator know as Pitman's equivariant estimator

Most often the domination is strict thus the MLE is not even admissible. It was proven when $p$ is Cauchy but I guess it's a general fact. Thus MLE can't be UMVU. Actually, for these families it's known that, with mild conditions, there is never an UMVUE. The example was studied in this question with references and a few proofs.
Comment: Why doesn't this have the highest upvotes? I felt this answer was better than Xian's.
Answer: In my opinion, the question is not truly coherent in that the maximisation of a likelihood and unbiasedness do not get along, if only because maximum likelihood estimators are equivariant, ie the transform of the estimator is the estimator of the transform of the parameter, while unbiasedness does not stand under non-linear transforms. Therefore, maximum likelihood estimators are almost never unbiased, if "almost" is considered over the range of all possible parametrisations.
However, there is a more direct answer to the question: when considering the estimation of the Normal variance, $\sigma^2$, the UMVUE of $\sigma^2$ is
$$\hat{\sigma}^2_n = \frac{1}{n-1} \sum_{i=1}^n \{x_i-\bar{x}_n\}^2$$
while the MLE of $\sigma^2$ is
$$\check{\sigma}^2_n = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^n \{x_i-\bar{x}_n\}^2$$
Ergo, they differ. This implies that

if we have a best regular unbiased estimator, it must be the maximum
likelihood estimator (MLE).

does not hold in general.
Note further that, even when there exist unbiased estimators of a parameter $\theta$, there is no necessarily a best unbiased minimum variance estimator (UNMVUE).
Comment: No, we have no reason to believe this is true in general.
Comment: So can we say that an unbiased MLE it is a (U)MVUE, but not every (U)MVUE is the MLE?
Answer: MLE's asymptotic variance is UMVUE i.e attains cramer rao lower bound but finite variance may not be UMVUE to make sure that estimator is UMVUE it should be sufficient and complete statistics or any function of that statistics.
Answer: In short, an estimator is UMVUE, if it is unbiased and the function of a complete and sufficient statistic. (See Rao-Blackwell and Scheffe)
Comment: Which means this is restricted to exponential families.


What are the advantages and uses of a voltage follower circuit over emitter follower?

Question: Can I use a voltage follower and emitter follower for same purpose?
Answer:
Can I use voltage follower and emitter follower for same purpose.

Yes and no depending on your requirements.
A voltage follower uses an op-amp to set the voltage on the output to be the same as the voltage on the input. It does however have limited drive capability.
An emitter follower on the other hand drives or sources current to the output so that said output is a base emitter voltage different from the base voltage. However, emitter followers only drive in one direction. An NPN emitter follower can only source current, a PNP can only sink current. As such if the output voltage is too high (or low for the PNP) for some reason, the follower is not able to pull it back.
Emitter followers can however pass much more current than an op-amp.
So "Can you use voltage follower and emitter follower for same purpose?" If designed correctly to deal with the voltage differences one can be substituted for the other if the load requirements overlap the capabilities of both methods.
Comment: Or you could use both together if you want the advantages of both :)
Answer: Voltage Follower, using an OpAmp, may have a rather precise copying of Vin onto Vout, with ability to handle varying loads while still performing that precise copying.
The emitter follower will have the standard Vbe (maybe 0.6v at 1ma, or at 0.1mA) with that 0.6 volt offset between Vin and Vout.
Additionally the 0.6volt will vary with temperature, with load, etc.
But the emitter follower can be very fast (and easy to have oscillate).
Comment: And an emitter follower can usually  deliver more current than an op-amp voltage follower.
Comment: There are two important pros of the opamp based follower: (1) the required unity gain is much more  precise if compared with an emitter follower and (2) the output resistance is much more smaller.
Comment: Zout strongly depends on frequency, for an OPAMP. Near unity gain bandwidth, the Zout becomes the inherent Rout of the two output devices; two bipolars running at 1mA, thus 26 ohms reach or 13 ohms combined, are what you will see; thus a UA741 near 1MHz has Rout (Zout) of 13 ohms.


Quarterly Timer job

Question: I am creating a timer job that sends mail on 1 day of every quarter of a year. I have written the code. Only I have  to add code to schedule it. Please help me.
Comment: If that is custom timer job.. You can define the schedule and update the job with schedule ..
Answer: Don't use a timer job. Use a Windows Scheduled Task instead. Not only will this increase farm stability as you don't have custom code, you can also deploy code with zero downtime, and your schedule can be far more complex.
Answer: Is it timer job which will run inside the SharePoint or a Scheduled Task?

For SharePoint Timer Job, you have to deploy it in your SharePoint Farm.check this blog post for more info: http://www.sharepointpals.com/post/Step-by-Step-procedures-to-create-a-Timer-Job-in-SharePoint-2013
If you want to run it as Schedule Job( which is recommended approach), then you can create the schedule task with all required parameters, go to Task Scheduler from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

Quarterly Timer job


Shell mode does not do autocompletion for loaded functions

Question: When running in a terminal, the shell does auto-completion even for loaded functions:
$ check-<tab><tab>
check-bios-nx           check-dirty             check-language-support  check-manifest

And check-dirty is a function:
» type check-dirty
check-dirty is a function
check-dirty ()
{
    is-older-than 24 ${REPO_LIST} || refresh-repo-list;
    cat ${REPO_LIST} | while read dir; do
        cd $dir;
        test -z "$(git status --porcelain)" || printf "%-50s : dirty\n" "$dir";
        cd - > /dev/null;
    done
}

But in emacs, the completions buffer show me a different list:
Click on a completion to select it.
In this buffer, type RET to select the completion near point.

Possible completions are:
check-bios-nx
check-language-support
check-manifest

The function is also loaded in the emacs shell buffer. In fact, the whole environment is exactly the same as the environment in the shell in the terminal (except minor things like TERM)
Why is my loaded function not being shown in auto-completion in emacs? Is there a "bash compatibility mode" for the shell mode?
It is this small inconsistencies in behavior which prevent me for going full emacs, and I keep using other tools (in this case bash in a terminal) for different tasks.
Answer: The completion function for shell-mode is shell--command-completion-data. It searches for filenames in the current directory and executable files on your path. It does not consider functions. You could write your own replacement function, possibly using the shell command declare -F to dynamically collect the list of defined functions. However, there's nothing available 'out of the box' to do this for you.


What ways are there to cut object in multiple separate meshes?

Question: I'm a beginner with blender, but I managed to complete my model. Problem is, that I'm making the model so I can print it with a 3d-printer, and the item is so large that I have to cut it in 5 separate pieces, print and then glue them together. I know exactly where I want to cut it, but dont know how
Comment: there could be a few ways, just using knife (K) as suggested below can obviously cut your model, but you must then separate part of the mesh, and ensure it is printable by itself, and then that it will stick well when you later glue all together. You could need some help from soem additional geometry to help tham align ewell... Depending on your model, some way could be better than others, try to show one or more pictures of it, editing your question then using the image tool.
Answer:
First make a backup of your model / .blend.
Also, experiment on throwaway objects first, to get a sense of what's going on.

If you know exactly where you want to cut you can slice (bisect) by plane using the boolean Modifier. You can position the plane manually, or dial in its location/rotation values in the properties panel.

With these settings:

The direction that the plane faces (its Normal) determines what part of the object will be cut away.
Using multiple planes you can make wedges, note: here the planes are both facing towards eachother.

The last step is you apply the modifiers from top-to-bottom and you'll get a manifold (closed) mesh of that wedge:
Answer: Select your model

Go into edit mode

Press [K] and press [Z] -> you can now cut your mesh

Select the cut half

Press [P] and click on selection. This puts your selection in a new mesh
Comment: @dr.Sybren Thanks for editing. I was not on the site until now.
Comment: How do I select the cut half?
Comment: I've updated the answer to explain how.
Comment: @dr. Sybren "select linked" does not work in this case: knife tool is just adding _connected_ geometry where you cut... this is why I said above "there are other ways"
Comment: In that case I wouldn't know by heart how to select, except for manual selection.
Comment: It's possible to select the cut made by Knife tool (usually it will work with Alt and clicking on the cut to select those edges), then switch selection to vertices and hide them. After that select one vertex of the desired part and run Select linked. [Bisect way](https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5320/cutting-a-mesh-in-half) has an option for that
Answer: panu, imho the best method in your specific case (parts to be separated, printed separately and then glued back together) is neither just use knife or bisect.
The task to get pieces back together is particularly important: you have to think if it will be easy to stick parts together, if the glue will have space enough, if some part has different color, etc.
Since you're not showing your model we can't know how it's made, so here I put, as a sample, how I would do if I had to 3d print the Suzanne's ear separately.

As you see, there could be many ways (selections) to isolate that ear, and thinking on how you can then "close" holes that the cut will leave both on the head and on the ear (later you will have to glue together those faces), you have to make choices, and maybe some trial and error the first times.
You don't need to "cut", probably, at all (that operation always adds geometry, would yoiu really do that?), just select and separate parts of your geometry, but keeping in mind how to make the next steps easer and better.


Low voltage to the pump thereby leaving pumps dead

Question: my 2005/2006 Ford focus hatchback car developed a stalling, jerking and sudden stop problem for 3months now. I have changed the spark plugs, ignition coil, fuel relay, used 9fuel pumps, changed slow jet, changed air collector, used 2 fuel
pump casings, inner & outer fuel filters and changed the brain box all to no avail. I have also washed my fuel tank from clogs. Diagnosis displayed error code PO230. Please, what could be the possible element that reduces voltage to the pump thereby damaging it 20 minutes after installation/change. Thanks
Comment: So you multi metered the fuel pump connection, what volts are you getting? Are you sure its been the fuel pump each time? Does it drive normal leading up to those 20 minutes? if your worried about the wiring run a new positive directly from the battery and use the old wiring harness to trigger a relay
Comment: I am yet to Meter test the fuel pump connections. Please, What readings do I expect? It drives normal before the 20minutes Grace period. I have also powered the pump directly from the battery all to no avail. Could it possibly be the alternator?
Answer: You need to check the fuel pump relay, as well as the inertia "crash" switch in the rear of the vehicle.  Those are the likely things that can cause a P0230 on a Ford focus.
The only other possibility is the crank shaft sensor, which pulses the ECM and causes the fuel pump to be kept "live" and running.  I doubt the problem is here, as the vechicle would not run well at all with a failed CPS crankshaft sensor.  While it's possible this sensor is overheating and causing the problem, I would look at the fuel pump relay and inertia switch first.
Comment: I have changed the fuel pump relay and the problem still persists but I didn't check for any possible drop in voltage. However the inertia switch seems to be working cause I tried starting the car when it was turned off and the car refused coming up. Alternatively, I would check the current entering and exiting the device. Please do you think a drop in the voltage from the alternator could be the cause? Does the alternator have a direct link to the fuel pump?
Comment: If the inertia switch is bad, you won't be able to start the car.  Bypass the switch and see if the problem still persists.  If you have reasonable battery voltage (12.5 volts or better) the alternator is certainly not the issue.
Comment: Hi. I took voltage readings for the battery, relay, inertia switch, alternator and fuel pump. When engine is idle, battery-12.48v & cranking-13.5v. When engine is idle, alternator-12.49v & cranking-13.77v. When engine is cranking, Inertia feed cable before switch-12.92v & after switch-12.84v. When engine is cranking, fuel pump-12.6v & during the stalling, jerking & sudden stop situation fuel pump-11.6v. The problem is intermittent. it occurs at odd times one cannot predict especially when the A/C is on. How do I bypass the inertia switch? Can I bypass for up to 48hours without Counter effects?


Moving Nokia content to an Android phone

Question: What is the easiest way to move Nokia (Symbian E series) content, such as contacts, inbox, photos, etc. to an Android phone? I can extract a backup from the Nokia but it's in <code>.nbu</code> format
Answer: By far the easiest way to transfer anything contacts related to an Android phone is via GMail.
When I moved from an old Nokia phone to my Android HTC Magic about a year ago, I downloaded and installed the Nokia Suite of tools for my phone from the Nokia website, installed them, copied my contacts into the Nokia Suite app on the PC, then did an export from the Nokia Suite contacts app to a CSV file. I remember seeing the Noklia-only NBU format as an optin, but if you're in the Contacts-only part of the suite it should also allow the CSV export (as this is also the easiest way to do a one-off import to other apps like Outlook).
At that point you can go into GMail, click the Contacts link, then at the top you should see an "Import" option, use that to upload your CSV file. All that you should lose from this is the contact's photos, but you can easily back up your contact's photos from the Nokia suite, and then just upload them to GMail one by one, or alternatively let Android on the phone sync with Facebook, etc and pull the Contacts photos from there itself.
You might find that if you already had some people in your GMail address book that you'll have a few duplicates now, just tick the relevant Contacts in Gmail and select "Merge these contacts".
For content, such as photos or music, which are probably just files on the Nokia's SD memory card, the easiest way is to attach the phone to a PC, select Data Storage/Transfer Mode on the phone, then open the SD card drive on the PC, drag all the relevant files onto the PC, then attach Android phone, mount SD card and drag all the content into the relevant folders on the Android's SD card.
As for messages, do you mean SMS/MMS text messages? As far as I know there aren't easy ways to transfer those between phone OS's at all (unless you're already doing something like sync'ing them to GMail).
Comment: yup, I mean sms'es
Comment: See this answer to another question http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9357/sms-backup-in-android/9434#9434 where it mentions that VeryAndroid SMS backup can be used to transfer SMS's from Nokia to Android.
Answer: I have to agree with GAThrawn, that using GMail to transfer your contacts and calender items is probably the best way. But there is an IMHO easier solution to get your data from the Nokia phone to GMail: Nokia's Mail for Exchange together with Google Sync. Google provides a couple of help topics to get you going.
Answer:
Samsung create an app called Samsung Smart Switch Mobile, it support transfer data from Nokia to Samsung mobiles. You can have a try although your phone is not Samsung.
Wondershare software named MobileTrans also can transfer data from Nokia to Android.

They can both transfer contacts, messages, photos and videos to Android.
Comment: Neither Smart Switch or MobileTrans worked here. Smart Switch could not see the Nokia back up, & mobileTrans only saw about 20% of the SMS, & none of the contacts, photos or other data
Answer: There is a easy way that transfer contacts from Nokia to android phone.
Android Devices: Samsung Galaxy S7 edge/S7 /Note 5/S6 edge/S5 | Huawei | Sony | LG | Nexus | HTC | Moto
Nokia: Windows phone/ Symbian/ android
Transfer File: Contacts, Music, Videos, Photos.
Transfer contacts from Nokia to android phone
Comment: What is your connection to this product? If any, you should declare it.
Answer: Here's how I moved content from a Nokia 808 PureView (Belle FP2) to a Samsung Galaxy S8 (Android 7.0 (Nougat)).
Contacts and calendar
To transfer contacts and calendar, I synced via Gmail (see other answers for details).
Photos and videos
To transfer photos and videos:

Connect the Symbian phone to a computer via USB in mass storage mode and copy the contents of the DCIM folder from the mass storage and memory card
To copy to Android

from Windows: connect via USB in mass storage mode and copy to the DCIM folder on Android
from Mac: install and open Android File Transfer then connect via USB and copy to the DCIM folder on Android

SMS messages
To transfer SMS messages:

Open Nokia Suite (I used 3.8.54)
Connect your Symbian phone
Go to the Messages tab (fourth icon along the top)
Click "Sync messages" at the bottom
Wait for sync to finish
Select File > "Export text messages..." and save as csv
Copy CSV to Android phone
On Android, install Anything With Sms from Google Play
Open Anything With Sms
From the import tab choose the CSV file

The format switched from Nokia Csv to Nokia Suite 3.8

Toggle "Default App" for Anything With Sms to be the default app for SMS. This is only temporary for when importing the messages and we'll turn it off later.
Click the blue import button in the bottom-right corner
Click OK at the info screen about "Change messaging app"
Wait for import to finish
When finished, click Great! and toggle to turn off default app
Close Anything With Sms
Finally, open your Android messaging app and select the menu > "Mark all as read"


Bitcoin Transaction Fee

Question: Does the bitcoin transaction fee depend on the number of addresses in the proverbial from field or the number of transactions that led to the balance in the addresses in the from field.
eg:
I have 10 addresses each containing 1 bitcoin,is it better to send them from where  they are to another person or if I transfer all the bitcoins in every address to a single address and then sent the bitcoins from there. I am only talking about the transaction fee in the final send to the other person.
Answer: Basically, one or a few number of inputs should make no real difference. But at some point the size of the transaction may grow so big that it will start to get less priority over other ones, because miners may prefer lower-sized transactions to get more transactions fees (assuming they would hit regularly the block size limit).
Anyway the workaround you propose is pointless, moving bitcoins separately from several addresses to one unique address prior of the real transaction would cost you even more. The total size of all the transactions you need for that would exceed the size of a unique direct transaction with several inputs.
BTW, notice that the virtual balance your client shows for each of your "accounts" may not reflect the real repartition as seen by the network for each associated address. (It costs nothing to move virtual amount from one account to the other, but it will also not change the way transactions will be build later by the client).
Answer: Bitcoin transaction fee depends on the Client and its settings. The Standard Client charges a minimum fee based on the Transaction size and whether the Transaction appears spammy (quite reasonable), but there are code branches that allow you to send transactions without fees.
As the Standard Client is the most predominant client used today, you have to adhere to its rules if you want your transactions relayed in most cases. However, you can always set the fee higher if you are feeling generous or want to make sure the transaction gets included into a block faster.
Comment: Am astonished to find that the standard client still enforce these arbitrary limits. It's been a while I have not followed the development of bitcoin. It's a shame that these fees and block size limits considerations have not been sorted out already! Isn't it too late now? Because of that, bitcoin still hasn't got a predictable future (right now it's not scalable, neither in value nor in transaction bandwidth).
Comment: @StéphaneGimenez Fees are a necessary part of Bitcoin in the future when the block reward will start going down.
Comment: Sorry my comment was a bit of topic, an this comment is also off-topic. I'll delete them soon. About fees yes that's the plan, but right now fees are just a big joke :-) And anyway I don't even think it can work without inflation… bitcoin holders must pay for the costy bitcoin mechanics, not bitcoin transactors, otherwise forks will invariably happen.
Comment: @StéphaneGimenez Hmm, do you have that idea described somewhere (like on a forum)? It sounds like an alternative, but one that would need to be analysed on its own.
As for deleting - don't worry about it, comments are useful insights too, and these ones appear to lead to an interesting discussion.

Bitcoin Transaction Fee


Can a Jewish man be a sperm donor?

Question: What are the Halachik issues with donating sperm in a non-Jewish community?
Answer: No, a Jewish man cannot be a sperm donor.
Based on tshuvos from Reb Moshe (Igrot Moshe, Even Ha'Ezer 1:71 & 4:32.5) we can say

Niuff byad is an issur which only married couples who undergo IVF can get around, but single guys in a clinic can't.
The assumption is that the sperm will go to a nonjew, so there is no kiyum of pru urvu to dissipate the issur of hotzaas zera livatala.
Since you can't guarantee that a Jewish woman won't end up impregnated with said sperm, you run into a problem of siblings from the same father possibly marrying each other, which is arayos and makes mamzeirim.
Comment: This answer would be vastly improved if it would at the very least list the responsa of R'MF it refers to. Ideally, it should say how it got from them to its conclusions. Oh, and translating words into English would help, too.
Comment: Do we need Kiyum Pru uRvu to dissipate it? Wouldn't we still allow for Bedika of a Kerut Shofkha to allow him to marry an Aylonit?
Comment: I'm not familiar with that. I thought we don't ever allow bedikos for marriage. If you have something to share I'd be iinterested in seeing it.
Comment: I thought RMFs whole proof was from a Gemara in Yevamot about checking a Krut Shofkha to see if he could marry, and IVF is a Kol Shekein
Comment: @Double He mentions the theoretical case of using hot bread to test without niuf yes, but I don't think he believes that is actually muttar to do. The gemara itself was docheh that approach. Have you ever seen someone allowing that bedika?
Comment: #3 might be avoided if the donor is willing to reveal his identity to the parents?
Comment: #3 It should be noted that R' Moshe regarded a man artificially inseminating a married Jewish woman as not being adultery (many poskim agree with him.). However, other poskim (like the Satmar Rav) state that such is in fact adultery (or some hold its  close enough to be forbidden/avoided.)

Can a Jewish man be a sperm donor?


Solving a linear equation

Question: I need to programmatically solve a system of linear equations in C, Objective C, or (if needed) C++.
Here's an example of the equations:
-44.3940 = a * 50.0 + b * 37.0 + tx
-45.3049 = a * 43.0 + b * 39.0 + tx
-44.9594 = a * 52.0 + b * 41.0 + tx

From this, I'd like to get the best approximation for a, b, and tx.
Comment: Other people have answered this, but check out the book *Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing* by Kincaid and Cheney. The book is largely about solving different systems of equations.
Answer: Cramer's Rule
and
Gaussian Elimination
are two good, general-purpose algorithms (also see Simultaneous Linear Equations). If you're looking for code, check out GiNaC, Maxima, and SymbolicC++ (depending on your licensing requirements, of course).
EDIT: I know you're working in C land, but I also have to put in a good word for SymPy (a  computer algebra system in Python). You can learn a lot from its algorithms (if you can read a bit of python). Also, it's under the new BSD license, while most of the free math packages are GPL.
Comment: actually, neither cramer's rule nor gaussian elimination are very good in the real world. neither have good numerical properties, and neither are used much for serious applications. try LDU factorization. or better, don't worry about the algorithm, and use LAPACK instead.
Comment: for variables number less than 4, Cramer's Rule is best for writing solving code imo
Answer: You can solve this with a program exactly the same way you solve it by hand (with multiplication and subtraction, then feeding results back into the equations). This is pretty standard secondary-school-level mathematics.
-44.3940 = 50a + 37b + c (A)
-45.3049 = 43a + 39b + c (B)
-44.9594 = 52a + 41b + c (C)

(A-B): 0.9109 =  7a -  2b (D)
(B-C): 0.3455 = -9a -  2b (E)

(D-E): 1.2564 = 16a (F)

(F/16):  a = 0.078525 (G)

Feed G into D:
       0.9109 = 7a - 2b
    => 0.9109 = 0.549675 - 2b (substitute a)
    => 0.361225 = -2b (subtract 0.549675 from both sides)
    => -0.1806125 = b (divide both sides by -2) (H)

Feed H/G into A:
       -44.3940 = 50a + 37b + c
    => -44.3940 = 3.92625 - 6.6826625 + c (substitute a/b)
    => -41.6375875 = c (subtract 3.92625 - 6.6826625 from both sides)

So you end up with:
a =   0.0785250
b =  -0.1806125
c = -41.6375875

If you plug these values back into A, B and C, you'll find they're correct.
The trick is to use a simple 4x3 matrix which reduces in turn to a 3x2 matrix, then a 2x1 which is "a = n", n being an actual number. Once you have that, you feed it into the next matrix up to get another value, then those two values into the next matrix up until you've solved all variables.
Provided you have N distinct equations, you can always solve for N variables. I say distinct because these two are not:
 7a + 2b =  50
14a + 4b = 100

They are the same equation multiplied by two so you cannot get a solution from them - multiplying the first by two then subtracting leaves you with the true but useless statement:
0 = 0 + 0

By way of example, here's some C code that works out the simultaneous equations that you're placed in your question. First some necessary types, variables, a support function for printing out an equation, and the start of main:
#include <stdio.h>

typedef struct { double r, a, b, c; } tEquation;
tEquation equ1[] = {
    { -44.3940,  50, 37, 1 },      // -44.3940 = 50a + 37b + c (A)
    { -45.3049,  43, 39, 1 },      // -45.3049 = 43a + 39b + c (B)
    { -44.9594,  52, 41, 1 },      // -44.9594 = 52a + 41b + c (C)
};
tEquation equ2[2], equ3[1];

static void dumpEqu (char *desc, tEquation *e, char *post) {
    printf ("%10s: %12.8lf = %12.8lfa + %12.8lfb + %12.8lfc (%s)\n",
        desc, e->r, e->a, e->b, e->c, post);
}

int main (void) {
    double a, b, c;

Next, the reduction of the three equations with three unknowns to two equations with two unknowns:
    // First step, populate equ2 based on removing c from equ.

    dumpEqu (">", &(equ1[0]), "A");
    dumpEqu (">", &(equ1[1]), "B");
    dumpEqu (">", &(equ1[2]), "C");
    puts ("");

    // A - B
    equ2[0].r = equ1[0].r * equ1[1].c - equ1[1].r * equ1[0].c;
    equ2[0].a = equ1[0].a * equ1[1].c - equ1[1].a * equ1[0].c;
    equ2[0].b = equ1[0].b * equ1[1].c - equ1[1].b * equ1[0].c;
    equ2[0].c = 0;

    // B - C
    equ2[1].r = equ1[1].r * equ1[2].c - equ1[2].r * equ1[1].c;
    equ2[1].a = equ1[1].a * equ1[2].c - equ1[2].a * equ1[1].c;
    equ2[1].b = equ1[1].b * equ1[2].c - equ1[2].b * equ1[1].c;
    equ2[1].c = 0;

    dumpEqu ("A-B", &(equ2[0]), "D");
    dumpEqu ("B-C", &(equ2[1]), "E");
    puts ("");

Next, the reduction of the two equations with two unknowns to one equation with one unknown:
    // Next step, populate equ3 based on removing b from equ2.

    // D - E
    equ3[0].r = equ2[0].r * equ2[1].b - equ2[1].r * equ2[0].b;
    equ3[0].a = equ2[0].a * equ2[1].b - equ2[1].a * equ2[0].b;
    equ3[0].b = 0;
    equ3[0].c = 0;

    dumpEqu ("D-E", &(equ3[0]), "F");
    puts ("");

Now that we have a formula of the type number1 = unknown * number2, we can simply work out the unknown value with unknown <- number1 / number2. Then, once you've figured that value out, substitute it into one of the equations with two unknowns and work out the second value. Then substitute both those (now-known) unknowns into one of the original equations and you now have the values for all three unknowns:
    // Finally, substitute values back into equations.

    a = equ3[0].r / equ3[0].a;
    printf ("From (F    ), a = %12.8lf (G)\n", a);

    b = (equ2[0].r - equ2[0].a * a) / equ2[0].b;
    printf ("From (D,G  ), b = %12.8lf (H)\n", b);

    c = (equ1[0].r - equ1[0].a * a - equ1[0].b * b) / equ1[0].c;
    printf ("From (A,G,H), c = %12.8lf (I)\n", c);

    return 0;
}

The output of that code matches the earlier calculations in this answer:
         >: -44.39400000 =  50.00000000a +  37.00000000b +   1.00000000c (A)
         >: -45.30490000 =  43.00000000a +  39.00000000b +   1.00000000c (B)
         >: -44.95940000 =  52.00000000a +  41.00000000b +   1.00000000c (C)

       A-B:   0.91090000 =   7.00000000a +  -2.00000000b +   0.00000000c (D)
       B-C:  -0.34550000 =  -9.00000000a +  -2.00000000b +   0.00000000c (E)

       D-E:  -2.51280000 = -32.00000000a +   0.00000000b +   0.00000000c (F)

From (F    ), a =   0.07852500 (G)
From (D,G  ), b =  -0.18061250 (H)
From (A,G,H), c = -41.63758750 (I)

Answer: For a 3x3 system of linear equations I guess it would be okay to roll out your own algorithms.
However, you might have to worry about accuracy, division by zero or really small numbers and what to do about infinitely many solutions. My suggestion is to go with a standard numerical linear algebra package such as LAPACK.
Answer: Take a look at the Microsoft Solver Foundation.
With it you could write code like this:
  SolverContext context = SolverContext.GetContext();
  Model model = context.CreateModel();

  Decision a = new Decision(Domain.Real, "a");
  Decision b = new Decision(Domain.Real, "b");
  Decision c = new Decision(Domain.Real, "c");
  model.AddDecisions(a,b,c);
  model.AddConstraint("eqA", -44.3940 == 50*a + 37*b + c);
  model.AddConstraint("eqB", -45.3049 == 43*a + 39*b + c);
  model.AddConstraint("eqC", -44.9594 == 52*a + 41*b + c);
  Solution solution = context.Solve();
  string results = solution.GetReport().ToString();
  Console.WriteLine(results);

Here is the output:
===Solver Foundation Service Report===
Datetime: 04/20/2009 23:29:55
Model Name: Default
Capabilities requested: LP
Solve Time (ms): 1027
Total Time (ms): 1414
Solve Completion Status: Optimal
Solver Selected: Microsoft.SolverFoundation.Solvers.SimplexSolver
Directives:
Microsoft.SolverFoundation.Services.Directive
Algorithm: Primal
Arithmetic: Hybrid
Pricing (exact): Default
Pricing (double): SteepestEdge
Basis: Slack
Pivot Count: 3
===Solution Details===
Goals:

Decisions:
a: 0.0785250000000004
b: -0.180612500000001
c: -41.6375875
Comment: So, what numerical stability properties can we expect from this? Since this isn't open source, it's supposed to come with due diligence, benchmarks against mainstream libraries like LAPACK, etc. There's got to be some substantial advantage to outweigh having to go with a proprietary solution.
Answer: Are you looking for a software package that'll do the work or actually doing the matrix operations and such and do each step?
The the first, a coworker of mine just used Ocaml GLPK. It is just a wrapper for the GLPK, but it removes a lot of the steps of setting things up. It looks like you're going to have to stick with the GLPK, in C, though. For the latter, thanks to delicious for saving an old article I used to learn LP awhile back, PDF. If you need specific help setting up further, let us know and I'm sure, me or someone will wander back in and help, but, I think it's fairly straight forward from here. Good Luck!
Answer: Template Numerical Toolkit from NIST has tools for doing that.
One of the more reliable ways is to use a QR Decomposition.
Here's an example of a wrapper so that I can call "GetInverse(A, InvA)" in my code and it will put the inverse into InvA.
void GetInverse(const Array2D<double>& A, Array2D<double>& invA)
   {
   QR<double> qr(A);
   invA = qr.solve(I);
   }

Array2D is defined in the library.
Answer: In terms of run-time efficiency, others have answered better than I.  If you always will have the same number of equations as variables, I like Cramer's rule as it's easy to implement.  Just write a function to calculate determinant of a matrix (or use one that's already written, I'm sure you can find one out there), and divide the determinants of two matrices.
Answer: From the wording of your question, it seems like you have more equations than unknowns and you want to minimize the inconsistencies.  This is typically done with linear regression, which minimizes the sum of the squares of the inconsistencies.  Depending on the size of the data, you can do this in a spreadsheet or in a statistical package.  R is a high-quality, free package that does linear regression, among a lot of other things.  There is a lot to linear regression (and a lot of gotcha's), but as it's straightforward to do for simple cases.  Here's an R example using your data.  Note that the "tx" is the intercept to your model.
> y <- c(-44.394, -45.3049, -44.9594)
> a <- c(50.0, 43.0, 52.0)
> b <- c(37.0, 39.0, 41.0)
> regression = lm(y ~ a + b)
> regression

Call:
lm(formula = y ~ a + b)

Coefficients:
(Intercept)            a            b
  -41.63759      0.07852     -0.18061

Answer: Personally, I'm partial to the algorithms of Numerical Recipes. (I'm fond of the C++ edition.)
This book will teach you why the algorithms work, plus show you some pretty-well debugged implementations of those algorithms.
Of course, you could just blindly use CLAPACK (I've used it with great success), but I would first hand-type a Gaussian Elimination algorithm to at least have a faint idea of the kind of work that has gone into making these algorithms stable.
Later, if you're doing more interesting linear algebra, looking around the source code of Octave will answer a lot of questions.
Answer: function x = LinSolve(A,y)
%
% Recursive Solution of Linear System Ax=y
% matlab equivalent: x = A\y
% x = n x 1
% A = n x n
% y = n x 1
% Uses stack space extensively. Not efficient.
% C allows recursion, so convert it into C.
% ----------------------------------------------
n=length(y);
x=zeros(n,1);
if(n>1)
    x(1:n-1,1) = LinSolve( A(1:n-1,1:n-1) - (A(1:n-1,n)*A(n,1:n-1))./A(n,n) , ...
                           y(1:n-1,1) - A(1:n-1,n).*(y(n,1)/A(n,n)));
    x(n,1) = (y(n,1) - A(n,1:n-1)*x(1:n-1,1))./A(n,n);
else
    x = y(1,1) / A(1,1);
end

Comment: So what if `A(n,n)` is zero?
Answer: For general cases, you could use python along with numpy for Gaussian elimination. And then plug in values and get the remaining values.

Solving a linear equation


if i delete photos on my camera roll on my iphone will it delete the photos on photo stream on my macbook pro?

Question: If I delete photos on my camera roll on my iphone 4s will it delete the photos on photo stream on my macbook pro?
Answer: It shouldn't. The Camera Roll and your Photo Stream "live" in separate places.
I just did a test with this. I placed the same photo in both the Photo Stream and the Camera Roll and then deleted the copy from the Camera Roll. The one in the Photo Stream stayed in place.
Comment: Just make sure you're at the right place... If you have the setting to send your photos to iCloud automatically, you should get them in both, if I remember correctly and it can be misleading.
Comment: Yeah, it's a little confusing, unfortunately, especially because if you only have a photo in the Photo Stream album and you delete it deletes it from every Photo Stream album on every device. Can be disastrous if you don't have a copy saved elsewhere.
Comment: But if only in camera roll it shouldn't affect other devices, right?


Security of 3G network

Question: If I'm using a 3G modem on USB, is that secured or easily hackable? Is there some form of encryption built into it?
Comment: No it is not "secure".
Answer:
Is there some form of encryption built into it?

Yes, 3G has encryption. It usually is strong enough for attacks based on observation alone.

is that secured or easily hackable?

Sigh. Could we move away from using words like "hackable" or "I've been hacked" in general? They're super non-descriptive.
If "hacking" means cracking the cipher used to encrypt the over-the-air data, no, that's pretty hard and I don't know whether that is done anywhere. That is, assuming that in a post-2010 world, operators have learned to use the right ciphers and periodically exchange keys.
If "hacking" means swindling and imposing as a legit base station to capture the traffic of a telephone, maybe with or without cooperation of the network operator: That's a lot easier.
If "hacking" includes your computer, to which you connect your modem: Well, you might have noticed that there's thousands of new malwares every month. There's certainly some security holes in your system. And that might be used to gain access to your data, regardless of encryption.
Comment: @frenchie then you picked the wrong question. I answered your "is it secure" question with my answer above – as always, it's a "it depends on your understanding of secure and the actual network".
Comment: Ok; would you do a remote TCP connection to a database to update some tables over 3G?
Comment: I wouldn't do an unencrypted connection to a database over **any** connection.
Comment: I mean, how is that even a question? Any half-way reasonable database admin won't allow you to connect to their database externally without at least a layer of TLS!
Comment: Any half-way reasonable administrator won't expose their production systems to the Internet *at all* except through a tightly controlled firewall. If it isn't a production system, then it doesn't matter. (At work, I don't really care if my development databases get corrupted, because for the very most part, I can just deploy a fresh instance of the database on top of the corrupted one and go on my merry way. Sure, I might lose a little bit of test data, but so what? And *even the development database server* is only accessible internally or through a VPN terminated at the office concentrator.)
Comment: The question was just a hypothetical to see if 3G was secure.
Answer: I'm going to copy a comment of OP's into this answer, because it's relevant to understanding the context in which this question was asked:

The question was just a hypothetical to see if 3G was secure. – frenchie 2016-12-04 17:54:31Z

This shows a flawed understanding of what "security" is and means.
"Secure" isn't a binary property of a technology. It depends on implementation (largely fixed in this case, albeit details can vary between manufacturers) and varies with threat model, and is a set of points on many continuums. It isn't even a point on a single continuum because each distinct threat is a different continuum.
Is a 3G mobile connection secure against eavesdropping by my little sister? Probably. The data is highly likely to be encrypted while in transit, and I suspect that my little sister does not possess the equipment or expertise to meaningfully receive, demodulate and decrypt data not intended for a specific handset or subscriber identity in her possession.
Is a 3G mobile connection in some particular location secure against denial of service by a nation-state adversary? Probably not; if nothing else, they could place a powerful transmitter closer to me than the nearest base station, overpowering the legitimate signal and thus denying me service. The technology for doing that is fairly simple; a powerful broadband white noise transmitter isn't too hard to build.
Is a 3G mobile connection secure against the computer it's attached to getting hacked by an organized crime group? In that case, the fact that the data is carried over 3G is irrelevant, just as much as the fact that a computer would be connected over fiber or ADSL would be irrelevant. What matters then is how the system is protected and configured, what software is running on it, and how that software is configured.
Unless you define your threat model, asking whether something is "secure" is meaningless. It's similar to asking whether a Formula 1 car is a good car. Sure, it's a good car for its designed purpose; for that, it's a great car, even. But it might not be the best choice for commuting to and from work on public roads.
Answer: As an example, I will relate what a techie I spoke to has done with a HackRF One:
- set up IMSI catcher with OpenBTS
- downgrade client crypto
- sniff network traffic
- listen in on phonecalls
He did this in EU, and I have no reason to believe US/rest of world is hardened against this.
Always use end-to-end encryption (Signal app for example, even WhatsApp or Skype etc) if it matters - remember eg a VPN doesn't encapsulate normal mobile calls.
Assume you are compromised (but don't be paranoid), and don't trust networking devices more than you trust speaking in front of an audience.

Security of 3G network


Writing data on EEPROM or Flash memory of the PIC18F47J53

Question: So I am using the 18F47J53 in Hitech PICC18-PRO compiler with MPLAB-X IDE, and for some reason there happens to be absolutely no support for the reading/writing function to either the flash or the EEPROM. All I need to do is write a received mobile telephone number that is read from a GSM module when receiving an SMS. Then later recall this number for comparison.
It seems as though it should be a really simple procedure using on of the predefined commands such as "eeprom_write(unsigned int address,unsigned char data);", though after checking why I get an error, I see that these commands are not supported, and even the basic standard command "EEPROM_WRITE(addr, data)" which does compile, does not do anything as it was "Added only for code portability", and the functions have been commented out.
Does this mean that this processor does not support any sort of internal read/write functionality, or has it just never been defined.
I have started manually (bit-wise) writing read/write/erase functions for this though without proper addressing could cause some major run time errors, especially due to the fact that the erase function can only work in blocks of 1024 bytes.
The write function looks something like this:
<code>while(WR != 0){;}   // wait till EEPROM idle

    /* Load Table pointer Reg with Write to address (previously block erased) */
    TBLPTRU = Code_Addr_Upper;  // Load TBLPTR with Base Addresses?
    TBLPTRH = Code_Addr_High;   // Load TBLPTR with Base Addresses?
    TBLPTRL = Code_Addr_Low;    // Must be EVEN Addresses?

do{
       GIE = 0;                 /* disable interrupts */
    }while(GIE != 0);           /* make sure it worked */

WREN=1;                     /* enable writes */
EECON2=0x55;                // required sequence for EEPROM update
EECON2=0xAA;

do{
       WR = 1;                  /* disable interrupts */
    }while(WR != 1);            /* make sure it worked */

    WREN=0;                     /* Disable writes */
GIE=1;                      // re-enable interrupts
</code>
which receives 2 bytes at a time as the datasheet states that the smallest write size is 1 word at a time.
Has anyone found a way around this? Surely there is a simpler way.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: The PIC18F47J53 doesn't have EEPROM memory.
As for Flash programming, I don't believe there's a simpler way to write to it than the one you tried. You just have to be careful not to write/erase an already used memory section.


Greed over meat

Question: Is greed over meat is more unwholesome compare to greed over non-meat dishes? Meat is non-living thing, greed is greed, they're the same. Many studies have shown that meat consumption involve in far greater number of killing compare to non-meat diet. More meat means more supply therefore more killing. So is it true greed over meat is more unwholesome?
Comment: What does B1100 expect to gain with this question? What escape might defilements try to seek?
Comment: See also **[the 7 other topics](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/search?q=%5Btheravada%5D+meat+is%3Aquestion)** about meat and Theravada -- including [Why is contributing to the market demand for meat not wrong?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/5948/254)
Answer: It's a highly subjective question. Someone might desire the taste of a vegetable curry more than a meat curry. Someone might desire the taste of chocolate or ice-cream more than the taste of meat. Someone might desire liquor consumption more than meat. It has nothing to do with the number of animals killed.
On the other hand, eating meat does not require desire. Even enlightened beings consume meat. Unwholesomeness comes when you desire or dislike the taste or start worrying about whether you are responsible for the dead animal.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/70818/discussion-on-answer-by-sankha-kulathantille-greed-over-meat).
Answer: Non-Theravada answer -
Greed is unwholesome. Meat dish is more unwholesome than non-meat, simply, meat dish involved killing. Where can the meat be coming from without killing? "Meat is non-living thing...", a well-developed mind might be able to tell you this is not really true... at least meat is coming from once living being, right? [Hey, do you ever wonder why meat spelled as me + eat?? In Chinese it's written as 肉, a combination of two characters, 人(human/man) + 內(inside)?!].
You are right, meat consumption means more killing. A person who cultivates compassion will feel saddened when passing by the market at the butcher's stall, those meats hanging on hooks in blood red, the sharp knife cutting across the tissues... for this very realization the meat no long taste the same.
How do you feel when a Bhante after chewing the chicken breast tearing the flesh from the legs, with this very same hands and mouth, gives talk to the lay-people, flipping the Sutta, quoting,

One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living
  beings one is called noble. -- Dhammapada, verse 270
All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place
  of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill. --
  Dhammapada, verse 129

In non-Theravada tradition, non-meat dish is praised; all the Chinese Mahayana monasteries served only vegetarian dishes. Detailed explanation in this post. If lay-people taking a Bhiksu out for meal, automatically we will go to vegetarian restaurant, to show him respect.
There are sayings of the Buddha eating meat, or his last meal was pork therefore due to food poisoning he died. One should understand its only the Theravadin interpretation. In Mahayana Sutra, the Chinese translation of Sukara-maddava is 樹耳 (tree mushroom/ truffle) since antiquity, the food in the last meal of the Buddha.
Comment: from the great link below about "The Buddha's final meal"  it seems without connection to sect there was no meat in that dish  :

https://dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Diet_of_Buddha
Comment: @breath Good you know the fact, good dhammawiki posted the correct account. However, there's enough damage done by *spreading the Buddha eating pork and died of food poison*... you can google to read. Not to mention this [Bhante](http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma3/meat.html) writing *"Even the Buddha ate meat"*. I don't know if there is **inaccurate oral tradition** transmitted the distorted stories in the Pali Vinaya, or incorrect translation of the text into Eng, or what. I read completely the Mahisasakas Pratimoksa in Chinese Canon, scanned two more Vinayas of the Early 18 Schools...
Comment: ... checked the Mahasamghika Pratimoksa - the oldest of all Vinayas, the original Vinaya since the Buddha before the story about the 1st schism over the Vinaya - in the entire Buddhist canons across different sects; there are five versions of the Vinaya in the Chinese Canon each belonged to the different Early Buddhist Schools, **none** has record like the Pali Vinaya stories telling in the Pali Canon way as quoted by the Bhante.
Comment: from the link i gave :

"There appears to be one place, and apparently only this one place, where he is described as eating meat. At AN III. 49 it mentions that the Buddha was once served sukaramamsa (Pali) with jujube fruit. The term mamsa = meat or flesh.

The sutta mentions that the Buddha ate "out of pity" apparently suggesting that he wanted to please the layman by accepting his food. "
Comment: before buddha became a monk he probably ate meat  -  after he became a monk its a different story   -  monks karma of eating meat is different than someone going to buy meat or bought for him
Comment: I respect your tradition - Pali Canon and Theravada. However I cannot trust your **oral** tradition (even modern man trusts black and white written contracts, right?) Nor if that tradition has the totality and authentic the Buddha's words, likewise. I can list loooong list to show you, too painful in this small box. Nor I can judge if the Pali word translated correctly to English. As far as my research goes, **Pali even was an invented language, it's not even spoken by any ancients**, evident is that, there is **none** other historical text recorded in Pali, except the Pali Canon...
Answer: I would say that usually meat involves a bigger desire = less wholesome than eating non-meat food
I will not even address the moral aspect of killing as being much worse than other stuff cause i dont want to say something im not sure of
its more clear this day and age that consuming meat involves killing - that you dont need to eat it for health - that it causes bad effects to the environment
now in a decision to eat something you have a lot of elements into it wholesome and un-wholsome ... like maybe not to offend the host etc  -  in the past people might have thought they need it for their health which we know is not the case today  etc
but really if you are in the supermarket and you can buy a chocolate to snack on - its pretty clear its not wholesome and its out of greed instead of choosing something to eat purely for nutrition ...  if you buy an expensive chocalte that harms your health a litte and your money which you could have used for better purposes
to buy a more expensive food is less wholesome cause it will involve usually more greed - unless for example its a healthier food
To give up on tastier foods for other more wholesome purposes (saving money- being healthier - prevent the death of animals - not harm the environment etc) ....  is good kamma
How bad kamma wise it is to fund the killing of animals (and more accurately making someone get the bad kamma of killing animals) in comparison to buying something overly expensive for taste is im not sure -  but i do think you can say this day and age most people buying meat will be something with a good percentage of akosala intentions
Answer: It all comes down to the  intentions of the individual who is eating the meat. Many cittas happen in any one moment so there can be more than one intention while eating meat  and they can be wholesome, neutral or unwholesome.

-There could be greed for craving the meat, any food or anything.
-There could be greed for supporting someone else's unwholesome actions.

-Whether or not there is greed could depend on what the individual believes deep in the subconscious.
-Whether or not there is greed could depend on the instincts about how the  individual relates to others.

Greed over meat


Detecting the Brown-Comenetz dualizing spectrum

Question: The Brown-Comenetz dualizing spectrum $I_{\mathbf{Q/Z}}$ is not detected by very many spectra: it is $BP, \mathbf{Z}, \mathbf{F}_2, X(n)$ for $n\geq 2$, and even $I_{\mathbf{Q/Z}}$-acyclic. However, if $X$ is any nontrivial finite spectrum, then $X\wedge I_{\mathbf{Q/Z}}$ is not contractible. This motivates a natural question: let $E$ be any spectrum such that $E\wedge I_{\mathbf{Q/Z}}$ is not contractible. Then, is it true that $\langle E\rangle \geq \langle X\rangle$ for some nontrivial finite spectrum $X$?
Comment: A silly comment, but X(1) is the sphere spectrum, so you probably don't want to include that in your list of examples of spectra that don't detect.
Comment: You're right, of course. I'll fix this.
Comment: Here is a failed attempt at answering this question. Suppose $E\wedge I \neq 0$. Then the same argument as in Strickland's answer, combined with the self-duality of the generalized Moore spectra, shows that $[E, M(i_0, \cdots, i_n)] \neq 0$. If $E$ had a finite acyclic $F$, then $[E,F] = 0$. If $F$ has type $N$, then every type $N$ spectrum (in particular, $M(i_0, \cdots, i_N)$) can be obtained from $F$ via a finite number of retracts and cofiber sequences, so we would run into a contradiction. Therefore $E$ cannot have a finite acyclic.
Comment: Note that if such an $E$ with a finite acyclic existed, it would be a counterexample. Indeed, $\langle E \rangle \geq \langle X \rangle \geq \langle T(n) \rangle$ for every $n\geq N$, where $X$ has type $N$. As $\langle T(n) \rangle \geq \langle K(n) \rangle$, this implies that $\langle E \rangle \geq \langle K(n) \rangle$ for every $n\geq N$. If $E$ had a finite acyclic $F$, then $K(n)_\ast F=0$ for every $n$, i.e., $F$ would be contractible (as finite spectra are harmonic).
Comment: In fact, since $\bigvee_n \langle K(n) \rangle \geq \langle I \rangle$ (all finite spectra are harmonic), this shows that $\langle E \rangle\geq \langle I \rangle$ on finite spectra. I think that this is true on all spectra, and in fact, I believe that the question is equivalent to the following: if $E$ is a spectrum with no finite acyclics, then $\langle E\rangle \geq \langle I\rangle$. (Note that $\langle E\rangle \geq \langle I\rangle$ implies that $E$ has a finite local, namely $S/p$.) I don't know how to prove this equivalence, though.
Answer: Your question appears to be equivalent to the 'dichotomy conjecture' of Hovey, which I believe is still open.
First, note that any finite spectrum has a type, and all finite spectrum of type $n$ have the same Bousfield class, usually denoted $F(n)$. In Hovey and Strickland's memoir (Appendix B) they conjecture that if $E \wedge I \ne 0$, then $\langle E \rangle \ge \langle F(n) \rangle$ for some $n$. This is precisely your question.
In his paper on the chromatic splitting conjecture, Hovey conjectured that every spectrum has either a finite acyclic or a finite local (the dichotomy conjecture). With Palmieri (The structure of the Bousfield lattice) he proved that the following conjectures are equivalent:

(1) If $E \wedge I \ne 0$, then $\langle E \rangle \ge \langle F(n) \rangle$ for some $n$.
(2) The dichotomy conjecture.
(3) If $E$ has no finite acyclics, then $\langle E \rangle \ge \langle I \rangle$.

The analog of the dichotomy conjecture is known to hold in other categories with a good theory of support satisfying the tensor product property - see 'The Bousfield lattice of a triangulated category and stratification' by Iyengar and Krause.
Comment: I just noticed your comments to the question - it seems you have already noticed that (1) is equivalent to (3)!
Comment: Awesome, thanks for the references! This means that the question is probably really hard to solve; (3) is an infinite height analogue of the telescope conjecture. Indeed, one equivalent way to rephrase the telescope conjecture is that if the thick subcategory of $E$-acyclics consists of finite spectra of type $n+1$, then $\langle E \rangle \geq \langle K(n) \rangle$. Moreover, $\langle I \rangle \leq \bigvee_n \langle K(n) \rangle$, and I think this is the only class which is less than or equal to $\bigvee_n \langle K(n) \rangle$.
Comment: The last part of the last sentence in my comment above is not exactly correct: one also has $\langle I_\mathbf{Z} \rangle \leq \bigvee_n \langle K(n) \rangle$.
Answer: I don't think that the answer is known.  However, here are some comments.  I will work everywhere with $p$-local spectra, for some fixed prime $p$, and write $I$ for the $p$-local Brown-Comenetz spectrum, so that $[W,I]=\text{Hom}(\pi_0(W),\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}_{(p)})$.
I first claim that $I\wedge W=0$ iff $[W,S_p]_*=0$ (where $S_p$ is the $p$-adic completion of the $0$-sphere spectrum).  Indeed, we have $I\wedge W=0$ iff $\pi_*(I\wedge W)=0$ iff $\text{Hom}(\pi_*(I\wedge W),\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}_{(p)})=0$ iff $[W\wedge I,I]_*=0$ iff $[W,F(I,I)]_*=0$.  Moreover, the evident map $S\to F(I,I)$ extends uniquely to give a map $S_p\to F(I,I)$, and one can check that this is an equivalence.  The claim follows from this.
In most of the cases that you have quoted where $I\wedge W=0$, the proof actually uses the Adams Spectral Sequence to show that $[W,S_p]_*=0$, and then deduces $I\wedge W=0$ by the argument given above.
Next, you have mentioned that $I\wedge X(2)=0$.  Here $X(2)$ is a ring spectrum, and it follows that $I\wedge M=0$ whenever $M$ is an $X(2)$-module.  By construction, there is a ring map $X(2)\to MU$, so any $MU$-module is an $X(2)$-module, and so annihilates $I$.  In particular we have $E\wedge I=0$ whenever $E$ is one of the standard complex-orientable spectra, such as $BP$, $E(n)$, $K(n)$, $P(n)$, $B(n)$ and so on.  Also, as $L_nS$ has the same Bousfield class as $E(n)$, we see that $L_nS\wedge I=0$.
Next, recall that $L_n^fS$ denotes the finite localisation of $S$ of chromatic height $n$.  I claim that $L_n^fS\wedge I$ is also zero.  If $n=0$ then $L_n^fS=H\mathbb{Q}$, and this is complex-orientable, so we have already seen that $L_n^fS\wedge I=0$.  Suppose instead that $n>0$.  One can reduce in a standard way to the claim that $(v^{-1}X)\wedge I=0$ whenever $X$ is a finite spectrum of height $n$, and $v$ is a $v_n$-self map of $x$.  Equivalently, we must show that $[\Sigma^m v^{-1}X,S_p]=0$ for all $m$.  If $|v|=d>0$ then $v^{-1}X$ is the homotopy colimit of the spectra $\Sigma^{-id}X$, and for fixed $m$ we have $[\Sigma^{m-id}X,S_p]=0$ for large $i$ by a connectivity argument.  The claim follows from this by the Milnor exact sequence.
I'll now explain one example where I am not sure whether $I\wedge W=0$.  Take $F(0)=S^0$, then define $F(n+1)$ recursively to be the cofibre of some $v_n$-self map of $F(n)$, inducing multiplication by $v_n^{i_n}$ in $BP$-theory say.  There are then evident maps $F(n)\to F(n+1)$, so we can let $F(\infty)$ denote the homotopy colimit.  There is an Adams-Novikov spectral sequence
$$ \text{Ext}^{**}(BP_*F(\infty),BP_*) \Longrightarrow  [F(\infty),S_p]_*. $$
I suspect that the $E_2$ page is already zero, so $[F(\infty),S_p]_*=0$, so $I\wedge F(\infty)=0$.  However, I have not proved this.
UPDATE: Tobias Barthel suggested to me the following proof that $I\wedge F(\infty)=0$ (and that $I\wedge W=0$ for yet another large collection of spectra $W$).  Put $K(\mathbb{N})=\bigvee_{n\in\mathbb{N}}K(n)$, and recall that $K(\mathbb{N})$-local spectra are called harmonic, whereas $K(\mathbb{N})$-acyclic spectra are called dissonant.  It is a theorem of Hopkins and Ravenel that all suspension spectra are harmonic.  We can construct $S/p^n$ as the desuspension of a Moore space, so it is harmonic.  We can construct $S_p$ as the homotopy inverse limit of the spectra $S/p^n$, so it is also harmonic.  This means that whenever $W$ is dissonant we have $[W,S_p]_*=0$ and so $W\wedge I=0$.  In particular, it is not hard to see that $K(\mathbb{N})_*(F(\infty))=0$ and so $F(\infty)\wedge I=0$.
Comment: Thanks! Just want to point out one other way to show that $L^f_n I = 0$. Since $L^f_n$-localization is smashing and $\langle L^f_n S \rangle \leq \langle T(0) \vee \cdots \vee T(n)\rangle$, it suffices to show that $T(n) \wedge I = 0$ for all $n$. As $\langle \mathbf{F}_p\rangle \geq \langle I\rangle$ (since the homotopy groups of $I$ are bounded above and torsion), it suffices to show that $T(n)\wedge \mathbf{F}_p = 0$. For $n=0$ this is obvious, and for $n>0$ this follows since $v_n$-self maps have positive Adams filtration.
Comment: Regarding the last paragraph: there is a trigraded spectral sequence converging to $\mathrm{Ext}^{s+n,t}(BP_\ast F(\infty), BP_\ast)$ whose $E_2$-page is $\varprojlim^n \mathrm{Ext}^{s,t}(BP_\ast F(m), BP_\ast)$. I don't know if it's any easier to show that these groups vanish.


Company's analytics account - How to change admin when current admin is unknown

Question: We have company's website successfully connected to Google Analytics account, which we can access with one email address. We have only reading rights and can't see the main admin or add other users to the Analytics account. How do we take control of our own analytics without loosing the historical data?
Comment: You will have to create a new GA account, and add new code to the site. You may have to add it to Search Console too. I doubt it. It has been a long time since I have done this. There is no way to recover the GA account that I am aware of. Google is not really helpful on these issues. You will likely have to start over. Cheers!!
Answer: It's possible to regain access to your admin account, but you would need to do a few things to show that you are the account owners. The steps here will try to help you do that: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/AdWords-Tracking-and-Reporting/How-to-gain-access-to-your-Analytics-account-Property/td-p/436348


What is the technical equivalent for "lead time"?

Question: "Lead time" in manufacturing means the time between the start of a project and appearance of the results.  Is the word "tempistica" an equivalent to this?
Comment: When speaking of something that has to be delivered, such as the final project documentation, I might say "tempo di consegna". If instead we are referring to the total duration of the project, it could be "durata del progetto".
Comment: I'd say no: *tempistica* refers to any scheduled time.
Comment: What would you suggest?
Comment: See also here: https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time
Answer: There are different suggestions for the translation of lead time. Probably the more general one is:

Tempo di esecuzione

But the Garzanti Dictionary, for instance, gives different suggestions according to context. You are probably referring to the third case:

1 durata del ciclo di ricostituzione di una scorta

2 durata del ciclo di alimentazione al reparto montaggio

3 periodo intercorrente tra l'avvio e il completamento di un processo produttivo.

Tempistica, may convey the same meaning but you need to be specific:.

studio e programmazione dei tempi entro i quali deve svolgersi un'attività; anche, tempo necessario per compiere una determinata attività.
Answer: In technical papers and with people working in project management, supply chain management you can use the English term and all will get the meaning as it's the term currently used.
If you're writing to general public:

tempo morto (lead time that are 'pure waits'), like the lead time for a external purchase delivery
tempo di processo (the time the next process phase has to wait to begin as items are not yet ready).


set the delay time for the 6 steps of bldc

Question:
Hi, i am currently working on BLDC motor controller (ESC without Back EMF), i want to know what is the max and the min delay time to switch between the 6 steps to control the speed of the motor . I am using atmega328p (with quartz 16MHZ).
Motor : Turnigy 2627 Brushless Outrunner 3800kv ( 12 v and P = 260 w )
Comment: What does the datasheet of the motor tell you? As it is the question is unanswerable as you do not reveal which motor you're using.
Comment: ok i will add it
Comment: This question does not make much sense. Timing is entirely dependent on the speed you want to run it at and the load the motor is pulling. You need to study up on BLDC motor driving. Running it open loop, it is just a synchronous motor.
Comment: i want to run it ( for now ) without load
Comment: There is always a load, even if the load is just friction and air resistance. It is clear from your question that you doing understand how BLDCs work. That's ok, we all have to start somewhere. Please take some time to read the plethora of free information available online that explain BLDC fundamentals.
Answer: Obviously the maximum delay between states is infinite, which would be stationary and holding a position (a bit like a stepper motor).
The minimum delay depends on the motor characteristics (such as slip) and the load (which will vary).
Answer: With sensorless commutation the zero crossing occurs approximately half way between commutation points, so you need a delay of half a step to switch at the correct time. The motor does 6 steps per 'electrical' revolution, but the mechanical speed is divided by the number of magnet pole pairs (1 for 2 poles, 2 for 4 poles etc.).
The Turnigy 2627-3800Kv has 6 magnet poles so its electrical speed multiplier is 6/2 = 3, and mechanical to commutation speed multiplier is 3*6 = 18. So at a motor speed of eg. 30000rpm the commutation frequency would be (30000/60)*18 = 9000Hz, and the step time would be 1/9000 = 111us. The required 1/2 step delay would then be 111us/2 = 56us.
To determine the maximum and minimum delay times you need to decide what minimum and maximum motor speeds to support. At very low speed back-emf is insufficient to get reliable zero-crossing detection so the motor is started 'open-loop'. In this mode you don't need any delay, but the initial step time could be 100ms or longer.
High-end motor speed is limited by mechanical constraints (bearings, rotor balance, centrifugal forces) magnetic losses, and loading. Your motor has a Kv of ~4330rpm/V so on 12V with no load it would do ~52000rpm, which equates to a commutation frequency 1/(52000/60)*18 = 15.6kHz. The minimum delay time required is therefore (1/15.6kHz)/2 = 32us.
Note that these calculations are for neutral timing. At high speed the winding inductance significantly retards current rise so 'advanced' timing (= shorter delay) is often applied to improve motor performance.


Can the US president be charged of crime such as murder while in office?

Question: If the US president commits murder during his vacation as an unofficial action during his presidential term, can he be charged with a crime in court (i.e., in the judiciary branch) before he steps down as a president?
Comment: I answered the question you were really asking, but of course, literally speaking, a U.S. President can be charged with any crime that a prosecutor at any level signs his or her name to. The real question you were asking, of course, is whether a U.S. President has legal immunity to criminal charges for such a crime.
Answer: Yes. The absence of immunity for a U.S. President's unofficial acts was established both in the Nixon Administration and later in the Clinton Administration.
In practice, a prosecutor would be loath to file such charges absent very, very solid probable cause, and a court would often be very deferential in accommodating the President's schedule and, for example, in allowing appearances by telephone when allowed by law, or by electing not to seize the President's passport as a bail condition to be free pending trial, as would be common for someone facing felony charges pending trial.
But, ultimately, the President does not have the right to either defer the charges until the completion of his term, or to any immunity from charges for his or her unofficial acts.
Comment: I'm not sure how the Nixon and Clinton cases establish this, since in both cases, the plan was to impeach the sitting president and remove them from office before proceeding with criminal prosecution (of course, in the event it didn't get that far).  There is also the Justice Department interpretation that a sitting president cannot be indicted.  So I'm not sure how any of this fits with your contention that the president could be charged and tried during their term.
Comment: That's interesting since an ambassador under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is afforded personal immunity to and/or to their staff _even beyond_ their official capacity as long as they are in the receiving country.
Comment: @NateEldredge The issues of Presidential immunity was addressed in the context of Nixon (subpoena on information) and Clinton (civil suit was alleged perjury by a sitting President), in opinions that held that Presidential immunity civil or criminal does not extend to unofficial acts. The impeachment threat in Nixon's case and the impeachment in Clinton's case aren't what I am referring to.


Cannot boot Ubuntu from USB 2.0 on OS X

Question: I'm running OSX 10.7.5 on a Mac Mini 2012. I'm trying to boot Ubuntu, but keep running into issue, after issue. This is what I have done:
Got an extra external hard drive an formatted to MSDOS with disk utility
Mounted The Ubuntu .iso using uNetBootin(will not recognize OSX Extended Journaled partitions)
Restarted, held down option to change startup disk, but my external hard drive did not show up
Installed rEFIt to see if it would work
Restarted, my Ubuntu partition showed up, so I booted from it
I got a blackscreen saying "Non-system disk Press any key to continue...", which is unresponsive
I've tried remounting the .iso multiple times, no success
Am I doing something wrong? I've never done anything like this, so it is a learning experience. Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, I can only type with one hand, due to a shoulder surgery. Sorry if this is not the correct place to ask.
Answer: You'll have to use a special ISO created specially for Mac:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04.3/release/
Something like ubuntu-12.04.3-desktop-amd64+mac.iso
Linux Mint can boot on Mac without any trouble.
Comment: I will try my luck with Linux Mint and will report back.
Comment: Linux Mint rocks, if you find it worth it don't forget to give a +1 to the answer.

Cannot boot Ubuntu from USB 2.0 on OS X


Authenticity of the Pontius Pilate's letter to Tiberius Caesar?

Question: Just looking to find out if this alleged Letter of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar is authentic or a later forgery? I don't care how it physically describes Jesus, just want to know how it was found and why it's claimed authentic or not. Thanks.
Comment: can you add a source to the alleged letter?
Comment: related question: http://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/15310/22319 see the first answer
Comment: I'm not entirely sure that a question about authenticating provenance for a [dubious] document is entirely on-topic here. But I'm not sure it's more on topic on [History.se] either.
Answer: I would say probable forgery. First searching for the letter before a link/source was added revealed at least 3 letters, each is written differently:

Letter of Pilate to Tiberius 1 - Unable to verify by finding an image of the original Greek manuscript
Letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar - mentions Copies are in the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. but initial searches reveal nothing, and some sites say mention:

"The Library of Congress has received a number of inquiries over the years about a purported letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar concerning Jesus Christ. The Library does not have such a letter in its collections".

Fraud by Pilate Letter - although this seems to be claiming the letter is false (I google translated it), the text of this letter is unique from the other two. This also mentions a fiction book, Letters of Pontius Pilate, published in 1928 which may be the basis for many of the supposed letters that mention Jesus
Historic Letter written by Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar - mentioned in OP question mentions it is in the British Museum but searches on that site and of the British Museum Library reveal nothing

I've found a supposed response from the British Museum

There are no surviving original letters by Herod or Pontius Pilate, to each other or to anyone else. Any manuscripts of them which do exist are forgeries or much later copies. A Syriac MS in the British Library Oriental Collections (reference number Add. 14609) contains a 6th or 7th Century copy of the letters. Here is the catalogue description of the MS:
THE DOCTRINE Of St. Peter;-The life of St. Anthony, by St. Athan-
  asius;-Account of the Monks in Egypt;-Life of Serapion;-
  Letter of Herod to Pilate, and of Pilate to Herod;-The Recogni-
  tions of St. Clement. On vellum, of the vith or viith century.
  Quarto. [14,609.]
There are many modern texts and English translations of the letters, including the one on the website link you gave.
I hope this helps.
Yours sincerely,
Zoë Stansell 2
MSS Enquiries

In favor of the a letter from Pilate concerning Jesus is this book, Archaeological Writings of the Sanhedrin and Talmuds of the Jews by William Dennes Mahan, page 205. This and other sources might be considered pseudipigrapha and Apocrypha.
One to thing to remember is that Pontius Pilate was a Roman prefect for the province of Judaea under Empereor Tiberius Caesar. There probably was correspondences, reports, and/or letters between them.
To answer the second question there is an article talking about when one letter was discovered in Liverpool in 1964 and goes into detail on why he believes it to be a fraud.
Emphasis added by me
1 source is Ante-Nicene Fathers page 459, which is also in English
2 She appears to actually work at the British Library, see the author
Comment: Herod says in one letter his daughter Herodias was playing in a pool with ice when the ice broke and cut off her head. Really? When Jesus was crucified it was that cold for ice?
Answer: I ran across mention of this letter and did some sleuthing. I have no idea where the claims to copies being in various libraries came from, but I did manage to track down its publication in English.
It's printed in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916.) It's public domain; you can download it from Internet Archive. "Pilate's letter" may have been published earlier than the Ante-Nicene Fathers set, but this edition has the benefit of showing scholarly opinion on the matter - which is what we need here.
You'd think the inclusion of the letter of Pilate would give it the credentials of authenticity, but no - the letter is placed under the heading of Apocryphal Gospels. In the introductory notice to the Apocryphal Gospels, the translator writes: "The text is formed from four authorities, none of them ancient." (p. 353) So even in the late 1800s-early 1900s scholars doubted the authenticity of the letter, if they didn't reject it outright.
That bit about the dubious authorship clearly doesn't stick in the mind as well as the much-juicier title, perfectly suited for passing around on social media today.
Comment: Welcome to the site! I like your use of external references. Please check out the [tour](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/tour) and [help center](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/help) to learn more about our cite. Also, just because this discussion is important for all answers on the site, see [what makes a good supported answer](https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/692/what-makes-a-good-supported-answer?r=SearchResults&s=1|120.7341).
Answer: Being a Roman Prefect, I do not think Pontius Pilate would have had such a high, un apologetic, vindicating, regard for Jesus, as described in the letter, especially a letter that was to be sent to and read by Tiberius Caesar.  Pontius Pilate vindicates Jesus in the letter as oppose to just relaying the facts about the events to Tiberius Cesar allowing him to draw his own conclusions about the events.  I also think if Tiberius Caesar read the letter, he would have had Pontius Pilate removed from his position if for no other reason, to defend his own authority in the region, the authority of the Roman gods and the authority of Roman rule.  Bottom line: Pontius Pilate vindicates Jesus in the letter to Tiberius Cesar as oppose to just relaying the facts about the events to Tiberius Cesar.
Comment: Hi Mark.  Please support your answer with sources.  Also, take the [tour] to see how Christianity.SE is different from a discussion forum.
Comment: And please see [what makes a good supported answer](https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/692/what-makes-a-good-supported-answer?r=SearchResults&s=1|77.5078). While your thoughts are valuable, thoughts supported by evidence and external sources are encouraged here. This question asked about the authenticity of an ancient letter, and your bottom line doesn't answer the question.
Answer: Clearly the politics of the day Is reflected  beautifully!   Its composition is magnificent In every sense of the word! But knowing how these things get edited  throughout the years by multiple copyists, particularly in a Christian era, we definitely need more than one copy  to affirm anything about its authenticity in part or in whole. Thank goodness we have over 5000 pieces No 6000 of the New Testament in 7 different families.
Answer: The letter would be explained authentic
With the justification that Pilate was never at peace with the crucifixion of Jesus. The letter explains his turmoil and regret.  Being it known that admitting this to Tiberius Caesar would have severe results and he was already planning his suicide. The letter to me when I read it was more of a testimonial and insight to his belief that Jesus was The Son of GOD
Comment: Hello and welcome to the site! Please provide sources and justification for your answer. See [what makes a good supported answer](https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/692/what-makes-a-good-supported-answer?r=SearchResults&s=1|120.7341). I hope you will explore other questions and answers to familiarize yourself with the site.
Comment: For example, how do you know Pilate "was never at peace" with Jesus' crucifixion? How do you know he had turmoil and regret? Because without this letter, we have no basis for that but speculation. The letter could only justify this position if it is authentic, which is circular reasoning.


Find flight search results from a past date?

Question: This might be a long shot, but is there anyway of finding flight results / general costs from a past date? I booked a work related flight using kayak.com for a flight a week ago. However, I now realized in order to be reimbursed for the flight by my employer, I have to prove that I booked the cheapest flight available for the date I traveled. Is there anyway to see previous flight search results? Thank you.
Answer: This is technically impossible. To get your employer convinced that you booked the cheapest flight you had to make a booking question for the past, but even if someone implemented such a thing, it won't give you the right answer: These cheap flights your employer wants to know about are now alredy booked by other persons.
Answer: This isn't possible, because airline tickets are dynamically priced: the price you see depends on a host of factors, such as current availabilty of seats. Also, the cost of a particular ticket can depends on who you buy it from, so being able to retrospectively find the cheapest ticket would require data from all sellers – it wouldn't be enough for, e.g., the airline itself to keep a database.
In practical terms, your company might be happy with an approximate price. For example, suppose you paid $500 for your ticket and you can show that there are tickets available today for $450. They'd probably be prepared to reimburse you the $450, which means your mistake would only cost you $50. Conversely, if the cheapest ticket today is $550, they might accept that your $500 was probably close to the cheapest you could have bought. Talk to your manager and/or the accounts department.