text:
Oracle User Productivity Kit Translation
By Ultan O'Broin Oracle UX-Oracle Paas4SaaS-Oracle on Feb 23, 2011
Oracle's customers just love the User Productivity Kit (UPK). I hear only great things about it from our international customers at the Oracle Usability Advisory Board meetings too. The UPK is the perfect solution for enterprise applications training needs (I previously "eviewed a fine book about UPK btw).
One question I am often asked is how source content created using the UPK can be translated into another language. I spoke with Peter Maravelias, Principal Product Strategy Manager for UPK about this recently.
UPK is already optimized for easy source-target translation already. There is even a solution for re-recording demos. Here's what you can do to get your source content into another language:
Use UPK's ability to automatically translate events and actions. UPK comes with XML templates that allow you to accomplish this in 21 languages with a simple publishing action switch. These templates even deal with the tricky business of using gender-based translations.
Spanish localization template sample
Japanese localization template sample
- Use the Import and Export localization features to export additional custom content in a format like XLIFF, easily handled by translation tools. You could also export and import in Word format.
- Rerecord the sound (audio) files that go with the recordings, one per screen. UPK's granular approach to the sound files means that timing isn't an option. Retiming demos isn't required. A tip here with sound files and XLFF-exported custom content is to facilitate translation context by avoiding explicit references to actions going on in the screen recordings. A text based storyboard with screenshots accompanying the sound files should also be provided to the translators. Provide a glossary of terms too.
- Use the re-record option in UPK to record any demo from a translated application. This will allow all the translated UI labels to be automatically captured. You may be required to resize any action events here due to text expansion issues. Naturally, you will need translated data in the translated application too, so plan for this in advance. However, source-target language skills aren't required for the re-recording.
The UPK Player itself, of course, is also available from Oracle along with content and doc in 21 languages. The Developer and Setup is also translated in a smaller number of languages. Check the Oracle UPK website for latest details. UPK is a super solution for global enterprise applications training deployments allowing source content to be translated into multiple languages easily. See this post on the UPK blog for more insight too!
I would like to thank Peter for his time in talking with me.


text:
Looking for an easy idea for that hard to make/buy for person on your list? If they're a lover of hot chocolate or coffee, you're in luck! My 5 minute make ahead go-to gift is flavored syrups – and you've probably got everything you need without ever leaving your house!
To make it, you need sugar, water, flavorings, a glass bottle, & your labels (don't worry, there's a printable for you!) Just use equal portions of water and sugar for the base syrup. For candy cane syrup, simply break a few candy canes and put it into the base syrup to melt. Cook it on medium high heat just until the sugar is melted. Want vanilla? Just add 1 tablespoon of good vanilla extract per 2 cups of base syrup and that's it. Kinda crazy that something so simple is about $10 a bottle at the grocery store!
- Never stir simple syrup – you can swirl the pan, but never, ever stir it!
- You can use any extract – the sky is the limit! (Must be alcohol or water, not oil, based.)
- Want to make your own extract? Andrea will show you how at The Cottage Market.
There's a million ways to use the syrup, put it in hot chocolate, coffee, over ice cream, in mineral water for Italian sodas, in whipping cream, or maybe over pound cake. Yum! No matter how you serve it, it's always a favorite around here! I like to make up several extra bottles, perfect for last minute hostess gifts, etc.
And, just to make your gift even easier… here's the printable:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
CS101E Python for Biologists, Level 1
From Bioinformatics.Org Wiki
This course aims at teaching biologists how to use Python as a programming language to automate routine data management tasks in biological research and solve difficult data-related computational problems. Data could be DNA or amino acid sequence, microarray data, images, mass spectrometry data, LIMS data, or any other kind of biological information.
Course outline
The course is divided into 4 sessions, roughly 1-1.5 hours each. The 5th session is reserved for project discussion and any other issues the students may want to discuss. There will be quizzes and homework assignments after every lecture.
- Day 1: Installation issues and simple exercises that illustrate how to create and execute simple Python programs using variables and the print statement. The Python interpreter and editor will be introduced.
- Day 2: Fundamentals of programming with Python, such as operators (mathematical, conditional, logical), file input/output, loops (if-then-else, for, while), etc.
- Day 3: Functions, hashes and object oriented programming.
- Day 4: Cover the installation of Python packages such as iPython, NumPy (Numeric Python), and Biopython. Some basic tasks in these packages will be covered. Project discussion.
Course schedule
If you are interested in an upcoming course, register using instructions below. (Access to completed courses is available to enrolled students only, because of privacy and confidentiality issues.)
Registration is comprised of two steps. First, if you haven't already done so, create an online account to access the educational section of our website. Second, register for this course by making a payment using either the online registration form (click on the scheduled course above; use this form only for credit card payments via secured PayPal), or by sending in the mail-in registration form (~150 kB PDF, use this form if paying by US checks, credit card or corporate purchase order). Please check the tuition rates and discounts below.
Registration deadline: When full
Tuition and Discounts
The fee for this course is $595 USD (Commercial, Government)
Discounted rates are available, as follows:
- Academic and non-profit research organizations, $397 (USD)
- Students paying for themselves (not getting reimbursement) and unemployed individuals (verification required), $198
- Limited scholarships may also be available
- Professional members get an additional 20% discount
Online courses are offered on the ASAP online meeting system. Access information will be provided prior to the start of the course. Each lecture will last 90 to 180 minutes, depending on the topics covered. For those who cannot attend the lectures at those times, the lectures will be recorded and placed on the course website as Flash videos (resolution reduced by 30%) each day, within one day. Students will also be able to communicate with the instructor and other students via the course forums. Lecture attendance is therefore not required.
Since this will be an interactive, hands-on workshop, all attendees will need a computer with a broadband Internet connection (1 Mbps or faster is strongly recommended for those watching the live lecture), a sound card with speakers, a modern Web browser, and the Adobe Flash plugin. Please check the specific system requirements for your computer. A microphone and webcam is not required for this course. The necessary software, lecture notes and exercises will be provided.
No programming experience is required, just a need to learn how to program.
This course is certified by the Bioinformatics Organization, Inc., the largest international affiliation in the field, and it will count as 5 "Continuing Scientific Education" (CSE) credits (one credit per contact hour) within the Organization. Students completing the course will receive a certificate attesting to that.
ASAP is a trademark of Convoq, Inc.
Other names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Additional information
If you have any questions, please send a message to J.W. Bizzaro (login required) or call +1 978 562 4800.


text:
October 19, 2012
Stopping for a chat – Flickr pic of the day
This photograph was taken in Kalk Bay by our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Flickr group member QLG Photography.
The main street in Kalk Bay is known for its many antique and vintage stores, quaint coffee shops, bookshops and restaurants.
"This shot was taken on a Saturday afternoon in the village of Kalk Bay around lunchtime. I was on a photo-walk and snapped these two having a friendly chat along the shopfront sidewalk – just your average Saturday for the locals of Kalk Bay."
Do you have images of Cape Town you'd like to share with us? We'd love you to join the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Flickr group!
Image © QLG Photography


text:
The conference call will be broadcast live for all interested parties
via the Company's Web site at www.americredit.com.
It is necessary to go to the Company's Web site to register, download
and install any required audio software prior to the call. For those who
cannot listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available shortly
after the call has concluded.
About AmeriCredit
AmeriCredit Corp. is a leading independent automobile finance company
that provides financing solutions indirectly through auto dealers across
the United States. The Company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered
in Fort Worth, Texas. For more information, visit www.americredit.com.
SOURCE: AmeriCredit Corp.
AmeriCredit Corp.Caitlin DeYoung, 817-302-7394


text:
Having read a thread on a similar question on expository papers I'm reminded of reason #99 to drop my math PhD thingy, late c20th: I just couldn't blow up this paper to 4 pages. (OK, one half-page calculation was left to the expert reader (and other experts could guess), but...)
There are plenty of examples listed here.
The American Mathematical Monthly publishes several short "Notes" in each issue, and I'm sure I've seen several that were only about a page. As you would expect (being published by the MAA), many of these are mainly of pedagogical interest, but there are also some very interesting and nontrivial ones.
Generally, journals rarely seem to have an explicit lower bound on the lengths of the papers. If they do, they will explicitly tell you so, and in those cases, the same society often publishes a journal for shorter papers.
If you proved an important result in a readable way on one page, almost no decent journal would ask you to add a bit of waffle to fit their criteria. So the question you should be asking is "which journals publish results of ---fill in--- importance/generality or on the topic of ---fill in---". Having said that, there are a few journals who particularly specialise on short papers, i.e. have an upper bound on length rather than a lower one. In addition to what has been suggested, you can have a look at the Bulletin of the LMS (the LMS also issues two other journals for longer papers). Also, the Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society promises short turnover times, which suggests that they like short papers. If you think that your paper is first class, then you can also consider the Annals of Mathematics, since they have a policy of encouraging short papers (by which they mean under 20 pages).
But as I say, I genuinly believe that no journal is going to turn down a paper because it is too short, unless this is their explicitly stated policy. So just choose a journal that you think is interested in your result.
On the other hand, unless you think that the brevity is a selling point of your paper, why don't you add a few examples to illustrate the interest or the usefulness of your result?
A lower bound on paper length would make little sense - if something can be proved very quickly, but the proof is novel and the result is interesting enough to justify the publishing process, then so much the better. (With very important results, sometimes you'll even see papers in well-regarded journals entitled 'A Short Proof of (already known result)', because short, clear proofs are valuable even when other proofs are known.) One note of caution though: if you are a 'hobby mathematician' as you say in your profile, and you have an unusual writing style, you may have to work extra hard to overcome the referee's scepticism. This is a reason to write more detail rather than less, especially in the initial submission. You can always trim it down later if that's what the journal wants.
Proceedings of the AMS likes short papers. Looking at their most recent table of contents, I see between 4-13, with the median probably around 9. I think they would be open to a 1 page paper.
Here is an example of a 3 page paper in the Annals of Mathematics:
Hart Smith, An elementary proof of local solvability in two dimensions under condition $(\Psi )$, Annals Math, 136 (1992), 335--337.
So this is another piece of evidence that most journals have no objection to shortness in papers, even below 4 pages. (This paper is not in my research area, but I know about it from knowing the author.)


text:
I notice here that Canonical has partnered with Zentyal - does that make them an official derivative?
although we (Zentyal) are Canonical partners to include official Ubuntu support for our customers, we are not currently an official Ubuntu derivative.
For any kind of questions you can use our forums (forum.zentyal.org). We are also attending to the UDS-r where you can meet us in person and ask us directly.
Zentyal is a distribution which provides "server to small and medium sized Business (SMB)". It is based on Ubuntu. But, it is not an official Ubuntu derivative like Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc. The officially recognized Ubuntu derivatives are listed here
These includes the following distributions:
We can recognize an official derivative. An official derivative should
But, Zentyal uses their customized repositories as listed here.
Another important point to notice is, As being an independent company Canonical can co-operate on another project and as far as I know, that doesn't make the project an Official one. Also, To be recognized as an official derivative the project need to significantly contribute to the main Ubuntu project.


text:
Grant County Sheriff Ray Vance faces possible removal from office due to a 2010 misdemeanor conviction in Kansas.
Vance pleaded guilty in November 2010 to false representation to secure a lifetime Kansas hunting license.
Vance and his attorney declined comment — but Vance has filed an appeal of the conviction that says it was unconstitutional.
Arkansas prosecutors filed a petition in February to remove Vance from office — saying the conviction is an "infamous crime."
Special Prosecutor Jack McQuary told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1awbjIk ) that he has pulled the petition to remove Vance rom office until the appeal is heard in Kansas.
McQuary says there are "some very good constitutional questions" about the conviction — including whether he was properly warned about the dangers of representing himself in court.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
As in title, when I apply stroke value to a path created with pen tool in Ai CS 5.5, this path is being moved. That doesn't apply to all shapes I made. Is there a setting that needs changing or what. I'm unable to create a proper, precise drawing because of that.
I hope I'm understanding your question correctly. It seems you may want to tweak the stroke alignment option a bit. Namely align "stroke to center," "stroke to inside" and "stroke to outside." If you do center align, then you may not notice the shift.
Edit: I understand your problem now.
You need to disable "Align to Pixel Grid" in the transform option panel for this path.
Ahah! I've figured it out!
I noticed that it only started moving it when going from certain values - so for example from 2px to 1px. So I then had a 1px line and was trying to align it to the centre but it wouldn't... so I realised it must be snapping to the pixel grid. So if you turn off "Snap to Pixel Grid" in the transformation window then the path does not adjust itself to lock to the pixel grid! Ahhh that was REALLY bugging me!
Cheers, Chris.


text:
Nebraska City police are accepting donations for this year's Shop with A Cop program.
Due to donations last year, officers were able to shop with five children, buying Christmas presents for their families.
Sgt. Dana Schebaum said the program gave the children positive interaction with police and benefited both the families and the officers.
"It is a great way to make the holidays brighter," Schebaum said.
Last year, police picked up the kids in cruisers and arrived in a convoy at Walmart with emergency lights flashing.
Chief of Police David Lacy said the emotions of the morning make him hope the program will continue for years to come.
Back at the police station, officers helped the kids wrap gifts.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
Follow us
What are the odds you will get enough sleep on an average night?
UP NEXTSleep
UP NEXTWhat Are the Odds? Sleep
UP NEXTWhat Are the Odds? Skin Cancer
UP NEXTSkin Cancer
UP NEXTWhat Are the Odds? Twins
UP NEXTObesity
UP NEXTTwins
UP NEXTWhat are the Odds? Heart Attack
UP NEXTNational Body Challenge: Everyday Fitness
UP NEXTDr. Know: Hangovers
UP NEXTDr. Lydie Hazan: Take us seriously!
UP NEXTCorwin's Quest: Unpleasant Smells
UP NEXTLittle People Big World: Mike's Death
Birth Day: Natural Childbirth
In this Birth Day clip, a condition of preeclampsia causes the doctor and patient to change their original plan on a completely natural childbirth.
100 Greatest Discoveries: Theory on Germs
In 1846 Vienna, childbed fever caused death among many pregnant patients. Consequently, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis began an experiment where his doctors washed their hands. Learn more about this experiment on the Science Channel's "100 Greatest Discoveries."
Human Body: Bone Strength
After being pulled out of his home by a tornado, a man lands in a nearby field with no significant injuries. The strength of his bones protected him. Bones' resiliency is discussed in this Discovery Channel video.
Dr. Lydie Hazan: Take us seriously!
Dr. Lydie Hazan offers tips to get you started on the National Body Challenge. Learn more about fitness in this video from Discovery.
100 Greatest Discoveries: Germ Theory Origins
On The Science Channel's "100 Greatest Discoveries," learn how Louis Pasteur discovered how to "pasteurize" to keep things germ free.
My Strange Addiction: Aged Urine Baths
Carrie has been addicted to drinking her urine for over four years. She's consumed over 900 gallons of urine since her addiction began.
Buried Alive: The Emotional Wall
During a tour of the house, Dr. Beaton notices the family has built a wall of trash in front of a living room cabinet that contains items belonging to the couple's deceased son.
Mythbusters: Five Second Rule
We've all heard of the five-second rule, but is there any evidence to back it up? Tune in and learn more in this clip.
Jon & Kate Plus 8: Jon's Weight
In this video clip from TLC's "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Jon talks about the way his weight has changed since becoming a dad.
Kapow Superhero Science: Muscle Genes
How much muscle can a human actually build? Tests on mice show that it's possible to genetically build muscles that don't weaken with time or age. Learn more about muscles on The Science Channel's "Kapow! Superhero Science."
Assignment Discovery: Seed Dispersal
On Discovery Channel's "Assignment Discovery," learn about the process of seed dispersal in plants and its significance in growing fruit.
Freaky Eaters: Natural Highs
Amy is addicted to the rush and high of caffeinated drinks. Now she's about to meet a trapeze artist who's ready to show her a natural alternative.
Elephant Man Autopsy: Model 3D
A CT scan of Joseph Merrick's skull and bones allows a team of researchers to learn more about his gait and posture.
Mutant Planet: Ancient Evidence
In dense forest on New Zealand's south island, there is proof that the entire area was once completely submerged in water.
Mutant Planet: An Evolutionary Joke
Penguins sit on a 300-foot, nearly vertical rockface that divides them and food for their offspring.
Mutant Planet: The Kiwi
The Kiwi is a strange-looking creature, found only in New Zealand. Every aspect of this funny little bird suggests that the Kiwi is an evolutionary oddity.
Hoarders: Ray's Bunk Bed
Check out this clip from TLC's 'Hoarders' show to learn more about the debilitating mental disorder known as hoarding.
19 Kids And Counting: Blood Bank
Jim Bob and the older Duggar daughters give blood while in Little Rock.
Is It Possible: Real Life Popeye
Born with a rare genetic characteristic causing his left arm to be 3 times the size of his right, Matthias Schlitte decided to turn his disability into his advantage....as a professional arm wrestler.
19 Kids And Counting: At The NICU
Watch the footage that didn't make it into the show! Tune in to learn more about the Duggar kids.


text:
Is there a good source to download free SharePoint Themes (.thmx) ?
Couldn't find a site which hosts only SharePoint 2010 themes. Two good themese are here http://www.topsharepoint.com/themes
There is a vast quantity of web designs out there, but they are not designed for SharePoint. However, what you can do is render a page in SharePoint that will support some of these themes. So for example if you render HTML that looks like the CSS Garden HTML template you have a starting point to use their themes. But it's not going to be easy. Begin with a simplified starter master page, which is a normal practice for developing Internet sites on SharePoint anyway.
You are probably not going to get your HTML spot on without either using control adaptors and other techniques. So it is more likely that you will end up adapting the CSS.
Themes can be created in PowerPoint, exported, and imported into Sharepoint. This will allow you to create styles, color palletes and fonts appropriate to your organization's style guides.


text:
The outside material is 100% Flannel, the inside is 100% Polyester. The Lining inside is a soft fleece that feels like heaven! The bottoms include a non-skid sole so you won't slip on the hardwood floors. Footies are machine washable. Sizes Run as Follows: Small (7-8), Medium (9-10), Large (11-12) and X-Large (13).
Questions on Men's Christmas Cheer Footies by SleepytimePjs
No questions asked yet
Ask Your Own Question
Sorry No Video Available


text:
The hypocrisy of the filibuster
The filibuster makes hypocrites of everyone in Washington, D.C. In 2005, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was the leader of the minority party in the Senate. He said it would be an "abuse of power" to reduce the minority's power with a simple majority vote. Now, he leads a Democratic majority, and he is preparing to do exactly that.
Republicans have flipped in the other direction. In 2005, they tried to use a majority vote to end filibusters against judicial nominees, but now they are complaining about Reid's plans — and borrowing his old rhetoric to do it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lost his customary cool while speaking about it last week.
Read more of this story and more!
7-Day Subscribers have FREE access to everything on rep-am.com and our E-Edition.
CLICK HERE to register and activate your access,.
Not a subscriber?
You can purchase a single-day subscription for only $0.75 to read this and access all of our content and our E-Edition.
CLICK HERE purchase a single day subscription.
Become an electronic subscriber to the Republican-American for only $8 a month. CLICK HERE.
Follow Us
Post a reader commentWe encourage your feedback and dialog.
Please be civil and respectful.
If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican.
Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.
Log In
|Register / Forgotten Password?
More stories from Commentary
- Faulty premises shatter budget
- Registrars committed to improvements
- Targeting the Reverend Rubio
- Red Sox and Yankees of political world
- State GOP ready to help find solutions
- Patients need protection from the flu
- Ample reasons to count our blessings
- Once, MRIs were just theoretical
- The hypocrisy of the filibuster
- Poor decisions lead state into trouble


text:
This topic has missing or partial documentation. Please help us improve it.
Rubinius provides an interface for dumping the current heap to a file for offline analysis. Several companion projects analyze the heap dump file as an aid for discovering memory leaks, large collections and code issues that may lead to potential memory pressures at runtime.
The following sample code (devoid of all error checks) will form the foundation for a tour through tracking a memory leak in Ruby code as well as a leak in code using the FFI subsystem.
The code example is a bit contrived, but it serves to illustrate multiple real world problems.
require 'rubygems'
require 'ffi-rzmq'
if ARGV.length < 3
puts "usage: ruby leak.rb <connect-to> <message-size> <roundtrip-count>"
link = ARGV[0]
message_size = ARGV[1].to_i
roundtrip_count = ARGV[2].to_i
ctx = ZMQ::Context.new
request_socket = ctx.socket ZMQ::REQ
reply_socket = ctx.socket ZMQ::REP
request_socket.connect link
reply_socket.bind link
poller = ZMQ::Poller.new
poller.register_readable request_socket
poller.register_readable reply_socket
start_time = Time.now
message = ZMQ::Message.new("a" * message_size)
request_socket.send message, ZMQ::NOBLOCK
i = roundtrip_count
messages = []
until i.zero?
i -= 1
poller.readables.each do |socket|
message = ZMQ::Message.new
socket.recv message, ZMQ::NOBLOCK
messages << message
socket.send ZMQ::Message.new(message.copy_out_string), ZMQ::NOBLOCK
elapsed_usecs = (Time.now.to_f - start_time.to_f) * 1_000_000
latency = elapsed_usecs / roundtrip_count / 2
puts "mean latency: %.3f [us]" % latency
puts "received #{messages.size} messages in #{elapsed_usecs / 1_000_000} seconds"
Wow, this program leaks like a sieve. Let's figure out why.
Rubinius provides access to the VM via an agent interface. The agent opens a network socket and responds to commands issued by the console program. The agent must be started with the program.
rbx -Xagent.start <script name>
For this example, run the sample program with the agent enabled.
rbx -Xagent.start leak.rb
Connect to the agent using the rbx console. This program opens an interactive session with the agent running inside the VM. Commands are issued to the agent. In this case we are saving a heap dump for offline analysis.
Upon startup, the agent writes a file to $TMPDIR/rubinius-agent.<pid> containing a few important details for the rbx console. When exiting, the agent automatically cleans up this file and removes it. Under some crash conditions this file may not get removed so a manual removal becomes necessary.
$ rbx console
VM: rbx -Xagent.start leak.rb tcp://127.0.0.1:5549 1024 100000000
Connecting to VM on port 60544
Connected to localhost:60544, host type: x86_64-apple-darwin10.5.0
console> set system.memory.dump heap.dump
console> exit
The command is
set system.memory.dump <filename>. The heap dump file is written to
the current working directory for the program running the agent.
The heap dump file is written using a well-documented format. So far there are two tools that know how to read and interpret the format. These projects are separate from the Rubinius project.
Find the heap_dump tool at its project home page.
This tool reads the heap dump file and outputs some useful information in 3 columns corresponding to the number of objects visible in the heap, the object's class, and the total number of bytes consumed by all instances of this object.
Running the tool against a heap dump captured from our
leak.rb program, it gives us
a small hint as to where the leak resides. The output is edited for length.
$ rbx -I /path/to/heap_dump/lib /path/to/heap_dump/bin/histo.rb heap.dump
169350 Rubinius::CompactLookupTable 21676800
168983 FFI::MemoryPointer 6759320
168978 ZMQ::Message 8110944
168978 LibZMQ::Msg 6759120
27901 Rubinius::Tuple 6361528
15615 String 1124280
13527 Rubinius::ByteArray 882560
3010 Array 168560
825 Hash::Entry 46200
787 Rubinius::AccessVariable 62960
87 Time 4872
41 Hash 3280
12 FFI::Pointer 480
2 ZMQ::Socket 96
Nothing listed looks too outrageous in this example. However, a few things are notable.
The largest footprint is consumed by
Rubinius::CompactLookupTable which is a
class that the example code never directly instantiates and weighs in at about 20MB.
So, some internal Rubinius structures are reported by the heap dump. It is
interesting but doesn't help pinpoint our particular leak.
ZMQ::Message class listed on line 3 is the first class shown that the example
code directly instantiates. There are nearly 170k instances, so this is likely our
Sometimes a single snapshot is insufficient to pinpoint a leak. In that situation one should take several snapshots of the heap at different times and let the heap dump tool perform a diff analysis. The diff shows what has changed between the heap in the before and after.
$ rbx -I /path/to/heap_dump/lib /path/to/heap_dump/bin/histo.rb heap.dump heap2.dump
203110 Rubinius::CompactLookupTable 25998080
203110 ZMQ::Message 9749280
203110 LibZMQ::Msg 8124400
203110 FFI::MemoryPointer 8124400
The diff clearly shows us the source of the memory expansion. The code has 200k more
instances of
ZMQ::Message between the first and second heap dumps so that is where
all of the memory growth is coming from.
Examining the code shows two lines as the likely culprit.
messages << message
puts "received #{messages.size} messages in #{elapsed_usecs / 1_000_000} seconds"
It certainly is not necessary to store every message just to get a count at the end. Revising the code to use a simple counter variable in its place should solve the memory leak.
After modifying the Ruby code to use a simple counter and let the garbage collector
handle all of the
ZMQ::Message instances, the program is still leaking like mad.
Taking two snapshots and analyzing them doesn't give any clue as to the source
$ rbx -I /path/to/heap_dump/lib /path/to/heap_dump/bin/histo.rb heap3.dump heap4.dump
-4 Array -224
-90 Digest::SHA256 -4320
-90 Rubinius::MethodTable -4320
-90 Digest::SHA2 -3600
-90 Rubinius::LookupTable -4320
-90 Class -10080
-184 Rubinius::Tuple -29192
This diff shows that a few structures actually shrank between snapshots. Apparently the leak is no longer in the Ruby code because the VM cannot tell us what is consuming the leaking memory.
Luckily there is a great tool available on Mac OS X called
leaks that can help us
pinpoint the problem. Additionally, the man page for
malloc contains information
about setting an environment variable that provides additional detail to the
leaks program such as the stack trace at the site of each leak.
$ MallocStackLogging=1 rbx leak.rb tcp://127.0.0.1:5549 1024 10000000 &
$ leaks 36700 > leak.out
$ vi leak.out
leaks Report Version: 2.0
Process: rbx [36700]
Path: /Volumes/calvin/Users/cremes/.rvm/rubies/rbx-head/bin/rbx
Load Address: 0x100000000
Identifier: rbx
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: bash [997]
Date/Time: 2010-12-22 11:34:35.225 -0600
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.5 (10H574)
Report Version: 6
Process 36700: 274490 nodes malloced for 294357 KB
Process 36700: 171502 leaks for 263427072 total leaked bytes.
Leak: 0x101bb2400 size=1536 zone: DefaultMallocZone_0x100dea000
0x01bb2428 0x00000001 0x00000400 0x00000000 ($..............
0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 ................
0x00000000 0x00000000 0x61616161 0x61616161 ........aaaaaaaa
0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 0x61616161 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Call stack: [thread 0x102f81000]: | thread_start | _pthread_start |
thread_routine | zmq::kqueue_t::loop() | zmq::zmq_engine_t::in_event() |
zmq::decoder_t::eight_byte_size_ready() | zmq_msg_init_size | malloc |
The output shows that at the time of the snapshot we had nearly 172k leaked objects.
The call stack output shows that the leak occurs during the call to
which doesn't mean anything unless we dig into the implementation of
This is where knowledge of the underlying system is critical; without knowing where
this particular call is made, it would be much more difficult to track down the
As it turns out, the
ZMQ::Message class allocates some memory via
malloc that is not
tracked by the Rubinius GC. It needs to be manually deallocated.
Changing the code to call
ZMQ::Message#close resolves the last leak.
Tweet at @rubinius on Twitter or email firstname.lastname@example.com. Please report Rubinius issues to our issue tracker.


text:
Oren T. "Tom" Johnson, 66, died Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012 in Chanute, Kan. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the VFW in El Dorado. Burial will be at at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Neosho County Memorial Park Cemetery in Chanute. Kirby-Morris funeral Home is helping with arrangements.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
I have my Apache server running in the
/srv/http/ directory. I changed the group of it to
httpadmin and then added my user to that group. Then, I changed the permissions of that directory to
rwxrwxr-x, which means everyone in the group
httpadmin should be able to write in that directory, right?
Yet, I can't create files in it. What am I missing?


text:
WACO (November 6, 2012)--A motorist hit and killed a deer Tuesday morning, which isn't unusual at this time of year, save for the fact it happened on Washington Avenue in front of the McLennan County Courthouse.
Waco Parks and Recreation supervising Ranger Larry Sims said in his 30 years in the job he's never heard of a deer being downtown.
Another park ranger, however, told Sims he'd seen a deer in the median at North 29th Street and Colcord Avenue on his way to work Tuesday morning.
"I suppose (the deer) could have come up from Cameron Park," Sims said.
He said there are deer that live in the park but not very many and they're only seldom seen.
Waco police were sent at about 7 a.m. to the 400 block of Washington Ave., where they found both the deer and the driver who hit him.
Sims said there's no way to tell from where the animal came, but he said Cameron Park is the most likely place.


text:
In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, what are the necessary conditions on the potential (or on the hamiltonian in general) for the ground state to be non-degenrate?
If a finite number of non-relativistic particles are moving in an infinite potential well, then the combined system has a nondegenerate ground state, regardless of the symmetry of the hamiltonian. I remember this from a long time ago, and I always thought it was impressive. I also remember I was always annoyed that I didn't know how to prove it, or know a reference where I can look it up. If you find one, let me know!
There's probably some sort of fancy entropic argument that you could use to get this result, if that's your thing.
If the potential was bounded above, I can't see immediately why this should create degeneracy on the ground state --- so it's plausible that the theorem holds in this case as well.
Systems containing infinite systems of particles can, and often do, exhibit degeneracy in their ground state.
I think you can find an answer to your question in the book of Simon/Reed, "Methods of Mathematical Physics", vol.4 "Analysis of Operators". They have a chapter devoted to the question of the existence of nondegenerate ground states, chapter XIII.12.
One relevant theorem would be XIII.47, which says that the Schrödinger operator has a nondegenerate strictly positive ground state if the potential V is in $L^2_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ and $lim_{|x| \to \infty} V(x) = \infty$.
I don't think that there is a simple necessary condition on the potential, but only several sets of sufficient conditions, but could be wrong about that.


text:
Targetbase gets deeper insight and 40x faster query response with Oracle Exadata
By Margaret Hamburger-Oracle on May 21, 2013
This is a great example of the evolution happening in Oracle Data Warehousing environments as customers consolidate databases into a single source of truth for their businesses with Oracle Exadata. Not only was Targetbase able to integrate large volumes of social, retail, and point-of-sale (POS) data, such as Web blogs, to drive richer and more actionable insights for their clients. They enabled real-time analytics scoring and consumer-specific text mining on large volumes of marketing-related data while achieving some great performance gains with up to 40x faster queries. Learn how Oracle Database compression features helped reduce their storage costs by 30%.


text:
October 03, 2011
Cool Cape Town street art – Flickr pic of the day
This photograph of street art in Cape Town was taken by our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. group member Clare Carrier.
Clare says: "This lady is painted on the side wall of a block of flats located just off De Waal Drive. I have often admired the art and decided to take a photo of it as the weekly theme for my Project 365 group was street art. I think this artwork has a very unique African feel to it and that is why I like it so much."
Do you have images of Cape Town you'd like to share with us? We'd love you to join the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Flickr group!
Image © Clare Carrier


text:
Just installed today's batch of updates, including new kernel 3.2.0-26 and rebooted. Now the screen just has a logo in the middle and "Ubuntu 12.04 LTS" in bottom left corner, but no box to choose which user to log in as, or to enter a password. CTRL-ALT-F1 gets me to a "login:" prompt, and I can log in - but I have no idea what to look at to find out what is wrong, or to fix this.
Tried older kernels and recovery mode for current kernel - no joy, still no way to log into the graphics console.


text:
Entries in 'loss' (14)
Wii U sales stumble as Nintendo losses increase
Nintendo's latest quarterly reports have shown a $233m loss, with the bottom finally dropping out of the Wii U market.
'Extremely humbling' H2 2015 leads to 50 job cuts at Glu
Glu has admitted that Katy Perry Pop has failed to replicate the success of its Kim Kardashian Hollywood title.
Amazon posts $544m Q3 operating loss as Fire Phone bombs
Online retail leader Amazon has posted an operating loss of over half a billion dollars for Q3 2013.
Sony loss estimates more than quadruple
The PlayStation business may be buoyant, but significant struggles in the mobile sector are causing havoc with Sony's financials.
PS4 hardware already profitable; Half of owners subscribed to PS+
Sony's has bucked traditional hardware sales modelling by achieving a profit on each PS4 sold just six months after launch.
Strong PS4 sales unable to stop Sony posting another loss
Sony's gaming division has, as expected, posted its fourth annual loss in five years.
Iwata: A fourth year of losses would be 'unacceptable'
Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has vowed to prevent Nintendo suffering another year of losses.
Strong Q4 leads to annual profit for EA; US Titanfall sales revealed and Respawn deal extended
A decline in physical sales was not enough to stop a strong Q4 help EA to an annual profit for the year ending March 31st.
Nintendo posts third year of losses as Wii U misses targets, expects machine to increase sales in year ahead
Wii U fell just short of Nintendo's already reduced sales forecasts in Nintendo's last financial year, leading to a third straight annual loss for the firm.
Pincus steps down as Zynga CPO following $61m loss
Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus is to step down from his role as chief product officer.
$308m loss for EA in Q3
EA has reported a $308m GAAP net loss for the quarter ending December 31st – a big decline on the $45m loss reported in the same quarter last year.
EA reports another quarter of loss although digital growth continues
Publisher EA has reported a $273m loss for the quarter ending September 30th.
Blackberry axing 4,500 jobs
A catastrophic loss of nearly $1bn has forced Blackberry – formerly RIM – to announce the axing of 4,500 jobs.
Sony hopes to recoup PS4 unit losses via game and subscription sales
The PlayStation 4 console will be sold at a loss, Sony has confirmed.


text:
Does anyone have a good explanation of the physics and vectors of force involved in the skateboarding trick the ollie (where the skater jumps and causes the skateboard to rise off the ground with him)?
A slow-motion video of an ollie makes the physics clear.
The main idea is that the skateboarder pushes down hard on one side out past the wheels, torquing the board up into a hop, then pushes down with the other foot to level the board out and make it appear to stick to the feet. The skateboarder never lifts the board - the only necessary upward force in the whole process is the normal force from the ground.
We begin by pushing down hard on the right-hand side of the skateboard, to the right of the wheels. This creates a large torque about the right wheel and makes the skateboard start to rotate up off the ground. The upward momentum is provided by a large normal force from the ground. Here is a picture at the first moment, when the skateboard has zero velocity.
The red arrows show the forces. The blue arrow shows the acceleration of the center of mass. The torque about the right wheel is into your monitor.
The skateboard gains a significant amount of momentum upwards in this way. If we left it alone, it would fly up in the air, flipping, and moving to the right. Instead, we push down on it on the left hand side. This induces a counter torque and reduce's the skateboard's upwards momentum. Here is a picture before the skateboard leaves the ground, right when the force on the left wheel is first applied.
The red arrows are forces and the blue arrow is the acceleration again. The green arrow is the velocity of the center of mass. The torque is now in the opposite direction - out of the page. In the next moment, the skateboard's center of mass will continue to rise and move a little to the right, but also the skateboard will begin losing angular momentum. It will stop rotating, then rotate back to the flat position. In the mean time, its inertia will raise it off the ground.
Now both feet push on the board as we fall. Here is a picture of the board at its highest point, with the velocity again zero, and the feet pushing equally down.
Some of these descriptions are not perfectly precise. For example, the skateboard does not need to be perfectly flat or have equal force on both sides right when it attains the greatest height in its trajectory. I omitted gravity (which is not really essential, except for the skateboarder). There may be some other small forces involved, etc.
Marks answer is flawed from the second picture onward.
The major force contributing to the lift of the board is not applied downward on the left axle but instead by pulling parallel to the boards surface (in an up and a litte to the left direction). This is done by the instep of the riders right foot (after rotating the foot around the ankle) as can barely be seen in the video. That is why there is grip tape on the deck in the first place (and why skater's shoes don't last long).
Without this (for a beginner rather difficult) motion the board wouldn't lift at all (this is only partly true as any skateboarder can tell you but for now let's assume it's correct).
If you only applied Mark's suggested downward force on the left axle you would not lift the board but press it right back down to the ground.
The overall height of the jump then is determined by how high you can jump yourself and how well you can pull the board up with you. There is no necessity in popping (the moment of tail-ground contact) more powerfully to gain height. It is perfectly possible to do an ollie without the tail hitting the ground at all.
It is quite difficult to see this from just watching the video or a full speed skateboarder, so I suggest you try it yourself (while wearing protection of course).
An important part I think is that the board acts as a spring. When the skater pushed down to leap up this stores energy in the board which is released to pop the board up right under the skater's feet.
My son does all of these things with great ease, and does fancy stuff on half pipes and the like. If I tried these things I suspect a month later I would get some hospital bills.
protected by Qmechanic♦ Nov 22 '13 at 22:14
Thank you for your interest in this question.
Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?


text:
Depression Health Center
Serotonin: 9 Questions and Answers
6. Can exercise boost serotonin levels?
Exercise can do a lot to improve your mood -- and across the board, studies have shown that regular exercise can be as effective a treatment for depression as antidepressant medication or psychotherapy. In the past, it was believed that several weeks of working out was necessary to see the effects on depression, but new research conducted at the University of Texas at Austin found that just a single 40-minute period of exercise can have an immediate effect on mood.
That said, it remains unclear of the exact mechanism by which exercise accomplishes this. While some believe it affects serotonin levels, to date there are no definitive studies showing that this is the case.
7. Do men and women have the same amount of serotonin -- and does it act the same way in their brain and body?
Studies show that men do have slightly more serotonin than women, but the difference is thought to be negligible. Interestingly, however, a study published in September 2007 in the journal Biological Psychiatry showed there might be a huge difference in how men and women react to a reduction in serotonin -- and that may be one reason why women suffer from depression far more than men.
Using a technique called "tryptophan depletion," which reduces serotonin levels in the brain, researchers found that men became impulsive but not necessarily depressed. Women, on the other hand, experienced a marked drop in mood and became more cautious, an emotional response commonly associated with depression. While the serotonin processing system seems the same in both sexes, researchers now believe men and women may use serotonin differently.
Although studies are still in their infancy, researchers say defining these differences may be the beginning of learning why more women than men experience anxiety and mood disorders, while more men experience alcoholism, ADHD, and impulse control disorders.
There is also some evidence that female hormones may also interact with serotonin to cause some symptoms to occur or worsen during the premenstrual time, during the postpartum period, or around the time of menopause. Not coincidentally, these are all periods when sex hormones are in flux. Men, on the other hand, generally experience a steady level of sex hormones until middle age, when the decline is gradual.


text:
Gym Gift Cards in Palo Verde
Cash with an ecard for any occasion. Suggest where to spend it.
Browsing: CA > San Diego > Palo Verde > Active Life > Fitness & Instruction > Gyms
Buy gym gift cards online. Send to anyone, instantly. Check out how it works.
It's like a digital gift certificate - there's no card to carry, and no money gets lost if they don't make it to the business. GiftRocket gift cards work for any business in Palo Verde, San Diego, CA, or anywhere in the US.
Neighborhoods in San Diego, CA: Balboa Park, Banker's Hill, Barrio Logan, Blossom Valley, Carlsbad, Carmel Valley, Chollas Creek, Chollas View, Chula Vista, El Cajon, Emerald Hills, Encinitas, Escondido, Eucalyptus Hills, Memorial, Navajo, North Bay Terraces, Ocean Beach, Otay Mesa, Palo Verde, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho San Diego, Santee, Shelter Island, Sorrento Valley, South Bay Terraces, Spring Valley, Tierrasanta, University City, Vista, Bostonia, Mira Mesa, Miramar, Mission Hills, Mission Valley, Mount Helix, Mount Hope, Mountain View, National City, La Jolla, Nestor, Normal Heights, North Encanto, North Park, Oak Park, Oceanside, Old Town, Otay, Pacific Beach, Palm City, Paradise Hills, Point Loma, Poway, Rancho Palo Verde, Rancho Penasquitos, Rolando, Roseville, San Carlos, San Ysidro, Scripps Ranch, Serra Mesa, Sherman Heights, Skyline, South Encanto, South Park, Southcrest, Stockton, Talmadge, Torrey Highlands, Torrey Hills, Torrey Pines, University Heights, Valencia Park, Victoria, Winter Gardens, Allied Gardens, Alpine, Alpine Heights, Alta Vista, City Heights, Clairemont, Coronado, Crest, Del Cerro, Del Mar, Downtown, East Village, Fleetridge, Fletcher Hills, Gaslamp, Golden Hill, Granite Hills, Grant Hill, Grantville, Harbison Canyon, Hillcrest, Imperial Beach, Jamacha, Kearny Mesa, Kensington, La Jolla Shores, La Mesa, La Playa, La Presa, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, Liberty Station, Lincoln Park, Loma Portal, Lomita, Middletown, Midway, Linda Vista, Little Italy, Logan Heights more
Use GiftRocket
Other stuff
© 2016 GiftRocket, Inc.
The GiftRocket Prepaid Gift is issued by Sunrise Banks N.A., St. Paul, MN 55103, Member FDIC.


text:
Fedders AZ6R05F2A 5,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner with Remote for $182.99 + free shipping
The Fedders AZ6R05F2A 5,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner will effectively cool 150 square feet. This is an air conditioner with two way adjustable air direction and 3 cooling and 3 fan speeds. This window air conditioner has electronic controls on the front panel and a remote control so that you can easily control this air conditioner from anywhere in the room.
2 Comments add a comment
??? I see 5000 BTU AC units for under $100 all the time, of course for one with a remote it may be closer to $130......am I missing something with this deal? Not like Fedders is a top of the line name either.....
@jjeff: this is a very good AC unit and the cheapest you can find online... yes there are other brands but you have to compare apples to apples.


text:
6 Real World Spy Gadgets Straight Out of the Movies
The Cold War was a terrifying time fraught with tension, murder and the ever-present threat of nuclear war. And in our darkest hour, our world leaders turned to their most esteemed geniuses, their brilliant scientists, their brightest engineers, and asked them one question, one question upon which hung the fate of the world:
"Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have like, a shoe-phone? Like that Get Smart guy? From the show?"
And the answer they received was: "Hell yes."
#6. Umbrella Dart Gun
Georgi Markov was a pair of freedom-loving bohemian testicles resting gently on the forehead of communist Bulgaria. His writing was winning all sorts of awards and stirring anti-communist movements all across Europe. Clearly, they had to get those balls off their face, and stat. So it was that one day, while Markov was walking to his car in London, he felt a sharp bite on his thigh. When he turned around he saw nothing, only a man who fumbled briefly with an umbrella before running off. The next day he became deathly ill, and died, as one is wont to do when becoming deathly ill. To this day no one has ever been tried for the murder.
"A man with an umbrella in London? That narrows it down to just half the city."
The suspected poison, ricin, was cutting edge at the time. It was a top-secret concoction yielded after decades of research in Soviet chemical warfare labs. Scotland Yard was so unfamiliar with this new super-poison that they had to test it on a hapless pig to confirm how it killed. The projectile itself was a modified 1.52 mm jeweler's bearing, normally only used in precision watchmaking. The bullet was relatively harmless to the body, no more damaging than a BB, but the pellet was coated with a special wax that would melt at body temperature, and inside was the new and deadly poison. In fact, the wax worked so covertly that it wasn't actually discovered until investigators found traces on a similar pellet pulled from the body of Bulgarian exile Vladimir Kostov, who suffered, but ultimately lived through the attack.
The Communists killed dissidents with tiny platinum Death Stars. And, somehow, they lost.
That's right: This wasn't an isolated incident. Multiple men have been attacked with a poison watch bearing fired by an umbrella, wielded by a certainly Bulgarian, possibly watch-themed super-assassin.
Batman writers, eat your hearts out. (Seriously, do it quick; it's a way nicer death than ricin poisoning, and the Watchman does not take kindly to copyright infringement.)
Running only amuses him.
#5. Poop
In the Vietnam War, it was common for U.S. soldiers to litter the Vietnamese countryside with mounds of fake tiger shit. Why? To demoralize the enemy? To attract other tigers to their position? Just because it was funny?
Fred Bauder
Correction: It was hilarious.
Nope: Because they had seismometers tucked inside the turds to track enemy troop movements.
It makes sense. If there's one thing you don't want to check, it's a pile of shit, and if there's one animal whose shit you don't want to mess with in particular, it's probably a tiger. Everybody knows the worst poops are the ones comprised of your friends and loved ones.
International Spy Museum
Honestly, tiger poops are much tidier than we'd have expected.
It was an elegantly simple way to make sure nobody investigated the suspect devices. The flip side, however, came when they started using faux turds for dead drops. These simulated dog poops were hollowed out to hide messages and information in -- again, because nobody wants to go around checking every pile of crap in the jungle. However, unlike the seismometers, which operated autonomously, the dog poop dead drops needed somebody to eventually find them, open them and read their contents. The Vietnamese probably got a pretty good laugh at all the American spies hesitantly attempting to "unscrew" piles of crap time and time again until they found the right one.
"First order of business: Americans are seriously gross."
#4. Martini Olive
Budding mad scientist Hal Lipset specialized in inserting audio devices into seriously inappropriate places. Everything about him was straight out of a Golden Age comic: He specialized in secret, high-tech gadgetry, almost always concealed as something mundane, and even operated out of a covert laboratory hidden behind a false storefront.
Not pictured: A backyard full of buried secret agents.
When he needed to demonstrate to a Senate Constitutional Rights Subcommittee just how easy it was to whip up these little listening devices, he presented them with dozens of bugs that he custom-built for the testimony. Then he revealed his piece de resistance: He'd actually sneakily placed bugs into the committee's own microphones before the hearings and played the proceedings back to them. He was attempting to prove that wiretapping technology should be employed more by the private citizen, since the government was doing it so rampantly anyway. But the plan backfired, and the subcommittee was so outraged about being recorded that they started cracking down on private use. Later, Hal would return with a series of cuter, more approachable wiretaps, apparently hoping to take the Hello Kitty route to espionage. The belle of the privacy infringement ball was this little guy:
We have a sudden, powerful urge to watch Mad Men.
The Martini Olive Bug was so darling and appealing that, when Hal tried to move on to other, smaller, more effective technology, reporters and senators alike would steer him again and again back to the martini. His plan was working perfectly, and all the anger at his previous stunts was melting away. Truly, Hal was a technological genius light years ahead of hi-
What's that? It didn't work with alcohol in the glass, because it would cause a short?
This thing is bullshit.
If Sean Connery taught us anything, it's that "espionage" and "sobriety" don't belong in the same sentence.


text:
I am doing a homework assignment for a class, and part of it is designing our own shell and read and write in low level. After forking, it needs to execute a command that a user inputs. When the execute tries to do it, it says that there is permission denied. I think getting access to the /bin while exevc("/bin/", argv) is the problem. Is there a way for my created shell get access to the /bin? Chmodding /bin is not allowed, according to outputs from the terminal.
closed as not constructive by Rinzwind, Thomas Ward♦, ajmitch, qbi, Eric Carvalho Jan 28 '13 at 0:14
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
Have you tried running your program as root?
It's in general a bad idea to futz with the permissions outside of your home directory if you don't know exactly what you are doing. If there are files in places like /bin that only root can execute, it is probably for security reasons.
That said, be careful running your scripts as root too, as bugs in code can lead to breaking your OS (i.e don't do your experimentation with
I would advise NOT doing this on a live filesystem. If anything, you should try this in a VM and ONLY in a VM.
That said, everything gradi3nt said applies.


text: With the Pannion Seer defeated, the Jaghut Tyrant Raest imprisoned and peace declared with the Malazans, the beleaguered citizens of Darujhistan are finally hoping for a time of peace and prosperity. Of course, this is the perfect time for an ancient force of unspeakable evil to escape from the barrows outside the city and unleash a new age of chaos and war across most of Genabackis. This war will draw in the Moranth and the Seguleh, the Rhivi and the remnants of the Malazan armies still stationed on the continent. Far to the south, treasure hunters are looting the crashed ruins of Moon's Spawn, searching for the storied Throne of Night, whilst in another realm hunters are searching for the missing High Mage Tayschrenn at the very Shores of Creation. But the fate of Darujhistan, Genabackis and maybe the world will rest in the hands of one fat thief and a bunch of Malazan deserters who want nothing more than to run their pub in peace. Orb Sceptre Throne is Ian Cameron Esslemont's fourth entry into the Malazan world, expanding on the novels written by his friend and collaborator Steven Erikson. It's an interesting book in that, unlike Esslemont's previous novels which largely focused on new characters, this novel extensively features characters Erikson has used and developed in several previous books, most notably the curiously-dictioned Kruppe. This poses challenges for Esslemont, but thankfully he overcomes them with aplomb. Kruppe occasionally feels a bit off, but most of the other shared characters (Caladan Brood, Duiker, the ex-Bridgeburners, Torvald and Rallick Nom and more) come across very well. The narrative is, as is typical with Malazan, somewhat disjointed, with several apparently unconnected storylines unfolding before converging at the end. This disconnect seems more pronounced than is normal for Esslemont and is briefly worrying, since he has far less page-time to play around with than Erikson (despite being almost exactly 600 pages long in hardcover, this is the one of the shortest books in the series). However, as the storylines move together and things start making sense, the book picks up a tremendous momentum. The second half of the novel is stuffed full of battles, plot revelations and character moments that are satisfyingly epic. By using elements familiar to readers from other books, Esslemont is able to imbue events with more meaning than would otherwise be the case. When four hundred Seguleh (the sword-wielding taciturn badasses of the Malazan world) show up, the reader knows that some serious carnage is about to go down, for example. For this reason, Orb Sceptre Throne works much better for established Malazan fans than newcomers, particularly those who have already read Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice and Toll the Hounds. A number of plot elements stretching all the way back to Gardens of the Moon are expanded upon and backstory is (finally!) given for the Seguleh, the Moranth and indeed Genabackis as a whole. It's also nice to see some established characters given more depth and bigger roles than previously, such as Antsy, who becomes a major player in events at the crashed Moon's Spawn. On the negative side, there's a number of story elements that are somewhat obtuse, either referring to storylines still to be detailed or referring very obliquely to events in other novels. Some characters fare better than others, and notably after the initial ferocious power and abilities shown by the antagonists, they seem to be caught a bit flat-footed by the forces arrayed against them at the end of the book. Also, it's confusing why Esslemont alludes to the fact that a fan-favourite character is still in the environs of Darujhistan when that character plays no role in the book (despite events being more than epic enough to attract his attention). Despite these minor niggles, Orb Sceptre Throne (****½) is a well-written, thoroughly enjoyable addition to the Malazan canon. It is available now in the UK and on 22 May in the USA.


text:
There are many names and family names in Spanish that contain the combination of vowels "oi" (Roilán, Moisés, Loinaz, etc.). When these names are pronounced in French, the original pronunciation is completely changed. Is there a way to modify the spelling so that I can describe the Spanish pronunciation to a French speaker?
Sign up
- Anybody can ask a question
- Anybody can answer
- The best answers are voted up and rise to the top
If it is pronounced [oi] as I think, you just have to use a dieresis ¨ (tréma in French). It already exists in French, for instance my first name is Loïc, pronounced [loik], as opposed to Loic [lwak].
In French, this pronounciation often goes along with y in written text (I think of "oyez" and "royal"), you can use that if you want to describe it.
It's also the pronunciation of -ille in French, which forces the i out of any bigram it could form with the preceding vowel, as in "paille" (and arguably, in "corbeille").
I have the feeling there's something about half-vowels missing in this answer, but I can't type what I don't know about.
As Evpok mentions, if you want to force the spelling to be well-pronounceable, use a dieresis on the i, but I'm not fond of this solution. You'll have a hard time explaining it's a Spanish name if you add this kind of punctuation to it¹. I'd just introduce it well-pronounced, or correct the first one mis-pronouncing it, and that'd be a good occasion to discuss foreign pronounciation or proper nouns, maybe.
¹ dieresis in Spanish are rather uncommon, to say the least.


text:
Sophie's Choice: Atonement of a former flake
Yep, the above headline and subhead refers to yours truly. Some who read this may be snickering with former knowledge of this, or nodding your head vigorously in agreement. To you I offer up a heartfelt apology. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, brainpower probably didn't have much involvement. I have no excuses and I'm sorry for my behavior. A flake is defined in the Urban Dictionary as: (n.) An unreliable person; someone who agrees to do something, but never follows through. And that was me at one point (honestly, more like several) in my young life. If being late were a sport, I would have received a gold medal. Don't ask me where I got this dangerously casual attitude; this is decidedly not one of those emo moments where blaming my poor parents would nip this less than desirable character trait in the bud. Wherever it came from, it got me fired from my first college play ("I have no use for you," the director said, and that was that. Welcome to life, kid) and it also performed a part in almost getting me dropped like a flaming paper bag of poo from my job. All I will say is that I'm lucky to have people in my life who believe in second chances and me. What has set me off on this contemplation is that twice this month I have depended on certain people and twice I have been dropped on my keister. If you believe in karma, perhaps I am getting my ample share. Either way, it's not a pleasant feeling. The problem with flakes is that 90 percent of their problems are generated by thinking about nothing but Justin Beiber. Actually, that's not true. Flakes' personal challenges come from thinking too much about themselves. Low self-esteem plays a big factor, because whenever you cast yourself in a bad light, you tend to treat others the same. Sometimes, the naive stupidities of youth and inexperience have a hand in it as well. You tend to think you have all the time in the world, so you put off some of the more important things you should address. Like debts, relationships with family and friends, job obligations, all the details that go along with trying to be a responsible adult who doesn't feel compelled to drop their eyes when they walk down the street in case they spot someone they have left in the lurch. What's even worse is wanting to drop your eyes when you look into the mirror. Danger, Will Robinson, danger. Now please don't get the idea that I have huge, dark secrets stuffed in the corridors of my past (no abandoned babies or covert, government operations for our friends in Russia). No, it's the little, everyday encounters and issues that can wear us down when we don't deal with them. And flakes, spend way too much time worrying about the things that don't matter instead of focusing on what is actually deserving of their time. I don't mean to wave my banner of rectitude while making a bid for canonization. They have yet to create a model of human that doesn't err. I will make mistakes again, no doubt. But I'll never be afraid of what I see in the mirror. I hope you aren't either. *Shameless plug: please check out my new column in the Sport's section of the Statesman-Examiner, titled Putting the 'Try' in triathlon. Questions, comments or concerns? Email firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
I am looking for an intuitive explanation for Fatou's Lemma. I can follow the proof using Monotone convergence theorem, also understand the usual examples, but I do not know how to explain the inequality in words.
What is exactly that makes $\liminf_n E(f_n)-E(f) \ge 0?$ If I may ask, why does some sort of law of conservation not hold here?


text:
3 Jul 2011 9:16 AM #1
JSBuilder 2/3 - Any tutorials/setup anywhere?
I am going in circles trying to find a proper tutorial/installation guide for JSBuilder 2 or 3. I can only find old tutorials as part of EXJS deployment, but those are marked 2007. I have searched here as well as general web and seem to find nothing. JSBuilder 3 is referenced in the Sencha slideshare decks on optimization.
Also, the JSBuilder page on Sencha.com keeps going in circles to the readme file, which doesn't help much.
Can someone please point me in the right direction?
5 Jul 2011 5:44 AM #2
Me Too ..
I have also been struggling, please will somebody help us. (on a mac so using linux style build, well hoping to)
10 Jul 2011 6:17 AM #3
Sadly, I've not gotten any further on this, or any responses. I ended up using the copy command on windows command line (cat on Mac os x terminal) to merge files and the YUI compressor to minify with great results. Further reduced file size with the dean Edwards online packer.
25 Jul 2011 8:58 AM #4
i'm going to do some evaling of other projects as i'm mac based so the jsbuilder is useless at the moment....
is everyone using jsbuilder or do we have some other recommendations?
25 Jul 2011 9:07 AM #5
25 Jul 2011 9:12 AM #6
hey grooveyorkcity...
odd... ignore my last post...
i don't know why but i was getting the old windows only jsbuilder (gui presumibly) when googling... only got the new jar from http://www.sencha.com/products/jsbuilder just now as it was linked in another thread i think...
doesn't seem to be advertised too well on the site ?!?
i'm going to look at a few build / optimisation tools and see what i find...
jsbuilder, yui, closure, sprockets, jake / rake, and look at the embed.js and the dojo approach as they are pretty good with this kinda stuff...
i'll take a look at packer as well...
will try to post some findings back...
25 Jul 2011 11:58 PM #7
seems sencha touch ships with jsbuilder3 and the downloads for jsbuilder on the sencha site are all for v2.
which version would sencha like us to use?
are they built for the different versions of Ext?
30 Aug 2011 7:46 PM #8
You guys found any solution for it?
It would be great if sencha can provide a mini tutorial on that.
I'm using a Mac and have no idea how to build it.
31 Aug 2011 1:26 AM #9
The JSBuilder that comes bundled with the sencha touch download works fine for me.
- Copy the jsbuilder folder to the lib/touch folder in your project (actually, you could put it anywhere you like...).
- The readme and Code:
lib/touch/jsbuilder/JSBuilder.sh --help
- Copy lib/touch/sencha-touch.jsb3 (e.g. to your project root)
- Adapt the contents to your needs (just follow the sencha touch way of doing things, define your packages and include them in the build)
- Create a folder to contain your build files (e.g app/build)
- Finally, run Code:
lib/touch/jsbuilder/JSBuilder.sh -p myApp.jsb3 -d app/build
31 Aug 2011 6:46 AM #10
fx-mike , you are right. it does work as is.
I was trying to use the one downloaded from the website which is jsbuilder2.
Anyways, thanks a lot for you help.
problem solved


text:
Statement from Kyle Hybl, Chair, University of Colorado Board of Regents, Nov. 27, 2015On behalf of my colleagues on the University of Colorado Board of Regents, we send our thoughts and prayers to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Garrett Swasey, who was killed today in the line of duty. We have lost one of our own in heroic service to our community. The University of Colorado family is grateful for his service and saddened by his death.
Social Climate Survey 2014
Combined, the Laws of the Regents and the Guiding Principles embody the Board of Regents' belief that diversity is a crucial aspect of the educational experience. At its June 2013 meeting, the Board of Regents determined that it needed information to gauge how well the University of Colorado campuses are implementing the laws and principles related to diversity.
Download Social Climate Executive Summary PDF
The University of Colorado Board of Regents endorses and supports President Benson's and Chancellor DiStefano's statements opposing the American Studies Association resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. One of the board's guiding principles is to promote diversity "... to ensure the rich interchange of ideas in the pursuit of truth and learning, including diversity of political, geographic, cultural, intellectual, and philosophical perspectives." The boycott runs counter to that ideal, and to the entire notion of why the university exists.


text:
I've found an iPad app about "Mandala Charts" that, to me, seems to be related to an effective time planning. Or, maybe, to a form of multidimensional analysis.
I'm not sure, though, as most of the reference on the Web are in Japanese.
Has anyone more information about it? Anyone tried to use/adopt it?


text:
Harry Potter and the Fantastic Finale
'Deathly Hallows' reaches an intense, satisfying end; Errol Morris's 'Tabloid' revels in excess
So many good films come to bad ends, but not the tales of Harry Potter. The final episode of Harry's epic journey, part 2 of "The Deathly Hallows," is the best possible end for the series that began a decade ago. In contrast to part 1, which was a ponderous exercise in stage-setting and dramatic incipience, this film, directed by David Yates and adapted by Steve Kloves, is a climax worthy of the term. It's a dark and thunderous pageant that sets its bespectacled hero in the midst of vast forces, yet never loses track of who he is—a brave boy, to borrow both parts of Dumbledore's fond phrase, on the way to becoming a wonderful man. (Daniel Radcliffe, in his turn, has grown from likeably bland at the outset to impressively—and still likeably—confident.)
Keeping the audience so closely connected with Harry is a remarkable achievement, considering the intensity of the action that swirls around him: a roller-coaster ride down to the Gringotts vaults; a dragon-back ride back up; serpentine menace on a cosmic scale; wands sizzling, towers toppling; Hogwarts besieged, and aflame; and, in the shoot-out that will define humanity's fate, not to mention Harry's future, Voldemort and his evil allies wielding weapons of sufficient energy to put the Hadron Collider in the shade. "Is it real?" Harry asks at one point, "or is it happening inside my head?" You can understand his perplexity, and you can choose your level on which to savor his mentor's answer: "Of course it's happening inside your head, Harry. That doesn't mean it's not real."
J.K. Rowling's books first hit the screen when computer-generated imagery was coming into the fullness of its power, and the beginning of its abuse. Some of the movie versions used the new technology to create new realities, while others abused it to the point of banality. Until now, the film that struck the best balance between technology and humanity was, by widespread agreement, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which was directed by the Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. But all of the movies, like all of the books, were as real as they were, and as successful, precisely because they were happening inside our heads. The books have been rightly hailed for inciting a generation of kids to read. Yet the Harry Potter movies—good and occasionally indifferent, though never bad—deserve thanks for inciting a sense of wonder in a generation of kids who've been shortchanged by the movie business.
As a failed Harry Potter scholar, I must have missed, in my Muggling way, countless intricacies of the surpassingly convoluted plots. That's why I took special pleasure this time from Harry's question to his friends: "When have any of our plans actually worked? We get there, and all hell breaks loose." But I'll also miss my periodic encounters with Harry, Ron and Hermione, and with the small army of British and Irish actors who made these films a distinguished performers' pantheon: Michael Gambon, and before him the late Richard Harris; Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, David Thewlis, Helena Bonham Carter, John Hurt, Timothy Spall, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Oldman and Jim Broadbent. Wizards all.
Call it smart luck, the release this very week of a film that chronicles the historical excesses of British tabloid journalism. (Its focus is a tabloid sensation of the late 1970s.) Luck plays a role for the obvious reason: Errol Morris's documentary was made, and scheduled for release, long before the News of the World story broke. The smart part is that the film dissects those excesses deftly with a quasitabloid style of its own.
The subject that sent the tabs into such a lather—and provoked a high-stakes duel between the Daily Express and Daily Mirror—was Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who claimed an IQ of 168 and had a genius for self-promotion. Giving just the facts, ma'am, is easier said than done, given the claims and counterclaims that swirled around her English adventures. What seems relatively clear, though, is that she became enamored of, or obsessed by, a Mormon missionary named Kirk Anderson; that he went missing in 1977 in Surrey, England; that he reappeared a few days later, and that he told the police he'd been abducted, driven to a cottage in Devon, chained to a bed and then raped by Ms. McKinney.
Factuality has its friends in this world, but not among the practitioners of tabloid journalism. As soon as the alleged rapist was arrested and charged, she became the heroine—or reviled heavy—of what became "The Case of the Manacled Mormon." While the Express portrayed her as a veritable nun, and tragic victim, the Mirror branded her a sex-crazed, part-time hooker. Delving into newspaper files of the day, Mr. Morris displays lurid stories and extravagant layouts that fairly leap off the page. But the centerpiece of his ode to sensationalism is Ms. McKinney herself. First she's seen in archival footage as a demure wood nymph wandering around a long-ago suburban greensward as she reads from the preface to her autobiography: "Once upon a time there was a little princess, the most beautiful princess in all the land." Then she appears, in the present, as a flirtatious, full-fleshed blonde with a kewpie-doll smile and flashing eyes that can't conceal a fugitive sadness.
No circulation-crazed editor could make up the stuff Ms. McKinney says. Can a woman rape a man? "No," she replies," I think that's like putting a marshmallow in a parking meter." Did she rape Mr. Anderson? "I was like his little wifey, almost," she purrs. "I wanted to give him lots of babies in my tummy." Did she jump bail and flee the country, as the official record shows? "I never fled. Don't use the word 'fled.' I left." One might infer that she has taken leave of her senses when she talks about her service dog, Booger, who could dial 911 on command, and who was cloned in Korea into five miniBooger puppies, one of which, at the age of five months, opened the door of her minibar. But she's not just a tabloid concoction, she's a real person with a grievance that will not go away: "I don't see any connection between cloned puppies and a 32-year-old sex-in-chains story, but those connections never die."
'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan'
Friendship between women—the deep and secret friendship of "sworn sisters" in Chinese society—forms the core of Wayne Wang's film, which was adapted from the popular novel by Lisa See. The original setting was 19th-century China, but the screen version weaves a parallel tale on two additional time lines—present-day Shanghai and the same city in the 1990s. This structural complexity proves an insuperable barrier to effective storytelling. While the action flashes back and forth in increments of centuries, years or months, we're adrift in the here and now, trying to get a grip on the characters and their relationships, yet finding it loosened with every new dislocation. (The screenplay was written by Angela Workman, Ronald Bass and Michael Ray.)
The parallelism extends to the performers. Gianna Jun and Bingbing Li play the dual roles of Snow Flower and her beloved Lily in the 19th century, and young women named Sophia and Nina in the present and recent past. They're more interesting, though seldom compelling, in the historical sections, which are themselves more interesting for the density of detail gleaned from the novel—the shared excruciation of foot binding, the secret language with which the friends communicate, the irresolvable conflict between their love for one another and the pull of dutiful wifedom. Modern Shanghai, in ceaseless evolution, is interesting to look at—Richard Wong's beautiful cinematography reminded me of "Phantom Shanghai," a superb book of photos by the Canadian photographer Greg Girard—but the phantom China of long ago is where the film comes to life, whenever it stops there for a truncated visit.
'Life, Above All'
"You amaze me," says a South African mother to her 12-year-old daughter. No wonder. The daughter, Chanda—she's played with lovely simplicity by a first-time actress, Khomotso Manyaka—understands the world as her mother does not. Chanda sees a self-styled doctor for the quack that he is. She knows her mother and her drunken stepfather have AIDS, even though her mother chooses to believe she's been bewitched. She knows that AIDS is a disease to be treated, not a condition to be borne in secrecy and shame. Yet all that knowing may not be enough to see her through. "Life, Above All," which was directed by Oliver Schmitz, concerns itself with a classic theme: Can a good child from a poor family steer clear of the pitfalls that surround her? It's also about the scourge that AIDS remains, and, above all, about love. This is a modest film, and an affecting one.
'Salvation Boulevard'
The blithering innocent at the center of this send-up of Christian evangelicals, a former Deadhead named Carl (Greg Kinnear), has transformed himself into an acolyte of Pastor Dan, an amoral preacher played by Pierce Brosnan. The movie transforms a dim idea—"Elmer Gantry" lite—into comedy that's dead in the water and as dull as it is broad.
The filmmaker, George Ratliff, directed from an adaptation he did, with Douglas Stone, of a novel by Larry Beinhart. He didn't trust his audience to know when something's funny, so his film is full of smarmy grins, outsize leers, wry grimaces and eccentric walks, as well as accidents, near deaths, deaths and an antic kidnapping, all of it striving for an absurdist style but seldom getting past absurd. The cast includes Jennifer Connelly as Carl's fanatically religious wife, Ed Harris as Pastor Dan's atheist adversary and Marisa Tomei as a former Deadhead turned security guard. There's no accounting for what good actors will do under the spell of broad direction, which can lead them to believe they're being liberated from their disciplined selves.
'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' (2005)
Far be it from me to detract from Alfonso Cuarón's achievements (or those of David Yates in the present case), but Mike Newell also did right, and then some, by this fourth episode in the series. Dark and scary—so much so that it's rated PG-13—the film is bursting with such brilliant effects as a flying coach drawn by seven white birds and a fully rigged ship rising from beneath a lake. The most remarkable spectacle, though, is that of Harry, Ron and Hermione becoming creatures who can almost pass for grownups.
'Fast, Cheap & Out of Control' (1997)
Errol Morris's fondness for weirdness and obsession has found no finer flower than this documentary about four control freaks and the animals, or quasianimals, that dominate their lives. The subjects are a lion tamer, an expert on hairless mole rats, a topiary gardener (green animals, lovingly groomed) and a scientist who builds robots that crawl like bugs. The lion tamer explains why chairs are useful in his trade: They have four legs, while animals have one-track minds. And not just lower animals, to judge from the movie. The sharp-eyed photography is by Robert Richardson.
'Amandla!' (2002)
One drawback of black South Africa's passion for music, we learn here, is that it sometimes gave away military positions during the climactic struggle against apartheid in the 1970s. Before guerrilla fighters attacked, they would always sing. That is surely the only drawback. As this magnificent documentary about South African music shows, protest songs amounted to weapons of war for a desperate people who needed to sing so they wouldn't weep. "Amandla!"—the Xhosa word for "power"—was produced over a period of nine years by Lee Hirsch and Sherry Simpson, and directed by Mr. Hirsch.
Write to Joe Morgenstern at email@example.com


text:
November 30, 2012
Seven reasons why Table Mountain is a worthy New7Wonder of Nature
Cape Town has a number of attractions to entice any would-be visitor to come to our shores, and locals to leave the comfort of their homes and venture out, but one of the Mother City's most treasured possessions is Table Mountain.
We've compiled a list of seven reasons why Table Mountain is by far a worthy wonder of nature.
1. Touch the clouds
With the summit at 1 067m above sea level, the clouds can often come rolling in with simply a moment's notice. Within the blink of an eye you can literally be amongst the clouds and experience nature at its best. Very often the clouds pass over in a matter of minutes and settle just below the summit, leaving a beautiful, blue sky behind, making for great photo opportunities.
2. Awe-inspiring views
Of course, you simply have to appreciate the stunning views on offer when you are at such great heights. From various spots at the summit you can see awesome views of the Atlantic Ocean, 12 Apostles Mountain Range, Robben Island, the city of Cape Town and even Bloubergstrand in the distance. The views make for fantastic photo opportunities during the day, or even at sunset.
3. World Heritage status
Table Mountain, a World Heritage Site, forms part of the Table Mountain National Park, which means that the area is rich in biodiversity. From endangered species such as the Table Mountain ghost frog to our other fauna, including dassies, lizards, snakes, sunbirds, eagles, spiders, insects and klipspringers, and the gorgeous and endemic fynbos, the area is a must for lovers of nature.
4. Diversity of flora
The mountain's area may only be around 57km2 but close to 1 500 plant species have been recorded in the space, compared to the same number of plant species recorded in the entire British Isles! Table Mountain National Park also forms part of the Cape Floral Region, a biodiversity hot spot which covers 553 000 hectares and contains almost 20% of Africa's flora, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
5. You can have fun on the mountain
Besides soaking up the views, you can also indulge in a little adrenalin-pumping action atop Table Mountain. Abseiling may not be for the faint-hearted, but it is a fantastic way to see the views from a different angle.
6. Hiking
The mountain has a number of hiking trails with which to get to the top, including the popular Platteklip Gorge, as well as Skeleton Gorge and the dangerous India Venster. You may even be able to spot one of the mountain's rare sandstone cave systems.
7. The cableway
Table Mountain Cableway transports close to 800 000 visitors per year in two cable cars that counterbalance one another. They travel at a maximum speed of 10m per second, and the five-minute trip to the top offers fantastic views of the city – and you might even be able to spot a few hikers making their way to the top.
Other enticing attractions in Cape Town include the Two Oceans Aquarium, the V&A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, the Company's Garden, a number of beaches, bars, nightlife and so much more, which means there are plenty of reasons to make Cape Town your home or holiday destination.


text:
For example, if I break a project into n discrete work products (say classes or functions or components) is there a time t such that n*t is a suitable amount of time to spend on estimation?
Sign up
- Anybody can ask a question
- Anybody can answer
- The best answers are voted up and rise to the top
If you have enough information to have broken it down to that level, you shouldn't spend more than a minute on each one. You're not going to be correct anyway, but you're going to be as correct after a minute as after an hour.
If, on the other hand, you were talking about user stories, I would suggest getting the stakeholders in a room and spending five minutes asking questions before estimating.
Regardless, don't waste much time doing estimates. They're not useful or accurate enough to be worth the effort.
In my experience, one of the core 'yeah, that really works' pieces of an agile approach is the 'Tasks should take less than a day' guideline. If you're estimating things that take longer than a day, you're going to be pretty far off.
Once you've broken them down so you can do that, you've done enough; regardless really of what those things are.
In the agile scrum methodology, Planning Poker is seen as an effective way of using the whole team to rapidly estimate the effort required for the user stories in a sprint (presuming this is what you are talking about). Otherwise, I wouldn't spend any more than a few minutes estimating a single task that is part of a user story.
I would highly recommend using this consensus-based technique if you are attempting to make estimations for a team of developers.
Planning poker means that you can get some pretty good estimates for every single user story within a single session (no more than 1-2 hours).
Do some reading on this and give it a try!
Also, as a general rule, no task in a user story should exceed 7.5 hours (a single day of work). If it does, you need to break the task into smaller tasks.
I think it depends on what you need. If, for example, the resources allocation of your project depend on it (as was the case around here sometimes), it is better to do it carefully. In the other way if you are doing a project that does not have this kind of necessity you may not go into too much detail. Spending too much time on it is not a good idea cause to do an accurate estimation is very hard.
There is a famous concept called Cone of Uncertainty and Cone of Uncertainty at Wikipedia that says how much accurate an estimation usually can be. It is worth reading about.
What do you get out of your estimates?
Depending on what you work on, accurate individual estimates might be relevant (customer is paying you at the end of the week or task/story is blocking to others and a precise ETA is required) or not (you got 200 stories in the backlog, nobody is going to die if a story shifts for a week, and you're counting on estimate errors to average out ok over a large number of them).
Just spend the minimum amount of time to get an estimate that is good enough for your needs. There is no formula.
Personally, I consider than more than a minute or two means that you're probably estimating the wrong thing (split it up or plan discovery).
Actually you need estimation to help other stakeholders assign relative priority - so broad-based estimates that at least say task1 is roughly 3 times effort compared to task2, (even if in terms of hours its not very accurate in the end) are useful. Spend as much time is needed to understand what those tasks are (for achieving certain goals) and then having rough estimates for them.
Once you have relative priority, just focus on doing things and adjust estimates en-route. In other words, spend little time in up-front estimates, but do refine your estimates as time goes so that the project plan gives a good idea when what is going to get done.
Good estimates are the once that are based on facts not assumptions.
Thus, if you already had a similar project(s) and captured your previous estimation time, that might server as a good estimation base to start. However, depending on your project scope there might be unknown artifacts, which is better to clarify with BA or product owner asap.
It is also true to say that : Software Project Estimation is Inherently Inaccurate. However, there are some realistic estimation practices that might help:


text:
Madison Working Bag
Product Actions
Exclusively Ours!
Textured leather top zip bag with rolled top handles and large snap-close gusset pockets at either side. Smooth leather lining with leather-trimmed zipper pocket, slip pocket and cell phone pocket. Includes pair of detachable thin shoulder straps. Gold-tone hardware.
Since Valextra's inception in 1937, the Italian craftsmen have held a steadfast commitment to fulfilling our various luggage and handbag desires with their substantial collection of supremely constructed and highly functional leather goods.
Need Help? Have Questions? Contact Us.
Please call 1.888.222.7639 to speak with a Customer Service Representative.
We're here to help you:
Monday - Friday, 9 AM - 9 PM (ET)
Saturday - Sunday, 10:30 AM - 7 PM (ET)
If you prefer email, we can be reached anytime at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Free Shipping & Returns on all U.S. Orders. See Details.


text:
The oldest of the five children of the painter Funke, Albert Johann Funke Küpper inherited his father's painting and drawing skills. In 1912, he became a teacher in Rotterdam, where he attended Art Academy. He served in the First World War, after which he devoted himself entirely to painting and drawing. In 1923, he made his debut in socialist journal Voorwaarts, drawing 'Krelissie en Dirrekie'. His colleague Gerrit Rotman also worked for Voorwaarts, doing the popular comic 'Snuffelgraag en Knagelijntje'. When Rotman left in 1927, Albert Funke took over this strip.
In 1929, Albert moved to Amsterdam and worked for the newly-founded socialist publishing company De Arbeiderspers. Albert Funke showed a deep sympathy for the plight of the lower classes, especially children, in numerous political cartoons. He also made anti-fascist comics for the satiric magazine De Notenkraker, of which he became the driving force. Albert Funke's energy, involvement and unceasing productivity were such, that the magazine didn't last long after his untimely death in 1934, at the age of 40.


text:
Research Databases
Highly Recommended
Institute of Physics Journals
Full text of 30+ physics journals, including the New Journal of Physics.
Science Citation Index
Comprehensive search tool that lets you do a cited reference search.
Science Direct
Coverage in many science areas. Polk subscribes to approx. 1700 full text journals from 2006 - present.
Springer Journals
Springer provides full text access to over 1,600 journals across multiple disciplines, including 200 in Physics.
Also Useful
IEEE Digital Library
Full text access to technical literature in engineering and technology
- Science Magazine Online
Physical Review B
(2001 - Present)
Physical Review Letters
(2001 - Present)
Good For Any Subject
Academic Search Complete
Gain access to information from a wide range of academic areas including business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, and education. The upgrade from Academic Search Elite to Academic Search Complete has been partially funded in 2007-08 by the UW Oshkosh Student Technology Fund.Full Text AvailableJournal, Magazine and Newspaper ResourcesMulti-topic tool with full text for nearly 4,500 journals including 3,700+ peer-reviewed journals.
Masterfile Premier
Provides abstracts and indexing for more than 3,100 periodicals, plus searchable full text for more than 1,500 active periodicals. Subjects covered include general reference, business, health, multicultural and more. Total coverage includes over 4 million articles.Full Text AvailableJournal, Magazine and Newspaper ResourcesMulti-topic tool includes full text of popular magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, and more.
Lexis Nexis Academic Universe
Academic Universe provides access to nearly 5,000 publications on a wide range of topics: news, business, legal, and reference information. In Business, it includes company financials, SEC Filings and reports, directories, accounting journals & more.Full Text AvailableJournal, Magazine and Newspaper ResourcesFull-text news & newspapers, business, legal, medical, and reference information.
Credo Reference
Credo is an easy-to-use tool for research projects and homework. Search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 200,000+ images and audio files, and nearly 100 videos.Full Text AvailableReference & Background ResourcesCredo is an easy-to-use tool for research projects and homework. Search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 200,000+ images and audio files, and nearly 100 videos.