Recurring cards on a monthly basis in Trello

Question: Is there a way to create recurring cards/tasks in Trello? This is the only thing that's preventing our organization from using Trello vs. Producteev.
Comment: I've been using the copy feature, but it is becoming tedious. I really need the recurring task option. We have been using Trello for my kids' chores. Each kid has several daily chores, and to copy each day every day... Trello doesn't have recurring tasks on its development board, so I may be looking for a new solution. We tried in earnest!
Comment: @Debbie Did you find a solution other than trello?
Answer: You can do this for free with just a little extra effort.
We have a specific board where all the cards are "recurring".  No need to create a card for every occurrence of a task, just re-use the same cards!
Our board has lists for Daily, Weekly, Monthly/Quarterly, Once and Completed/Retired task lists.  Some cards have the day in the title (Tue: Clean Desk) as a reminder of when it should happen.  We never copy cards for the next day/week, we just update the cards' activity and Due date.
When someone "completes" a task they simply change the Due Date and optionally enter an activity comment.  It works great as soon as you figure out how to maintain it.
Example:  We have one card that includes 5 steps (a checklist) to be completed during the week.  As each checklist item is checked off, the card proceeds.  The last item in the checklist is "Reset Card and Change Due Date".  So if the Due date is Friday, Items 1 - 4 get checked during the week.  When all items are complete we UNCHECK the check boxes and change the due date to the Next due date.  Trello keeps track of these changes so you can always go back and see history in the activity comments.
Comment: this is a great suggestion - I hadn't thought of approaching it this way
Answer: Zapier can do this with https://zapier.com/z/60m/zapbook/schedule/trello/9149/create-trello-card-every-month/!

It is very simple but very powerful, you can even dynamically insert the day of week or time into the card (it doesn't have to be static content). Of course, you can also make this a daily or weekly task, you call!
Here is the link: https://zapier.com/z/60m/zapbook/schedule/trello/9149/create-trello-card-every-month/ and here are some screenshots:

Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder of Zapier but use Trello a lot personally (it rocks!).
Answer: The method using Zapier is really easy to use. But in the free version of Zapier you can use maximum 5 zaps (i.e. 5 reoccuring cards). I needed at least 10 zaps and because I'm a poor student I don't have the money for the premium account.
So I starting looking for a method using IFTTT. IFTT doesn't have a Trello channel, but there's still a easy way to create reoccuring cards: Use the Trigger "DATE & TIME" & the Action "GMAIL". You can schedule gmail to send an email with which you create a trello card. It is possible on a daily, hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly basis.
If you don't know how to create a card via mail, look here: http://help.trello.com/customer/portal/articles/1216141-creating-cards-by-email#formattingTips
Comment: +1 for the "Create card by email" part -- you could combine this with an IFTTT trigger on Google Calendar to use any recurrence schedule you can come up with there.
Answer: Zapier has access to the Trello API.  IFTTT has access to a calendar.  Both have access to Google Drive.
Create an event that adds a Google Drive document once per month in IFTTT.  I've done this step for you, if you want to use my recipe: https://ifttt.com/recipes/68810
Use the new triggered file in Google Drive as the event for a new Trello Card in Zapier.  Zapier can filter results from the created Google Drive documents, but it does not yet appear to have the ability to copy a previous card, so you'll be creating your checklists from scratch.

This automates some of your actions, but it doesn't get you all of the way there.
Answer: I have created a zap in Zapier that works like a charm - at least for my scenario.
The task in Zapier creates a new card with the same content as a previous card. The trigger is: When a Card is moved to the "Done" list on my board AND the description field contains the word "Recurring" the zap is triggered. All fields are copied from the old card but the due date is created using a combination of Zapier's named variables and the adjust time feature.
In the description field of the cards I want to recur I write "Recurring(21)" where the number is the number of days from the data the previous card has been moved to the "Done" list. In the Zap I write
{{data__card__dateLastActivity}} +{{data__card__desc_Recurring}}d"

This will create a new due date e.g.
08-04-2014 +21d

equals
29-04-2014

For more details see http://zpr.io/HSke and https://zapier.com/help/advanced-tips/
Answer: The Zap above works great for me with some refinements/clarifications:
First, I changed "Recurring" to be "recur" and put it in the name field, so I can type something like "Task name -recur(1)" which is faster to put in.
Second, doing this the field names change to:
{{data__card__dateLastActivity}} +{{data__card__name_recur}}d
and I put this into the due date field, as described.
Also, keep in mind that the Zap's run every 5 minutes during the free trial.  And when entering things, don't forget to put double-braces around the fields.
Answer: You can use google calendar to create a monthly event (I'd recommend creating a new calendar just for recurring trello tasks by going to "My calendar" -> "Create new calendar" on the left-hand side of the web interface). Then setup an email reminder for that event and you'll get notified once a month per email. Once you have done that, setup your email client to automatically forward the reminder email to your trello board. Under gmail you would do that by creating a filter.
As explained here, you can find out the email address for your trello board under Email Settings… in the Settings section in the trello sidebar.
The only problem with this setup is that google calendar emails have a subject line with the following format:

Reminder: event-name @ date-string (calendar-name)

Since trello uses the subject line of incoming emails to create new cards, the title of the new cards will not only include the event-name, but the full subject line.
Answer: The only way I can see this being possible at the moment is to use the Trello API and have an external system periodically "add" a card.
The API call to use is listed on this page https://trello.com/docs/api/card/index.html
Comment: Zaiper also has access to the Trello API -- https://zapier.com/
Answer: I found a great solution that's a blend of the options many of you suggested.
I created a new calendar in Google calendar, and I put my recurring events on this calendar. Then I have Zapier create a new Trello card for each new event on that calendar. This gives me dynamic control over creating new events as well.
Answer: You can do this with IFTTT, which may be cheaper than using Zapier (depending on how many recurring tasks you have)
There is a write up here including links to a couple of IFTTT recipes to use and details on how to build your own. http://blog.getcorrello.com/2015/11/02/how-to-create-recurring-tasks-in-trello/
Answer: Trello recently (late 2016) added this feature as a power-up.
To use it, enable it by going to Menu -> Power-ups.  Once it's enabled, it appears on the side of the card under "Power ups".  Repeats can be weekly (any day of the week) or monthly (day of the month).
With a free account, only one power-up can be active at a time, so the IFTTT or Zaiper solutions may still be useful.


Right process to transfer new website over current one

Question: My current (old) website is just a static site.  It has been online for 6 years.  I just rebuilt it on Drupal.  I need to obviously replace the current website with the old one.  But first, the new site will be on a different server than my old one.  I need to configure the dev environments and production environments on the new server, so while I do that, the current (old) site still has to be accessible to the public.  So how do you go about this?  How do I have the current old site still accessible, while the new site is being configured on the new server.  If my domain is abccompany.com on the current site, how do I at the same time configure the new site on the new server that has the same address?
Answer: Deploy New Site at Temporary Address
If you have the option to create a different virtual host on the existing server, you can create a virtual host named "abccompany.com.staging" (though you may need to modify the application's configuration to respond under this hostname).
If you do not have the option to create a different virtual host but you do have the option to change how the web server behaves based upon a visitor's IP address, you could configure your server to host a different version of the site when visited from your IP address.
Easiest option: if you do not have access to make the necessary changes to the server's configuration (or you simply do not want to) you can set the site up on a different server under the "abccompany.com" hostname.
Assuming that the hostname has changed or the new version of the site is being served on an IP which does not have a public A/AAAA record associated with it, change your hosts file to reflect the IP associated with the site and flush your local DNS cache so your web browser will request the specified hostname from the IP you set.
The nice thing about using DNS to control access to the new version of the site is that you do not need to take any special measures to hide the new version from normal visitors or search engines - they simply will not request the domain from a server which is not associated with the domain's forward DNS.
Preparations
Before transitioning, you should determine whether any of the existing site's URL's will need to be redirected in the new version of the site to prevent link rot in search engines' indexes and other sites' links to your site.
Create and test redirects on your site. You may want to implement these redirects in your webserver's configuration, however, if you're comfortable with PHP then a 404 handler script (like this one) might be easier to implement (with the added benefit of lower overhead for request processing once search engines update their indexes).
Transition
Once you have tested the new version of the site and determined that it is ready to go live, update abccompany.com's DNS records (if you are using a different server) or your server's configuration (if you are using a made-up hostname or you elected to modify your server's configuration) to direct visitor's to the new version of the site.
Note: You can modify the TTL value for your A/AAAA records before making this switch to reduce the length of time that visitors' queries for your site will return the old server's IP address if you're switching servers, however, some ISP's will ignore TTL values so the only guaranteed method for an immediate transition would be to implement the new version of the site on the same server which hosts the old version (otherwise visitors who are still relying upon their cached DNS records will be directed to the old site until the cache lifetime expires).
Answer: I would recommend that you create a sub-domain for the new site for testing. So if your current domain is www.domain.com, then create a test.domain.com entry at your DNS provider pointed to the new server's IP address. This allows you time to test the new server while the old server is functioning as usual. One small point, for the test domain I'd recommend putting in a robots.txt file with the following content:
<code>User-agent: *
Disallow: /
</code>
This makes sure Google and other major search engines do not start indexing the test domain. Search engines might not find the test domain for a while, but I prefer to be safe than sorry when it comes to SEO matters.
When your testing is complete, you can point your existing domain to the new server. You will want to wait a for a while for the DNS entry to transition. At a minimum it might take 2 or 3 days for the new IP address to propagate across the internet. So content from both sites would be served during the transition period.  If this is not acceptable, then I'm not sure how you would approach the transition. You'll want to delete your test domain DNS entry as well.
Make sure to clear out the contents of the robots.txt file after the existing domain is pointed to the new server.  This is important, you don't want the search engines to stop crawling your site.
I hope this helps and makes sense.


Lashonos Hatzemer

Question: I know what hand-spun is and what niputz lishmah is, but what about "lashonos hatzemer?" It seems the Eidoh Chareidis of Jerusalem adheres to this chumroh for tzitzis. All I know is that it's a stage in the wool production process right before spinning, but what exactly is it and where is it mentioned in halacha?
Comment: Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for this interesting question!
Answer: According to what is says here, there are 2 stages in which when making the tzitzit have to have Kavana: The spinning and the interweaving. The stage of lashonos hatzemer, as you said, is the stage before the spinning, and according to some de'ot you need kavana from that stage already
Answer: Thank you to Leac and Menachem for their research and helpful answers. A few weeks ago, since asking my question, I just so happened to visit an Alpaca farm, where I came across a lady combing alpaca wool, so of course I asked her for information on wool terminology. I'm still no expert on wool making, but based on her answer I now think lashonot hatzemer refers to "rovings," "slivers" or "battings."
Answer: I'd always understood a "tongue of wool" to refer to the wool after it's been combed. Since the wool is long and narrow after it is combed, it is referred to as a tongue, which is also long and narrow. The wool is combed in order to clean it, and to prepare it for spinning into thread or yarn.
I'd never actually seen what it actually looks like until I did some searching on the internet. Turns out there are tons of youtube videos showing how it's done. Here is a blog post where someone describes how they comb wool, with pictures.
In the link provided in the question, niputz is referred to as "carding". Carding is alternative method of preparing the wool for spinning. Here's a youtube video that demonstrates combing and compares it to carding.
So to answer the first question ("What exactly is lashonot hatzemer?"). In order to spin wool into thread, the wool must be prepared. This is done by combing or carding, and the resulting wool is then ready to spin into thread.
As for your second question ("Where is it mentioned in halacha?"), I'm assuming you mean besides the laws of making strings for tziztit, since that was mentioned in the link you provided. I'm not sure of any mention in halachic books, but the first mishna in the second chapter of Tractate Bava Metzia mentions "Leshonot shel Argaman", tongues of purple wool.

Lashonos Hatzemer


How is critical hit damage calculated?

Question: In Borderlands 1, critical hit damage was based on a weapon's critical hit modifer (which was sometimes hidden) and "how critical" the hit was.
Does the same apply to Borderlands 2?  How do the different critical hit bonuses interact?
Comment: If it's like Borderlands 1 the "base" is actually based on "how critical" the crit area on the target is, plus weapon modifiers  http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_hit#Mechanics/
Answer: I have done some of my own math, and I got base damage figured out, but critical damage is being a little trickster right now. I looked around and I heard you also have to calculate in "how critical was the hit". What I get from that is that each critical point on each enemy gives a different bonus. I came to this site from Google to find the answer to my/your question, but maybe we can help each other. Here is the info that I wrote down and maybe from my info you can do further calculations to figure it out.
First to make sure I even knew what the hell I was doing I ran a simple test with base damage. Here is what I got.
Zero was my character.
Weapon - Callipeen - 883 damage
I had to make sure I looked at all my stats: Class mods, skill trees and badass points. the only modifiers I had towards gun damage were: +6.0% from badass points and +8% from the Vel0city skill.
Then I had to see if the damage was compounded or just added on. It's just added, the game would be too beast if it was compounded but here is the calculation:
883 + 883 * (.06+) + 883 * (.08)=1006.62.
(I don't know how good you are with math but don't forget to revert the percentages to decimals. I'm not insulting or anything, just being sure and since I'm a math major in college this is my real formula below).
883 * (1+0.14) = 1006.62. (0.14 is the 6% + 8%)
The game rounds up but I was completely correct. I had to take in account that one of Zero's skills adds damage the longer you aim down the sights. So in general here is a formula for finding your base damage
Base damage of weapon * (1+ (sum percentages that deal with gun damage/100)).
Also I sort of disproved the idea that each company or each type of weapon has a hidden damage. There still may be a hidden crit. damage but I don't know yet.
Comment: Nice first post!  My only suggestion would be to be mindful of your punctuation and capitalization.  If I had time right now, I'd take care of it (your posts can be edited by others), but it's also something to keep in mind for the future.
Answer: Having encountered Sniper Rifles with stats like "+120% Critical Hit Damage" that seemed too good to be true, I was wondering the same thing, so I decided to run some tests.
Platform: XBox 360
Methodology: I took an alt (level 15 Zer0), respecced him to ensure that talents did not influence his numbers, and turned off his Badass boosts. All damage testing was done at Marcus's shop in Sanctuary on the firing range Bandit (also level 15). Zer0 was using a Turtle shield and a Professional class mod (no weapon or critical damage effects on either). I took two body shots and two head shots with each gun (Each pair was identical, so did not take further confirmation shots. May be worth doing in the future.). I noted three different damage ratings for each rifle: the listed damage, the center mass damage, and the head shot critical damage.
Assumption: Shooting a bandit in the head automatically has a critical multiplier which is added to the weapon's critical multiplier. This total multiplier is than multiplied by the weapon's damage. This is based on enemies who have multiple critical locations taking different damage on some of them (shooting a loader's arm off does less critical damage than shooting the same loader in the eye).
Results: My spreadsheet Note the H column in particular.
Conclusions*: Jacobs sniper rifles have massive critical damage multipliers (5.2). Maliwan corrosive and fire rifles do extra damage to flesh, but use a lower crit factor (3 instead of 4). It's worth noting that having a 120% critical damage multiplier on a Maliwan rifle or a Hyperion shock rifle seems to add 10% to the total crit multiplier (column H). This leads me to suspect that the 120% critical damage boost means the weapon's critical multiplier is increased by 20%... and then that the weapon's critical factor is responsible for half the total critical multiplier. In turn this means that the bandit's headshot factor is 1.5, the Maliwan rifle's factor is (1.5 x 1.2) 1.8 for a total of 3.3.
*All critical multipliers refer to the combined target and weapon multipliers
Answer: Weapons
Critical hits multiply the weapon's damage by two factors: first, the critical multiplier of the weapon type; second, the sum of all bonuses to critical hit damage (usually from abilities, but also from sniper rifles and a few weapon parts).
CriticalDamage = CardDamage × CriticalMultiplier × (100% + BonusA + BonusB + BonusC + ···)
Example: If Zer0 has five ranks in Headsh0t (+20% Critical Hit Damage) and is using a Jakobs sniper rifle (+160% Critical Hit Damage) that is listed as dealing 150 damage, then a critical hit will deal 150 × 2 × (280%) = 840 damage before being modified by elemental effects.
Weapons with the effect "Deals Bonus Elemental Damage" apply their bonus damage after the critical hit damage is calculated. That is: bonus elemental damage is not multiplied on a critical hit.

Weapon parts that contribute to increased critical hit damage:

Pistols: The Hyperion barrel increases the critical multiplier by 0.15 (totaling to 2.65 for Jakobs pistols, 2.15 for all others).
Shotguns: The "Critikal Hit," "Critical," "Doc's," "Royal," and "Juicy" prefixes all correspond to an accessory that grants +50% critical hit damage.
Sniper rifles: The "Night," "Venture," "Tumtum," "Gentleman's," and "Razrez" prefixes all correspond to an accessory that grants +20% critical hit damage (totaling to +180% for Jakobs sniper rifles, +120% for all others).

When a weapon card says "+X% Critical Hit Damage," that value indicates the total effective multiplier. For example, a non-Jakobs pistol that says "+8% Critical Hit Damage" is actually reflecting the increase from a Hyperion barrel; the multiplier of 2.15 corresponds to a total effective increase of 7.5% (rounded to 8%); the weapon doesn't actually have a built-in critical hit damage bonus (like sniper rifles do). Similarly, if a Jakobs sniper rifle says "+180% Critical Hit Damage," that means the total bonus is +180%, not 180% on top of the base 160% that all Jakobs sniper rifles have.
Melee
Critical hits in melee inflict ×2 damage. Weapon or skill critical hit bonuses do not increase this any further.
Source: Borderlands wiki, "Critical Hit (Borderlands 2)" article
More detailed reading: Comprehensive Guide on How Critical Hit Damage Works in Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software Forums post)
Answer: For the things I have tested, it seems like it's a difference of crit damage for different weapon producers. E.g. Jacob snipers crit for more than Hyperion. Also weapon type has something to say. Seems like revolvers and snipers crit for more than SMG or assault rifles. More testing will be done, but because of the badass points, i'm not sure about the math, yet.
Of course, only non-elemental (and non-explosive) damage is able to crit.
Will post numbers when i have sufficient data.

How is critical hit damage calculated?


How should I clean anodized cookware?

Question: I'd been bought an anodised wok as a birthday present a couple of years back, but recently, when using a honey/mustard marinade, I managed to burn some of the excess marinade, and now can't seem to get the wok clean, not even when putting it through the dishwasher (it is dishwasher safe). What can I do to clean it off that won't affect the anodised coating?
Answer: We love to using Baking Soda and water to gently clean cookware. A little bit of hot water seems to work best.
Comment: This is my standby - perfect for anything greasy or sticky, and a mild abrasive for others. I'll resort to Ajax for seriously cooked-on scum, but Ajax on coated metal might be a bad idea.
Comment: How do you use this? As a paste cold, or some other way?
Answer: In cookeries that use woks, they immediately put water into the wok (from a faucet built right into the stove area) and boil it, using a bamboo whisk to clean up the junk.  Possibly some type of oil or one of those new orange based cleaning solvents (have heard of something called goo gone) would work.  Wouldn't suggest oven cleaner, as I think most of those contain lye, which dissolves aluminum.  Anything abrasive will also take off the very thin layer of anodization.  Good luck.
Comment: Actually, it's a question of how abrasive -- don't take a steel brush to it, but you should be able to get away with a plastic scouring pad, as the anodization process hardens the surface so it can take extra abuse.
Answer: To get the marinade off I would fill the wok with water until all of the offending marinade is covered, then I would boil the water in the wok.  This will probably be enough to get the marinade off, or at least loosen it so you can wash it off.
In general though hard anodised cookware should be cleanable with a scourer and a bit of elbow grease.
Answer: I never underestimate the power of a good, long soak (1-3 days) in some hot, soapy water.  It seems to work it's magic slowly, enhanced by a good scrub along the way.  I'd hesitate to use ajax, although baking soda is a nice abrasive.
Answer: You can use Comet or similar as well as 3M plastic scrubbing pads (aka meany greenies).
Answer: I'd also suggest 3M's Dobie sponges, available just about everywhere kitchen supplies are sold.  They've got a good plastic coating that's safe on non-stick and anodized cookware, but tough enough to remove stubborn burned bits.  My parents have been using them for years on their pans, and I've been using them for a shorter number of years on my own.

How should I clean anodized cookware?


Can't install the ia32-libs package

Question: I'm trying to build an ubuntu embedded linux kernel for Beaglebone.
Part of the build has a dependency for ia32-libs.
When I try to install it it say it needs ia32-libs-multiarch.
But it says its not installable! (see below).
I have tried other solutions from this forum without success.
Can someone explain what is happening and what I can do about it?
ian@ubuntu:~/beaglebone2/linux-dev$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Comment: related: http://askubuntu.com/questions/216998/broken-packages you may also wish to review: http://askubuntu.com/questions/143904/how-to-install-ia32-libs-on-12-04-lts-32-bit?rq=1
Answer: You can find an answer here What happened to the ia32-libs package?
You can still install it using synaptic
<code>sudo apt-get install synaptic
</code>
then just find your package there

Can't install the ia32-libs package


Godfinger -- fishing is flaky?

Question: In Godfinger, for some reason, my followers randomly refuse to fish in lakes or seas I made. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Any idea why, and how can I get them fishing more reliably?
Answer: Make sure they have some energy first before placing them by a pond. They will not fish if completely exhausted. Also, make sure the pond edge is not a stiff cliff where they can't reach the water.
(Source: NGMoco support)
Answer: I had the same problem, and aside from a few tips, there isn't much you can do, it's just flaky AI.
Try to make sure the water level in your pond is as close to the bank as possible (i.e. fill it up as much as you can.)  The best way I found to do this is to fill it past the full point, then use the Sun evaporate the overflow.
Try to get steeper sides on your pools.  I found that having a nice, sharp edge to drop my villagers on made quite a difference, at times.  Go for 90 degrees, if possible.
Also, try to place your villager as close to the edge of the pool as possible (without dunking them, of course).  A lot of times, my villagers seemed to not see the pool unless they had been dropped quite near to the edge.

Godfinger -- fishing is flaky?


Is there a way to compare the 923 bit pairing based key with RSA or AES, etc

Question: I've see many articles, most of them basically the same, praising Fujitsu for cracking what is referred to as a 923 bit pairing based encryption.
I understand that in comparing RSA to AES you've got something like a power of 10 for the key lengths to be equally strong. From what I read it seems that this pairing based algorithm is a public key algorithm but somehow involving 3 keys. I don't know much about the various algorithms but I have read that in the public key space elliptic curve algorithms can get away with much smaller keys than RSA.  I've seem some articles that rate the complexity of various algorithms based on key length, but I don't know nearly enough to understand the papers on this.
Is this new record similar to breaking something encrypted with a 923 bit key using RSA?
I've seen articles that I believe are badly overstating this by saying things like "if they can break a 923 bit algorithm, how secure is the standard 256 bits?"  I assume that's comparing apples and oranges, but I don't know nearly enough to really know.
Does anyone know how to compare these things?
Answer: One could roughly take the following reasoning: in the press release, it is mentioned that

We have succeeded in breaking the pairing-based cryptography for 148.2 days in total using the computers of 21 servers (252 CPU cores) at NICT, Kyushu University and Fujitsu Laboratories. This computational cost is equivalent to the total time of computing Intel Xeon processor of 1 CPU core for 102 years.

Taking the Xeon CPU near me (a X3680 clocked at 3.33GHz) with AES-NI instructions, one can roughly expect that one needs less than 32 clock cycles to compute a key-schedule and an encryption, which results in about $\frac{3.33\cdot10^9}{32} \approx 10^8$ AES evaluations per second for one CPU core, or $365.25\cdot24\cdot86400\cdot 10^8 \approx 2^{56}$ AES evaluations a year, i.e. a total effort of about $2^{63}$ AES evaluations. Lenstra's extended equations put this effort in parallel with breaking an RSA key of 613 to 725 bits. Remember that this is slightly less than the current RSA factoring record of 768 bits.
Comment: Hi cryptopathe,
Thanks for the information. Putting it in terms of cpu power seems like a good way of comparing these dissimilar algorithms.  Based on the link you provided, if I understand correctly, this is roughly eqivilant to cracking AES with about a 66 bit key length (or so). This does put it into perspective.  Thanks again.
Answer: There is nothing really new about this research. It is just a fast implementation of a construction known since 1994.
Source:
http://superconductor.voltage.com/2012/06/understanding-the-recent-fujitsu-discrete-log-calculation.html


How does using two operating systems on one computer work?

Question: I am currently running Windows 7 on my system and want to try out Linux, but I'm afraid to download it and have something happen to my computer. Can I somehow download Ubuntu and when I start up my computer have an option on running either Ubuntu or windows?
Comment: Hi, welcome to Ask Ubuntu. Emailing is not how the site works, check back here for answers.
Comment: WUBI is the best way to install ubuntu without interfering with windows 7. But you will NOT experience full potential of ubuntu.....
Answer: Ubuntu is exactly what you need to try it out, and install it side-by-side with your current os:

download the current desktop ubuntu version and burn the to a cd
restart your pc, enable boot from cd
you will be taken to a full graphical desktop with two options:

try out
install

In the try out mode, ubuntu will run entirely from the cd (so it's a bit slow when starting up applications for the first time). You can even access your files.
When you decide you want to install ubuntu, select that option on the desktop. The installer can resize your windows partition and install a boot loader which allows booting into windows or linux.
Answer: I believe that what you want is wubi.exe found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer . Wubi will allow you to easily install and use Ubuntu without disturbing your currently installation. You will get everything out of a wubi.exe installation as you would with a completely separate Ubuntu installation.
After getting familiar with Ubuntu you might look at installing Ubuntu on another partition on you computer.
Answer: Wubi is the safest way to do it if your biggest concern is not messing your current OS. It installs from Windows just like any other program and does exactly what you're wanting it to do: every time you restart your computer it will ask you if you want to run Ubuntu or Windows. And if you decide down the road that you don't like it, you can uninstall it from the Windows Control Panel, just like any other program.
Answer: If you have a system with pretty good configuration and are worried too much, you can try out Ubuntu on a virtual box. That wouldn't hurt your system in anyway. It will be like running Ubuntu as just another application in Windows.


Photoshop: What is the quickest way to make changes to headers and footers in a web design?

Question: When I start working on a web design project and finish up the home page, I duplicate that PSD file, remove the contents leaving the header and footer, and start working on the next page. I run into problems when I need to make changes to either the header or footer as I would need to go back and make the same changes to the other files. I've tried using smart objects but I find it complicated to make changes as I would like to see how it looks with the rest of the design while I'm making the changes. Is there a better way to go about this?
Answer: I'd strongly suggest keeping everything in the same PSD and using Layer Comps. Here's a good article on them: http://twosixcode.com/notes/view/how-to-use-photoshop-layer-comps
Answer: Other than keeping everything in the same PSD, I can't think of a way. Layer Comps may help for viewing, but if there are changes they won't be much use. You could also use the History snapshots while a document is open.
You may do better to make smart objects of your page content and leave the header/footer as simple layer groups in the PSD. That way those objects will open in their own window. You can then save and see the update reflected in the main PSD.
Answer: This is one of the reasons I've been using Illustrator for my comps for the last few years (I know many people here will take issue with that).
If you do prefer Photoshop, try out variables. It's not exactly elegant but you will be able to maintain global items in dedicated files and link out to them.
Answer: The better way is to not build all the web pages as files, but instead as code. Barring that, look at using proper wireframing tools like Axure. I'm not a huge fan of Axure, but in terms of managing design documents that will be constantly updated, it's better than PhotoShop.
If you HAVE to keep working this way, then I strongly suggest switching to Fireworks, which is designed for a workflow like this.
(Again, though, consider getting your designs into HTML/CSS/JS sooner than later as it's so much easier to iterate through that than bulky PSDs)


In front of Moshe, why not all of Klal Yisrael?

Question: We say in Tefillas Maariv

בוקע ים לפני משה

that the sea split before Moshe.
Why does it say "lifnei Moshe" (in front of Moshe) wasn't it lifnei (in front of) all of Klal Yisrael (the Jews)?
Comment: +1. I should have thought of this question every evening but somehow never have.
Comment: FTR Sefaradim don't have this in Arvit.
Answer: Rabbi Shnuer Zalman of Liadi (the "Alter Rebbe" of Lubavitch) asks this question (Mamarey Admur Hazaken 5565 vol. 1 pg. 238) and explains as follows: "Moshe" here refers not to the individual by that name, but rather the level called "Moshe" that is present in every Jew. The discourse explains that on a superficial level, the Jewish people were considered lower than the sea, and it would not split for them. It was specifically due to this "spark of Moshe" contained in every Jewish soul  - representing the "penimyos"; the deepest and highest levels of the soul - that the Jews are considered higher than the sea, and caused it to split.
This idea is further developed by the Rebbe Maharash (Likkutey Torah Toras Shmuel 5631 vol. 1 pg. 157) who connects it to what is explained in Tanya Chapter 42 (english link): In Parshas Eikev (Devarim 10:12) Moshe asks the Jewish people, "And now, Israel, what does the L‑rd your G‑d require of you? Only that you fear the L‑rd your G‑d." The Gemara (Brochas 33b, Megillah 25a) asks: "Is fear, then, such a small thing?" How could Moshe say that "all Hashem asks for" is for us to fear him; attaining fear of G-d is no simple feat! Answers the Gemara: "Yes, in the case of Moshe it is a small thing."
At first glance the answer of the Gemara is incomprehensible, for the verse asks, "What does Hashem require of you?" — i.e., What does G‑d require of every Jew? For the majority of Jews, fear of G‑d is certainly no mean accomplishment. What, then, is the point of answering that for Moshe it is a simple thing? Chassidus therefore explains that the answer of the Gemara does not refer to Moses alone, but to the "Moshe" which is found in every Jew. When a Jew utilizes the power of Moshe found within him, then fear of G‑d is indeed a simple thing and easy to attain.
Comment: Very nice answer al pi chassidus. If you could update with a link to the Sefer Tanya in Hebrew only that would help!)
Answer: If it said בוקע ים מפני משה we would easily understand it to mean that the sea split in response to Moshe (and his staff).
As it is, it says לפני not מפני but perhaps the meaning is similar.
Answer: DISCLAIMER: I'm not Ashkenazi and so I am not overly familiar with the Ashkenazi prayer service.  While the printed version of the siddur of Amram Gaon makes mention of the differences and their sources in the Gemarra I couldn't find anything particular there on why it is written that way.  So I'm going to fall back onto Kabbalistic and Chassidic sources.
As it says here HaShem's intent was to demonstrate his Kingdom by means of the Navi(Moshe Rabbeinu) here they bring the relevant portions of the Zohar that Moshe Rabbeinu was the agency through which the Malchut of HaShem was able to extend into the earth(at that point).  The Sephat Emet commenting on the Shemot Rabbah 19:7 says that the reason it had to be through Moshe Rabbeinu and not all of Klal Yisrael was because Klal Yisrael's understanding of their relationship with HaShem was still imperfect, specifically they did not realize that they were children of HaShem.(sources in the Sephat Emet   שנת תרל"ג ד"ה 'במדרש', שנת תר"מ ד"ה 'כתוב במדרש', שנת תרמ"ה ד"ה 'בפסוק', שנת תרמ"ו ד"ה 'בעניין', שנת תרמ"ז ד"ה 'אז ישיר משה', שנת תרנ"ד ד"ה 'כתיב', שנת תרנ"ט ד"ה 'בענין', ושנת תרס"ד ד"ה 'בפסוק')


Glass Carboy Drying Tips

Question: Does anyone know of any tips to help a 5 gallon glass carboy dry faster? I have it in a bay window in the sun, upside down in a carboy drying rack. It is mostly dry in 24 hours but there is still condensation built up on the inside walls. It takes anywhere from 2-4 days for that condensation to dry. I store my carboy in the basement so it has to be completely dry to keep it from molding.
Comment: I'm not adding this as an answer because I haven't tried it.  Perhaps a desiccant packet would help after that initial 24-hour drying period?  Maybe something like this: http://amzn.to/if9lgl
Answer: I leave mine upside down until there is just condensation left inside (no more drips).
Then if you lay it on its side the condensation will evaporatefrom the bottom side. Roll over and repeat. Mine will usually dry in about a day this way.
Comment: Bingo. Find a spot under a sunny window and it works in a couple hours. Right-side-up works well here, since water vapor heated by sunlight rises.
Answer: Never tried it but I suppose you could point a small fan into the opening of the car boy. I have a ton laying around because I work on media center enclosures and computers for a living. I've seen very small fans (like 4 inches) at my local big box / office supply stores if you don't have anything lying around.
Answer: I use a hairdryer to warm the sides of the carboy to remove residual condensation. Works great with plastic carboys (heavy-walled Nalgene) and my glass 3 gal.
Answer: If I were in your situation, I'd wait until the drops of moisture are out of the carboy, then turn it right-side up and leave it in the sunshine for a day until it's gone.

Glass Carboy Drying Tips


Why mix a feature film in stereo and not 5.1 ?

Question: Is there any true advantage of mixing a feature film nowadays in stereo as apposed to the more standard 5.1 format ?
Answer: Some conceptual reasons have been expressed by Walter Murch and Michel Chion: mono/stereo centre the viewer's focus on the screen and diegetic world, further supporting the suspension of disbelief.
Having sounds emanating from the physical theatre space can draw the audience's attention the fact that they are in a cinema and divides their attention between the film and the space. It's a concept similar to Brecht's alienation of the audience.
Answer: A lot of people are mentioning cost and overlooking the concept of aesthetic choice (props to Brendan Rehill for mentioning it). Multichannel surround isn't necessarily the best choice for all theatrically distributed films. Documentaries are a prime example. Yes, you can mix a documentary in surround (and some/many do), but few suffer aesthetically in 2 (or 2.1) channel stereo.
There can also be a personal choice involved. I remember hearing somewhere that all of Woody Allen's films are still done in mono. That's how he wants them. That's not a cop-out, just his personal stylistic choice.
It can't be denied that cost is part of the equation, but ultimately the sound in a film has to support the narrative. Surround simply for the sake of surround is misdirection of effort. If it becomes apparent that use of surround does little to support the film, wouldn't it be better to apply more effort in areas that would have more impact? Stereo might be the better choice in that scenario.
Apocalypse Now is an excellent example of a film that finds a middle ground. In the most basic sense, it is a surround film...but that is only a generalization. The film freqeuently drops the surrounds or pulls all the way down to mono to meet the needs of specific scenes...creating focus or immersion to add depth to the narrative.
It's like that old adage, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
Answer: This is a great discussion.
Last year I finished up a walk-and-talk feature, a la Before Sunrise.  While meeting with the director, he was pretty sure he only wanted a stereo mix of the film - there was no distribution deal, no theatrical run set up at that point, and in the interest of keeping budgets (both financial and time) low and tight, we agreed that perhaps this was the best course of action.  Additionally, there was little to no hard action where the sound design would totally benefit from the surround field.
Film was completed, sold out at Tribeca (stereo theatrical mix), started gaining interest.  Distro deal locked.  Studio wanted a 5.1 mix for distribution and theatrical runs.
O_o
Even if there is money for the studio to pay for the 5.1 mix, it can be very complicated to find the time and scheduling needed to fulfill a request with what are usually tight turnarounds like this, especially in a facility.  Add to that the need to go through QC, etc. - remixing can be an extremely time consuming and costly process to everyone involved.
I have been pushing my film clients to at least time budget for a 5.1 workflow in the case that a distro deal is secured.  I will deliver the LtRt as a viable stereo mix, but have the 5.1 at the ready should it need to be broken out.
Just keep in mind that it's not always up to the filmmaker what the final deliverables will be, and it is not always a creative decision.  I think the director could have argued for the stereo mix and held his ground, but the studio saw the benefit of having a 5.1 mix and pushed for it.
Cheers all!
Comment: excellent perspective to bring into this discussion.
Answer: It's a lot like asking why movies are still made in 2D. The number one reason is adoptibility. A small percentage of the public actually owns a 5.1 system. So you need to make stereo. It's the same reason we don't have SACD or DVD-A anymore. The public doesn't accept it as a necessity.
Answer: My 2 cents,
I agree with Shaun that it all comes down to the choice of the filmmaker. I much rather like the idea of shifting focus as part of storytelling than to just plop the viewer in the middle of every environment in the film by way of surround audio. It also doesn't always serve the story.
I myself as a viewer can't count how many times I have sat in a theater and have been pulled out of the film by a sound bursting from the surrounds. My focus is shifts from the screen as I turn my head looking for the source sound. After a second I realize its part of the film but by then all dramatic tension and suspension of disbelief has been broken.
One clear example of creative use of surrounds would be "Black Swan". There are moments in that film where the focus shifts in between characters and you have dialog being delivered from the back of the theater. In my opinion this choice allowed the viewer the sense of being being with the main character in the middle of this world that threatens to close in on us. This technique is used extensively in this film to the point where we accept these sounds as part of the experience and the suspension of disbelief remains intact.
It certainly isn't a given that film sound should always utilize the maximum allowable playback options simply because they are there. Film making as we know it, (in the U.S.), emerged from the assembly line mentality of Hollywood in the late 60's because filmmakers wanted to make bold new films and had to break away from tried and true conventions to make them. Yet today it seems that we have once again slipped back into complacency with the tried and true methods of today being things like CGI and surround formats. I for one would like to see more films deviate from the norm.
Good story, believable acting, good direction: these are the things that should pull the viewer in and immerse them in the film, not technological gimmicks.
Answer: Cost would be the only motivating factor I would think.  It takes more editing for a 5.1 sound track. Also building/renting space for a 5.1 mix is also much more expensive.
To have the option for 5.1 and choosing to go Stereo seems silly to me.
Answer: Cost could be a factor but are there any audio benefits? Will a stereo mix play correctly in theatres?
Comment: What kind of benefits do you have in mind? It won't improve sound quality if that's what you mean.
Answer: Best bet is to do a proper 5.1 mix. Theatrical equipment will often treat stereo mixes as if they were LtRt encoded - not the best recipe for predictability.
Answer: Cost. Money. Cash.
Answer: Txs allot to all the contributors  " DIE ,Shaun Farley , Chris Bishop , nicol , Chris Davis and Brendan Rehill for your great insight .
Mixing film i believe is about choice and no true harden rules "except delivery specs"
Im busy with 2 movies at the moment , 1 action which will be done in 5.1 the other comedy in dolby stereo . think the expansion to 5.1 in the comedy will be distracting to the script.
I love Brendan Rehill insight and have started doing some reading regarding his thoughts.
More knowledge more growth i say..txs all
Answer: Biggest problem in theaters with stereo sound is that things that are panned to center come right only to audience sitting in the center axis of the room. Others will loose phantom center effect as they sit closer to left or right speakers. The result is that audio center is panned from center closer to the side where one sits in the room.
If surround channels are the problem and for some reason you don't want to use them, then don't. But there is no reason NOT to use front center speaker. This way things that belong to the center stay there no matter where listeners sit on the room.
Bye / Tumppi


Please help me with my 2D isometric tile picking

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
How to convert mouse coordinates to isometric indexes?

Okay, I apologise in advance if I make no sense here.
Basically, I've got a simple application that takes in a file and populates a 2D array with tile objects that contain the type of tile, their X and Y values, location of the sprite in a tile map etc. The application then renders this back to front so the depth is sorted. The camera can be dragged about.
for (int i = 0; i < map.length; i++){
        for(int j = 0; j < map[i].length; j++){
            m_MapTest[i][j] = new Tile(((j * Tile.TILE_W / 2) + (i * Tile.TILE_W / 2)),
                      ((i * Tile.TILE_H / 2) - (j * Tile.TILE_H / 2)),
                      map[i][j], 0, map[i][j], 0);

The output:

The numbers are an example of where these tiles are located in the array. Ignore the temporary art.
How do I get the tile index of my mouse click? I've tried about 10 different picking algorithms including matrix translations but I haven't got anywhere. The closest I got was the application picking the right tile in one direction, yet the other axis would start at negative one, the next tile would be zero, the next would be zero then the next would be one and would be correct from there, although I seem to have deleted this in frustration. I feel bad that I don't really have any code for this.
My tile width is 64 and the height is 32, although the sprites are 64x64 and the actual tiles are located at the bottom of the image, if that makes sense... I have done it like this as I am planning on having varied tile heights.
If you need any more information to help me, please let me know. Math is not my strong point.
Comment: How about a 45 degree rotation, and then an X-scaling of 2?
Answer: I just recently had to solve this one to make a level builder for my isometric game.
After trying many approaches I ended up using the following:
x = (mouseY + mouseX * 0.5) / 32;
y = (mouseY - mouseX * 0.5) / 32;
col = round(x);
row = round(y);

I had to offset the mouse coords so that the 0,0 coords were at the (visual) center of the tile at index 0,0.
However, my map is drawn slightly differently (rotated 90 degrees compared to yours, with 0,0 being at the very top).


Is This a Bet or a Raise?

Question: Assuming more than 3 players at the table in no limit game.
SB and BB just places blinds.
Next to act is UTG1.
Which of the following options is terminologically correct?

Call, Bet, Allin, Fold
Call, Raise, Allin, Fold

And why?
Comment: Not sure if this even makes sense?! Are we talking game mechanics, or strategy? Care to elaborate?
Comment: I guess the question is: If UTG1 bets more than a BB, is this called *bet* or *raise*?
Comment: This is question about common terminology. Nothing else.
Comment: If you can't add more details to this soon, I'm inclined to close it. I hope you can.
Answer: There is no good answer. It depends on the poker room's terminology.
Sometimes the first bet is called a raise, because the blinds are referred as bets.
In other rooms there is always one bet before any raise.
For more info about terms, see the WIKI page.
Comment: UTG is a raise (after the blinds) according to full tilt
Answer: Although you are betting chips when you make a raise, it is more common to call any increase of a non-zero bet a "raise," not a "bet." (If you verbalized your action, it would be more felicitous to say "I raise to 25," not "I bet 25.")
Note that in some corners of the poker universe, one distinguishes between opens and raises. There, the correct options might be listed as fold, call, and open. This is not merely terminological: different rules can govern opens and raises. (E.g.: sometimes raising an open requires doubling the entire amount of the open, whereas reraising a raise requires only increasing the bet by the amount of the raise. So: in rooms where you raise a $5 blind to $25, the minimum reraise is to $45; but in certain games where you rather open to $25, the minimum (re)raise would be to $50.)
Comment: A raise from $5 to $25 would be a $20 raise, so wouldn't the minimum re-raise be $45 instead of $40?  +1 though.
Answer: The big blind has BET. True, t's a FORCED bet that leads to his being called the "blind." (He made his bet without seeing his cards. Actually, the small blind is in for half a bet, so the big blind "raises" the small blind.)
If the under the gun playermatches the "blind's" bet, s/he CALLS. If the under the gun player increases the Blind's bet, s/he raises.
Answer: Not sure I really understand the question here.
They will have the same options that they have in any position... Call, Bet, All In or Fold. Bet and Raise are the same thing really. So as gkovacs90 says it depends on the terminology of the poker room itself.
But they will have the same choices regardless of their position. Unless it has been raised before them. In which case the answer is number 2.

Is This a Bet or a Raise?


Proof of dividing fractions $\frac{a/b}{c/d}=\frac{ad}{bc}$

Question: For dividing two fractional expressions, how does the division sign turns into multiplication? Is there a step by step proof which proves
$$\frac{a}{b} \div \frac{c}{d} = \frac{a}{b} \cdot \frac{d}{c}=\frac{ad}{bc}?$$
Answer: Write $\frac{a}{b} \div \frac{c}{d}$ as
$$
\frac{\ \frac{a}{b}\ }{\frac{c}{d}}.
$$
Suppose you wanted to clear the denominator of this compound fraction. You could try multiplication by $\frac{d}{c}$, but you'll have to multiply the top and the bottom of the fraction to avoid changing it. So, you end up with
$$
\frac{\ \frac{a}{b}\ }{\frac{c}{d}} = \frac{\ \frac{a}{b}\ }{\frac{c}{d}} \cdot \frac{\ \frac{d}{c}\ }{\frac{d}{c}} = \frac{\ \frac{a}{b} \cdot \frac{d}{c}\ }{\frac{c}{d} \cdot \frac{d}{c}} = \frac{\ \frac{ad}{bc}\ }{1} = \frac{ad}{bc}.
$$
Answer: There is something assumed about the order of operations in the notation
$a/b \div c/d$.  I see this as a problem in pedagogy when fractions are first introduced in schools.  Somehow we have to assume that the slash bars are to be done before the division symbol, even though each of those symbols stands for "divide".  If I were you, I'd always stay in the habit of writing fractions as $\frac{a}{b}$ rather than $a/b$.
end rant.
Traditionally, $\frac{a}{b} \div \frac{c}{d}$ means:  Beginning with the quantity $\frac{a}{b}$, divide this by the quantity $\frac{c}{d}$.  So let's think of a small example not dealing with fractions first:
$$ 8 \div 2.$$
Now, we all know the answer is $4$.  But I want to draw your attention to the fact that this expression is the same as:
$$ 8 \cdot \frac{1}{2}.$$
What happened?  Well division by $2$ is the same as multiplication by $\frac{1}{2}$, because $\frac{1}{2}$ is the multiplicative inverse, or reciprocal of $2$.  By defintion, the reciprocal of a number $x$ is a number $y$ such that $x\cdot y = 1$.
Every nonzero number has a reciprocal.  If $x \neq 0$, then its reciprocal is $\frac{1}{x}$ (because $x \cdot \frac{1}{x} = 1$).  So, for $x \neq 0$:
$$ 8 \div x = 8 \cdot \frac{1}{x}.$$
Now, if $x$ is a fraction, such as $\frac{c}{d}$, then the most natural way to write the reciprocal of $x$ is by "flipping" the fraction.  The reciprocal of $\frac{c}{d}$ is $\frac{d}{c}$ (well... because $\frac{c}{d}\cdot \frac{d}{c} = \frac{cd}{cd} = 1$).  Thus:
$$ 8 \div \frac{c}{d} = 8 \cdot \frac{d}{c}. $$
Finally, it does not matter so much what the first factor of the expression is.  It could be another fraction:
$$ \frac{a}{b} \div \frac{c}{d} = \frac{a}{b} \cdot \frac{d}{c} = \frac{ad}{bc}.$$
Hope this helps!
Answer: The fraction  $x = \frac{a}{b}$ is the solution to $b \cdot x = a$. Similarly $y = \frac{c}{d}$ solves $d \cdot y = c$. Now, multiply the left-hand-side with $b \cdot x$ and the right hand-size with $a$ which preserves the equality since $a = b \cdot x$. We get
$$
 \begin{eqnarray}
    (b \cdot x) \cdot ( d \cdot y) &=& c \cdot a \\
    (b \cdot d) \cdot (x \cdot y) & = & (c \cdot a)
 \end{eqnarray}
$$
Thus $ ( x \cdot y) $ is the fraction $\frac{a \cdot c}{b \cdot d}$.
Answer: Division is normally the inverse operation to multiplication, so - as I have explained to one of my daughters this week - dividing by $n$ is the same as multiplying by $1/n$. In one sense this is a totally trivial observation, but in another it involves a much deeper understanding of what is going on.
It follows that division, where it makes sense, can be replaced by multiplication by the reciprocal (or inverse), which is the precise case my daughter wanted to understand. Getting hold of this opens up a world of algebraic possibilities, so it is well worth doing.
Answer: HINT $\rm\ \ x/z\ =\ y\ \iff\ x\ =\ y\ z\:.\ $ Thus $\rm\ \dfrac{a}b\!\!\ \bigg/\!\! \dfrac{c}d\ =\ \dfrac{a}b\!\!\dfrac{d}c\ \iff\ \dfrac{a}{b}\ =\ \dfrac{a}b\!\!\dfrac{d}c\!\!\dfrac{c}{d} $
Answer: Suppose $\frac{a}{b}$ and $\frac{c}{d}$ are fractions.  That is, $a$, $b$, $c$, $d$ are whole numbers and $b\ne0$, $d\ne0$.  In addition we require $c\ne0$.
Let $\frac{a}{b}\div\frac{c}{d}=A$.  Then by definition of division of fractions , $A$ is a unique fraction so that $A\times\frac{c}{d}=\frac{a}{b}$.
However, $(\frac{a}{b}\times\frac{d}{c})\times\frac{c}{d}=\frac{a}{b}\times(\frac{d}{c}\times\frac{c}{d})=\frac{a}{b}\times(\frac{dc}{cd})=\frac{a}{b}\times(\frac{dc}{dc})=\frac{a}{b}$.
Then by uniqueness (of $A$), $A=\frac{a}{b}\times\frac{d}{c}$.


When is a three-manifold deck transformation group solvable?

Question: Suppose that $\pi:Y \to Y'$ is a regular covering of closed, connected, orientable three-manifolds and let $G$ be the deck transformation group.  Furthermore, suppose that $Y$ is a rational homology sphere (I don't know how much this condition matters).  It's not always the case that $G$ is solvable, since one can take $Y$ to be $S^3$ and $Y'$ to be the Poincare homology sphere.  Are there other examples where $G$ is not solvable?  Are such examples classified?  If $Y$ has elliptic geometry, this is the only example (I think), but I have no clue in general.  This seems like it could be related to residual finiteness of three-manifold groups/RFRS/LERF/other four-letter acronyms I don't understand.
Answer: Cooper and Long showed you can realize any finite group acting on a rational
homology sphere.
There's no general sort of classification that I know of. Maybe what you're asking for is,
given $Y'$ a rational homology sphere, and a homomorphism $\varphi: \pi_1(Y')\to K$, where $K$ is a finite group,
when is the cover $Y\to Y'$ corresponding to $ker(\varphi)$ again a rational
homology sphere? One perspective is that this amounts to computing $H_1(Y; \mathbb{Z}[K])$,
homology with twisted coefficients. Dunfield and Thurston took advantage of this
to compute covers of manifolds in the Snappea census with positive first betti number,
but such computations can get rapidly complicated, so I don't know of any general pattern when $K$ is non-solvable.
Answer: You are asking for free actions of finite, nonsolvable groups on $Y$. If you truly don't care that $Y$ is a rational homology sphere, for any finite group $G$ there exists a closed, connected, orientable 2-manifold $X$ and a free action of $G$ on $X$, so $G$ also acts freely on $Y = X \times S^1$.
Comment: Yes, that is a good observation.  I really want to restrict to rational homology spheres then.
Answer: Not exactly an answer to the question, but a classification of solvable groups which are fundamental groups of compact 3-manifolds is given the following celebrated paper:
Thomas, C. B.
On 3-manifolds with finite solvable fundamental group.
Invent. Math. 52 (1979), no. 2, 187–197.
It is very easy to check which of the manifolds produced are rational homology spheres...


Filter support for regex or wildcards

Question: Filter would be significantly more useful it it supported Regex or wildcards.  Ideally under a different parameter.  Wildcard could be with the * or the %.  This would allow for "starts-with" or "ends-with" type queries.  For example: wildcard=java% or wildcard=*java
Answer: I personally think that this would be more trouble than it's worth - and I'm speaking about the tremendous amount of work that the API maintainers would have to go through to filter malicious RegEx queries.
...and not only malicious, but also queries that would take a long time to parse/execute.
I think that if a web giant like Google doesn't support wildcard/RegEx, there's no need for StackOverflow to support it.
Comment: Maybe just wildcard then.  Like I said, most self respecting databases support LIKE and %.

Filter support for regex or wildcards


SQL Server database backups

Question: I am looking to do regular backups of my SQL Server databases.
Is there any reason why I should not just backup just the MSSQL.10/DATA folder? I've got a great backup solution in place from Rackspace which does incremental change based backups.
Answer: I'm guessing you are referring to a file system level backup of your data folder?
I am not familar with Rackspace for performing such a task, but have worked with other backup products that allow you to take snapshots of active or inuse files. Which it would allow you to grab a picture of the data and log files of a SQL Server database.
The problem with that is when you take a backup of those files in this manner you want to make sure the database is in a consistent state so it can be recovered, or restored. When you take a snapshot of those files while a transaction is being written to the log file, or committed to the data file, it will not necessarily have a consistent state.
When SQL Server attaches or starts a database it will read in the log file and either roll forward or back any active transactions that have not been committed to the database. If it hits an inconsistent transaction it will mark the database as suspect and you have to clean it up manually, and hope you can get it online.
Another problem that will come up with not using SQL Server native backups can depend on your recovery model. The recovery model basically dictates how your log file is managed for reuse of space. If you are in full recovery model a native full backup helps keep the log under control, taking filesystem level backups will bypass that process so you could end up with a log file out of control.
NOTE: When you determine your backup strategy for your database, you must be confident that you can use it to restore your data. No matter what suggestions you get, always try your backup plan and do a test run on your restore. If you can restore with that backup plan and it meets your recovery needs, then go with it.
Comment: FYI, rackspace is a hosting provider.
Answer: If those databases are in use, then the files may be locked and might be skipped by the backup process
Comment: Had a feeling this could be the case, going to go with Maintenance Plan backups then use Rackspace to back those up.
Comment: Some backup products can read SQL databases and back them up correctly, but not all. Make sure you run your SQL Backup before the scheduled file backup to reduce the latency between the two.
Answer: In case you have SQL Backup database and it undergoes corruption case which you need to solve and thus you can visit here : http://sqlbackuprecoverytool.devhub.com/ it will help you to fix your corruption issue in .bak files of SQL Server.

SQL Server database backups


Higgs mechanism from a deformation quantization point of view

Question: Is it possible to describe the Higgs mechanism from a deformation quantization point of view? How would one do it? Are there aspects of the Higgs mechanism and Higgs particle which one may see clearer from such a point of view?
Comment: Some motivation for the question and your ideas about what kind of connection between these concepts you would want to see would be nice.
Comment: The motivation is just out of curiosity. In recent times the possible discovery of the Higgs particle was a big topic in newspapers etc. Since I am interested in deformation quantization I just wanted to know if there is any connection between this approach to quantization and the Higgs mechanism especially if the deformation quantization approach could give a mathematically and conceptually clearer picture of the Higgs mechanism...
Comment: I wonder if the OP was asking if deformation can describe the interpolation from group to subgroup that is characteristical of the Higgs mechanism. So perhaps it is more about bundle reductions that about quantum.
Answer: The Standard Model of particle physics (which includes the Higgs as one of its matter fields, and hence constitutes a description of Higgs particle and its interactions with other elementary particles) is a special case of a quantum field theory. One can think of a quantum field theory as the quantization of a classical field theory. A classical field theory is described by a Lagrangian density and the quantization procedure takes a Lagrangian as input, and producing a quantum field theory as output. Deformation quantization is a way of describing this quantization procedure. Thus, deformation quantization can be thought of as applied to any field theory (with the Standard Model just a special case) in the process of quantization. That's about as tight as one can draw a connection between deformation quantization and the Higgs particle itself.
Now, the phrase "the Higgs mechanism" that you used, has some technical meanings that are distinct from just describing the Higgs particle, which is what I discussed in the first paragraph. The Higgs mechanism usually refers to the fact that the low energy excitations about the symmetry broken vacuum of the Standard Model have non-zero masses, while the elementary fields have no explicit mass terms in the Lagrangian. Thus, the Higgs mechanism has all to do with the structure of the Standard Model Lagrangian and not much to do with the field quantization procedure itself (which takes any Lagrangian as input).
Answer: The Higgs mechanism in the Standard Model doesn't have much to do with deformation quantization as other people have explained. However there is a version of the Higgs mechanism in string theory which involves stable D-branes arising via the Higgs mechanism from unstable D-branes. This is very hard to study directly in string field theory where one has to resort to approximate numerical techniques, but if one deforms the theory by turning on a B field as discussed in Seiberg and Witten, hep-th/9908142 one obtains a noncommutative version and in the "large B limit" one can obtain exact results. For details see hep-th/0005031 and references therein.
Answer: I completely agree with Igor answer, let me just add some partly related comments.
I think that everybody who just starts looking to "quantization related things" will be at first moment be overhelmed by various words "deformation quantization" "geometric quantization" "secondary quantization" "quantum groups" ...... and taming this zoo will at least take some time. Probably this is a part of "motivation" for the question.
Let me give some comments on this.
1) I do not think deformation quantization is directly helpful for Higgs mechanism,
as well as for most other questions of most other realistic quantum field theories.
2) The reason is that realistic quantum field are usually written in "canonical coordinates"
e.g. [p,q]=1  so deformation quantization coincide with "canonical quantization",
and in this case it brings nothing new to what physitits knew starting from the times of Heisenberg, Pauli, Dirac ~1930...
Well, there are subtleties related to  gauge symmetries, but reasonable way to treat them is various cohomological BRST, BV methods...
Answer: The Higgs field basically satisfies a nonlinear Klein-Gordon (KG) equation.The nonlinearity stems from the existence of a nonlinear potential energy term (interaction) depending on the field but not on its derivatives. The "classical" Higgs mechanism takes place when the energy functional corresponding to this equation acquires a global minimum for a nonvanishing value of the field.
Although I am not aware of any work treating the Higgs mechanism within the framework of deformation quantization, I want to refer you to the following work by Giuseppe Dito who defined a deformation quantization and a corresponding star product of interacting Klein-Gordon fields (thus can be applied in principle to the Higgs mechanism problem). This star product acts on the free asymptotic fields corresponding to the solutions of the nonlinear KG equation.
An important feature of this star product is that it has a built-in
renormalization mechanism, as the divergent terms that can be encountered in its application can be attributed to either coboundaries in its Hochschild cohomology or cocycles that can be removed by a modification of only lower order terms in $\hbar$. In either way a finite star product at each order of $\hbar$ can be found.
Comment: Thanks for pointing out Dito's paper I didn't know it and was not aware that it is possible have star products which has a "built-in renormalization mechanism"!


Are there any combined continuous/flash lights available?

Question: I'm buying a new set of lights and I'm curious if there are any lights out there that are both flash and continuous lights.  A set with a switch which allows the user to choose between these two options would be ideal.
Answer: Yes. For example, the Canon Speedlite 320EX and Speedlite 270EX II.
This is for video applications. For simply seeing where light will fall, many flashes have a "Modeling light" function, which rapidly strobes the flash for a few seconds so you can see where the shadows are.
Comment: @Michael Nielsen The continuous option on the new Canon Speedlites doesn't use strobing
Comment: It also comes in handy as a flashlight for walking around to dark photo locations :P
Comment: strobing is not continuous
Comment: Ah, the original wording said that it strobed, hence my comment. AS far I can see it is only the 320EX that has it.
Comment: and the design is flawed: 1. different source (whitebalance) like the studio light, but 2. it's off center from the flash source. Ofc. it is evident that the purpose of it is different (video vs model light). However, the type of LED looks pretty similar to the LED in my Maglite, which is a great flashlight but horrible for camera lighting.
Comment: @Michael Sorry, wasn't meaning to imply that the new Canon flashes work that way, just noting that many others do have a rudimentary modeling light function if that's the reason for wanting continuous light (as the question doesn't say).
Answer: Most mains-powered studio flash would easily qualify. Only AC-powered lights at the "toy" end of the spectrum and a handful of highly-specialised fixtures lack modelling lights. The modelling lights are not always bright enough for many types of photography or videography, but the more powerful flashes tend to have 250W halogen bulbs, which are entirely adequate for video or still life (and even for wide-aperture portraiture at moderate ISO settings). Any modifiers that work for the flash (softboxes, reflectors, grids, spots, fiber optic light pipes, etc.) will do double-duty as well. This is particularly the case for lights using a frosted dome over the modelling lamp and flash tube (Paul C. Buff Einsteins, Profoto and Elinchrom's Style range among them) which minimizes the difference between the modelling light's apparent position and the flash tube's. Portable flash usually has only vestigial modelling light, if any at all, since using a modelling light will significantly reduce the number of flashes available per battery charge.
Some LED panels, which are aimed primarily at the video market, also offer a "flash mode" in which the LEDs are driven to a power level they can't sustain normally (they'd burn out) for a very brief period. It's not quite flash (the duration is normally longer than a flash, often long enough to enable something like high-speed sync, and they don't get quite as bright as a xenon arc), but it's a substantial boost over the normal LED output level.
Answer: The big studio lights have a model lights inside, usually a halogen spot inside the Xenon ring tube. The strobe I used for work has a maximum of 100W for the modelling light. IF you have a set of these, you are probably ok for shooting with it, but it is more for setting up the scene. This also makes the white balance different.
I assume you meant the same light source. For that you need to look to machine vision lights like Advanced Illumination.
http://www.advancedillumination.com/
Their lights can be chosen on all sorts of single wavelengths incl. NIR, or white and they have a very long lifespan and keep the brightness throughout their life, but have a small area of interest (good for macro work or product/food photography). You buy them with a control box that can be continuous and flash and you can set the brightness. You can also get them in many different shapes (ring, spot, darkfield/brightfield/both, diffuse, plates, coaxial w/ prism, lines, patterns). They are very expensive, typically $2000-$4000, though. But they use the same light source for continuous and strobing (flashing) light.


Is it possible to check Page Rank of a site without the Google toolbar?

Question: I am just getting started in SEO, and I want to check the Page Rank of one of my sites. All google docs say to use their toolbar to check Page Rank. However I'm using Chromium. I could check with Firefox, but I'm curious if there's a way to check the page rank without using it. I see many sites for checking it, but they all seem a little spammy.
Comment: I find it delightfully ironic that Chrome (by default) offers no means to do this.
Comment: Simple answer, **NO**. This whole question rendered moot as Google doesn't provide PageRank anymore and any third party claiming to be able to display it is fluffing... Reduced to being another Cargo Cult SEO meme now.
Comment: You say Chrome can't do it by default, is there some way to turn it on? (And yes I'm suprised google haven't released a toolbar for this for their browser)
Comment: The google toolbar isn't the only toolbar that shows the PageRank.
Answer: PageRank is a useless metric to chase and I wouldn't bother with it. With that caveat, if you know PHP and have a host that supports it, check out this tutorial:
http://bohuco.net/blog/2010/07/google-ranking-checker-class-in-php/
Also, just for clarification, websites don't have PageRank, individual pages do.
Edit: Here is a PageRank checker for Chrome.
Comment: Yep, that's what their own Webmaster help site says about it too: http://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq--crawling--indexing---ranking#pagerank  : "In fact, don't bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank"
Comment: It's indeed useless, the website I am building at the moment doesn't have a page rank and still score a page 2 and a page 5 on some keyword for Google.
Answer: As of November 2014, Google announced that is not going to be updating Pagerank as available from the Google Toolbar.
Any means of checking Pagerank is no longer going to work.  The Google toolbar and all third party PR checkers will only show old stale data.
Answer: There's a few website based solutions you could try, such as:

http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
http://www.selfseo.com/check_google_pagerank.php
http://pagerank.gbscript.com/
Answer: There are several web apps that can do this for you, I personally use CubeStat
Answer: As far as I know, there is currently no way of doing this via an API, though there are some hacks (and many sites that will report on this for you).  Use your favourite search engine to search for "my pagerank" for a long list of sites.
Be aware that raw PageRank doesn't really mean a lot in terms of position in the SERPs; it's more bragging rights than anything.  It is only one of may factors that Google uses to determine relevance, authority, trust, etc.
Have a look at this analysis of Google's Reasonable Surfer patent for some of the factors that Google considers for relevance.  There are many other tidbits / clues out there for other factors, but going down the garden path of trying to understand Google is a recipe for LOTS of hard work and, ultimately, insanity :)
Answer: In many cases, PageRank is just one of the many factors you may consider, while doing SEO (I don't think it's 100% useless, it wouldn't be used otherwise), so I'd go for the tool that shows more page/domain data:

Page PageRank
Domain PageRank
Domain Age
Domain IP
Alexa rank
Indexing date
Number of domain pages indexed
Number of incoming and
outgoing links
Maybe, some social signals - tweets, likes, +1s, etc. (when it does matter)

So far, I've been using SEO Quake for web-based checking and website auditor (desktop) for deeper site analysis. I do love SEO Quake's Diagnosis button to get a quick overview:

And here's the kind of website auditor's report I usually run:
Answer: Toolbar Pagerank (which was never Pagerank) is, arguably, the single greatest public relations stunt Google has ever pulled off.
There's some very clever psychology in using a single, reductive statistic to completely misdirect the attention of tens of thousands of webmasters worldwide from what they should be paying attention to. (organic search referrals, pages visited, visit duration, repeat visits etc.)
As of November 2014, even Google has said Toolbar Pagerank will no longer be updated and is henceforth a meaningless metric.
It underlines just how clever Google's early-2000s PR was that even after they announce this publicly, Toolbar Pagerank Fever refuses to subside in some quarters.
Answer: I use the PageRank Extension, but there's heaps more under "PageRank" in the extensions library.
As others have said though, it's not a very valid way of judging a site, though I do still have it there out of curiosity.
Answer: By Chromium do you mean the Google Chrome Browser?
There are plenty of extensions to Chrome that can show the PageRank, just search for "SEO" in the extension library.
But then again, I agree with everyone that says that PageRank is not that interesting. However most of those add-ons show you more than that, so they could be interesting.
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/oangcciaeihlfmhppegpdceadpfaoclj?hl=en
Comment: Chromium is a version of Google Chrome that has been recompiled for the Linux desktop.
Comment: Chromium doesn't have anything to do with Linux; it's the open-source version of Chrome that's a sort of test-bed for new features and forks.


A problem on Cohen Macaulay ring

Question: If $A$ is a Cohen Macaulay local ring, and $B$ is a quotient ring of $A$ and $B$ is also Cohen Macaulay, Then is $B$ always a quotient by a regular sequence of $A$?
Answer: The answer is no. Let $k$ be a field. Let $A=k[x]/x^2$, and let $B=k$.
$A$ is Artinian, so it is Cohen Macaulay. $B$ is clearly Cohen Macaulay. But the only non-trivial ideal in $A$ is $(x)$ which is not generated by a regular sequence, because every element of it is a zero-divisor.
Answer: As another example, say $\mathfrak{m}$ is the maximal ideal of $A$. Then $B:=A/\mathfrak{m}$ is Cohen-Macaulay (field), but $\mathfrak{m}$ is not generated by a regular sequence, unless $A$ is regular.
Answer: Here is an even better example:
$A=(k[x,y,z]/(xy-z^2))_{\mathfrak m}$ with ${\mathfrak m}=(x,y,z)$, $B=k[x]_{(x)}$.
Here $A$ is Gorenstein and $B$ is regular. The map is given by $x\mapsto x$ and $y,z\mapsto 0$.
Geometrically, $B$ corresponds to a line going through the vertex of a quadric cone corresponding to $A$. It is not a quotient by a regular sequence, because that would have to be just a regular element for dimension reasons, but the line is not a Cartier divisor, so it cannot be defined by a single equation. To see that it is not a Cartier divisor, for example one can compute its self-intersection number which is $\frac 12$.
Answer: A more general series of examples (when this fails) is given by choosing $B$ to be Cohen-Macaulay, but not Gorenstein and $A$ to be Gorenstein.
An explicit example is when $B=(k[x,y,z]/(xy,yz,zx))_{\mathfrak m}$ is the affine coordinate ring of three lines in $\mathbb A^3$ meeting in one point, but not contained in a plane and $A=k[x,y,z]_{\mathfrak m}$ where ${\mathfrak m}=(x,y,z)$.

A problem on Cohen Macaulay ring


Glass Milk bottles?

Question: Just about to start up my next batch and noticed I hac a couple glass milk bottles from Whole Foods lying around. In what ways could they be put to-use in homebrewing? Fermenting a test? Mead? Cider? Maybe just as an alternative when bottling?
Answer: Do not use milk bottles for bottling.  They can't withstand the pressure from carbonation and will be likely to explode.
Answer: If you can find stoppers at your local HBS that fit them, you can use them for yeast starters or small test batches. Since it's clear glass though, you might be better off getting your deposit back from whole foods.
Without a good cap and UV protection, they're not much use for bottling.
Comment: Those twist off caps are not very good for bottling because they don't hold as much pressure.  As Brandon mentioned, they might be useful for doing yeast starters.  The test batches would have to be super small though.
Answer: If you can find bungs that will fit them, they could be outfitted with an airlock and used for holding a little bit of extra wine/mead left when you rack from the primary, to be used for topping off the secondary further on down the line. You'd still need to make sure there was no extra airspace, though, so it would depend on the size of milk bottles you have, and how much extra you have left in your primary once you've racked to secondary.
Answer: It's not a bad idea to run a "wort stability test" every now and then. A milk bottle would work for that. If you can find a bung with a hole in it (airlock setup), you could also use them for a "Fast Fermentation Test".

Glass Milk bottles?


Why won't the mission selection screen update?

Question: I have just completed the second mission of the tutorial campaign in Might and Magic: Heroes 6. However, when I click on the "Next Map" button on the screen at the end, it just starts me over on the same mission again. Additionally, when I go back to the mission selection screen from the main menu, only the first mission of the tutorial campaign appears, and none of the other campaigns are available. What is the cause of this problem, and how can I get access to the other campaigns?
Comment: You do have a full version, not the demo, right?
Comment: I'm pretty sure this is because of uplay trying to synch your progress. You might not have any choice but to complete the 2nd map again (you can try loading a save right before you win).
Answer: You probably got disconnected from UPlay at some point and, unfortunately, may have lost some progress that did not get synched to UPlay.
Comment: I'm having the same problem, and there's no indication that I'm getting disconnected from UPlay.
Answer: Although this happened to me in a completely different game, it's worth a shot:
In StarCraft II, I had something similar happen.  I finished the first mission, and I got returned to the video intro, and then the same mission again.  This happened over and over till I found the workaround.
In that game, there's a bug (which Blizzard couldn't be bothered to fix), where if My Documents is mapped to a network location, the game doesn't save any progress.  If you map My Documents back to a local folder, the game can save; so the workaround was to map it back locally, play the game, then map it back to the network drive after playing.
You might see if something similar can explain your case: Perhaps your My Documents or Program Files or some other essential directory isn't in the default location, and the game is poorly programmed and can't find that folder to save your progress.  (I know people are saying the progress is saved online, but in SCII it saves both locally and online, and the bug still happens.)


Remove value in drop down list after being selected

Question: I would like to ask, how to disable the value in drop down menu after being selected? I mean, let says if when User A select value B in drop down list, B is not available to be selected anymore to any user. How to do that?
Answer: you should be able to have an event handler for that dropdown menu and from there you have many options! it depends on what you mean anyother user cant select it, if you mean only within that session or untill the whole process or never again?
<code>DropDownList DropDownList1 = new DropDownList();
DropDownList1.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandle(DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged);
</code>
so the first line you have your dropdown list and then the second part is creating an event for your dropdown list. That event fires when the item you select has changed from the origional and it will trigger this:
<code>    private void DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        //put your code here ;)
    }
</code>
You can save to the database the values that have been selected and populate the dropdownbox onloading of the page? thats if its over a long period of time or forever.
If its only for the session than you can create an array and store the values that have been selected. Once you store it you need to repopulate your list to only include the options that havent been selected.
the above method you can also use if you want to keep the values in but not allow the values to be selected but you would need to do some validation against the array to check if its currently selected == arraylist values.
So there are many options for you to do what you want to do but you need to be more specific in what you want to do, over how long you want to do it :)
hope this helps :)


Can I hide PS Vita friend notifications?

Question: The notifications that pop up when your friends come online are very disruptive. Is there any way to turn off the notifications while remaining signed in? I didn't see any such option in the Friends or Settings apps.
Answer: Currently, there is no way to do this. You can turn off the notification light and sound in settings but cannot physically turn off the notification. This is, however, a feature that is being discussed on the PS Vita forums to be suggested for future software releases.
Answer: It doesn't work at the current moment. They just put a useless check box for it for them to not procrastinate on it. (Even though they probably will anyways.) I tried also turning off the light and sound for notifications, yet it STILL notifies with a light on the PS Button, however it never makes a sound in standby for a notification.


How do I copy PDFs onto my iPad and read them there?

Question: I've amassed a collection of books in PDF format (through occasionally buying the O'Reilly Media Deal of the Day), on my MacBook Pro.  I'd like to get them on my iPad, where they'll be more convenient to read.  How do I do that?  Should I look at Dropbox, and download a PDF reader app?  (Do you have one to recommend?)  Or is there a better way?
Answer: iBooks has built-in PDF reader support. Just download it for free from the App Store, then drag the PDFs that you want to copy to your iPad into iTunes. The PDFs will be listed under the "Books" section. Sync your iPad, then when you open iBooks, tap the "PDFs" tab and your PDFs will be listed.
Comment: You can do the same with Adobe Reader.
Answer: I either use the iTunes to iBooks method that Kyle Cronin suggested or use Dropbox if I'm not near my computer or I can't be bothered plugging my iPad in. Dropbox has a send to iBooks command.
Answer: For finding how to transfer your PDF to your ipad can use this method. but if your number of PDF is not too much can transfer it to your ipad with mail attachment and use safari to view them.
I think
GoodReader for iPad is best pdf viewer for ipad.
Answer: I'm a big fan of GoodReader but you can use iBooks.  Drag the files to iTunes (and you have to have the newest iBooks first) and then sync them like you sync everything else. Biggest downside is the titles of the pdf's are not shown so if the first page isn't the title you have no idea what you are looking at in iBooks. Beside seeing the filename and being able to read docs from all over the place the other feature about GoodReader I love is that you can lock the zoom in for every page and the text is a readable size and there isn't a lot of waisted space on the margins.


x11vnc server with Xubuntu show black screen in client

Question: I am running Xubuntu 13.10 (monitor attached) with x11vnc 0.9.13-1.1 run with the following options:
x11vnc -gui tray=setpass -rfbport PROMPT -bg -o %HOME/.x11vnc.log.%VNCDISPLAY

I have also enabled after x11vnc was up and running..... shared, forever, ultravnc file transfer, and a password for full permissions (no password for view only)
I am running UltraVNC x64 Viewer 22.214.171.124.2 from my Windows 7 machine and I am able to connect to my Xubuntu just fine but what appears on the screen is a black desktop with nothing on it (no icons, no panels, etc...).
What is strange is that the following 2 things are true when I'm in this state using UltraVNC viewer

When looking at the Xubuntu machine's monitor I can see the mouse moving when I move it within UltraVNC. I can even drag the open windows on my Xubuntu desktop around. When I do this the outline of the window I'm dragging appears in UltraVNC... but only while dragging.
If I click on the "Select Single Window" toolbar button in UltraVNC then click on any open window or anywhere on the desktop that window then shows up in UltraVNC and I can interact with it how you would expect. Clicking on the desktop shows me the desktop, but then if I try and open any application (or any other window) it does NOT show up in UltraVNC (as expected since I'm in single window mode) but it DOES show up on the Xubuntu desktop (again as expected). If I then click on "Select Full Desktop" it goes back to the black screen with the same behavior as before.

I searched this forum and also google but did not find anything that was helpful at all. Hopefully someone can offer some guidance as this has me stumped! I've tried using tightvncserver with the live CD, but I have found that it will sometimes open apps in display :0 if a monitor is connected to display :0 and the vnc viewer is connected to display :1. Also, I would rather have a shared view of display :0 and I know the x11vnc server provides this "out of the box".
Oh and I just tried this from my Ubuntu 12.04 machine using "Remote Desktop Viewer" and the behavior is exactly the same. So it doesn't appear to be an issue with the VNC client.
UPDATE:
So it turns out this seems to be related to the color bit depth set for the vnc server. If I change the bit depth to be anything less than 32 I get full view/control of the desktop. However this has the annoying effect of missing icons in the file manager, desktop, dock, etc... I assume this is because the icons are 32bit color and there aren't any icons of a lesser bit depth for that application/folder/file. In the file manager, this results in EVERY folder icon being missing and a lot of the icons in the settings manager as well. I also have noticed a TON of errors in the vnc log file after xfce starts.
Oh and this was after switching to vnc4server. Apparently this is a known bug in Xubuntu.
Never found a solution for x11vnc but what I ended up going with is vnc4server and using LXDE as the desktop environment in the vnc session. Sadly, I haven't found a way to make vnc4server share display :0 with the physical monitor. However, at least I now have a working vnc desktop since this machine will ultimately be headless in a server room.
Answer: x11vnc faq headless entry says to create an xorg.conf file:
http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/faq.html#faq-headless
Comment: Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.


Bend or concentrate magnetic field?

Question: What are the ways to modify the form of magnetic field from the permanent magnet? For example I have a permanent neodymium magnet. Its magnetic field is distributed at large volume around the magnet, with decreasing strength at larger distances from the magnet. I'd like to make it concentrated in very small distances around this magnet, and to have no field or largely less strong field beyond some given distance from the magnet.
Is it possible at all, and if yes, how?
Answer: To modify the distribution of magnetic field (irrespectively of the source - PMs or coils), you need some material with non-unit magnetic permeability, such as steel. These materials 'concentrate' the field lines, pulling them in away from the surrounding air (which has a permeability of very nearly 1). So to shield the outside world, you'd need to create a 'circuit' of permeable material (let's say steel), which channels the magnetic flux from the north pole of your magnet to its south pole. If you leave a little gap in one part of your circuit, the field will be enhanced in the gap.
Comment: @BartoNaz *"Does it mean, that with poles connected there is no magnetic field around the magnet"* No none, but less; often *much* less.
Comment: OK. That sounds reasonable. As far as I know the permanent magnets are stored with the opposite poles being joined by a piece of steel. Does it mean, that with poles connected there is no magnetic field around the magnet, and that it will remain magnetized for longer time? And if it will not disappear but just become less strong, then what does the decrease of magnetic field strength depend on?
Answer: You can place individual magnets into certain array configurations that will augment their magnetic fields.  You may look up the Halbach Array for an example of how magnetic fields can be arranged to concentrate the flux in one area while cancelling it out in another.  Also, magnetic fields are a great deal like a flexible rubber coating around the periphery of the magnet; repelling fields can be compressed, causing them to elongate and protrude outwards like jelly being squished out the sides of a sandwich when you squeeze down on it.  You can think of the magnets as the slices of bread, and the jelly as the way in which the magnetic field behaves when compressed. There are some cool applications for these type of magnet arrays; maybe you'll find one of these helpful.
Comment: Halbach arrays are really very interesting. Thank you for the idea.

Bend or concentrate magnetic field?


Creating document sets from a spreadsheet

Question: I have a list of offices that I need to create document sets for using a custom document set content type. Anyone have any idea how to create a Powershell script to read the spreadsheet and create the document set?
Answer: First you need to access Excel Services with PowerShell and read your data. Then you need to Create a document set from that data. This is not an easy task. I would consider other alternatives.