Is it possible to determine if some application is currently using microphone (i.e. is actively listening)?  Do operating systems (Windows in my case, but I'm curious about other OS-es as well) provide APIs for such feature?  I'm trying to test if apps are spying on users and data from such feature could serve as circumstantial evidence.
After reading  and reading the comments on the page, one person was wondering if it would be possible to use the Physical Device Object Names of other hardware such as the microphone to find out the names of processes using that device.  I tried the same approach, but so far it only seems to work for the webcam. Is there any other way I could get this to work in ?      UPDATE:  The Lifehacker post was about finding out which Windows process is currently using your webcam.  is how they went about doing it:        Start Device Manager (WIN+R &rarr; "devmgmt.msc" &rarr; OK)   Find your webcam among the list of devices (check under Imaging Devices)   Open the properties window of the device and switch to the Details tab  (Right click &rarr; Properties &rarr; Details)   In the dropdown menu, select Physical Device Object Name and copy the string(Right click &rarr; Copy)   Download    Make sure you have opened Process Explorer in Administrator Mode(File &rarr; Show Details for All Processes)   Hit CTRL+F and enter the string you copied earlier(it should be something like \Device\000000XX)   Hit the Search button and you should see a list of processes using the webcam(if there are any)
How do I stop Illustrator from snapping to pixel increments? I am working in Illustrator (15.0.2 (CS5) or 16.0.0 (CS6)) and when I try to move objects small distances, they snap to the nearest two pixels on some invisible grid. I can't find anything in the preferences. Here are some screen shots: How to avoid long nesting of asynchronous functions in Node.js Why can't root on one machine change nfs mounted content from another machine? On my NFS server, I have the following export defined:  #NFS exports Database /shared -alldirs -network=192.168.1 -mask=255.255.255.0   On my NFS client:  192.168.1.7:/shared /shared nfs rw 0 0   Obviously, as root on the server, I can do whatever I want.  On the client however, my regular user 'gabe' can make changes to the nfs mount (assuming I have permissions to), but root cannot.    As my regular user:   gabe@client$ cd /shared gabe@client$ ls -l total 8 drwxrwxrwx  4 gabe  wheel   512 Mar 20 19:20 tmp gabe@client$ cd tmp gabe@client$ touch test.txt gabe@client$ rm test.txt   As root:  # cd /shared/tmp # touch test.txt touch: test.txt: Permission denied   Again, this is all on the NFS client side of things, and I suspect perhaps it has something to do with the -maproot option.  This is the first time I'm setting up NFS and I just noticed this peculiarity.  I'm going to do some reading now, to see if I can figure this out, but if anyone has any insight, I would appreciate it. Solve $$\int \limits_{0}^{\infty} \frac{\cos(x)}{\cosh(x)} dx$$ without complex integration.  This integral can be very easily solved with contour integration, but how can you solve it without taking a tour in the complex plane? I'm very new to Ubuntu, and have come to this point that I can't boot back to my Windows Vista anymore.  I thought that I would get some kind of dual boot in the beginning when booting my computer, but this doesn't seem too happen and I don't have the slightest idea on how to fix this. I was looking for help here at askubuntu, but I couldn't seem to find anything. I'm too new with this software.  I'll need hints and tips on how to fix this  Thanks for your time folks! Using Android as network server I want to use my Android device as a network server. In the same kind of way you would make it a Wi-Fi hotspot, but I don't want to allow connected computers to access the internet, I would like them to be able to communicate together.  Possible uses:   Playing games via LAN (e.g., Quake) Allow computers to share files Bonjour (Macs) etc...   Is there any way to achieve this? Any apps out there that will set up a wireless network server? How t show $f=g$ almost everywhere Question is :  Suppose $X$ is a topological space of infinite cardinality which is homeomorphic to $X\times X$. Then which of the following is true:   $X$ is not connected. $X$ is not compact $X$ is not homeomorphic to a subset of $\mathbb{R}$ None of the above.   I guess first two options are false.  We do have possibility that product of two connected spaces is connected.  So, $X\times X$ is connected if $X$ is connected. So I guess there is no problem.  We do have possibility that product of two compact spaces is compact.  So, $X\times X$ is compact if $X$ is compact. So I guess there is no problem.  I understand that this is not the proof to exclude first two options but I guess the chance is more for them to be false.  So, only thing I have problem with is third option.  I could do nothing for that third option..  I would be thankful if some one can help me out to clear this.  Thank you :) The use of "exact same" Excel destroying special character when saved as CSV Exception messages in English? What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? Or a word used as a word ('mention' usage)? (another apostrophe question) When writing (a blog post, script, etc..) what is the proper way to indicate two or more instances of a single letter? For instance, in Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch:     C: I wonder if you might have a copy of "Rarnaby Budge"?      P: No, as I say, we're right out of Edmund Wells!      C: No, not Edmund Wells - Charles Dikkens.      P: (pause - eagerly) Charles Dickens??      C: Yes.      P: (excitedly) You mean "Barnaby Rudge"!      C: No, "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens.  That's Dikkens with two Ks, the      well-known Dutch author.      P: (slight pause) No, well we don't have "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens      with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author, and perhaps to save time I      should add that we don't have "Karnaby Fudge" by Darles Chickens, or      "Farmer of Sludge" by Marles Pickens, or even "Stickwick Stapers" by Farles      Wickens with four M's and a silent Q!!!!!  Why don't you try W. H. Smith's?      C: Ah did, They sent me here.   I had always believed that plural never uses an apostrophe before the 's' (it's only used for possession), but I have rarely seen in written material the format "four Ms". (On a side note, whoever wrote  also used "two Ks".)  On a side note, and perhaps this should be a separate question, if a Compact Disc is a CD, then two Compact Discs would be two CDs right? (I see "CD's" written everywhere) Which media player has seek preview with thumbnails? I was looking for a good video player to replace VLC, something that is as good as vlc but has seek preview. I am tired of fast forwarding in vlc  EDIT: I meant seek preview with thumbnails cp vs. mv: which operation is more efficient? I find myself moving reasonably large amount of data (20+ GB) from one directory tree to other. Often times they are on the same filesystem but sometimes they are on different ones. I do cp just to preserve the original data just-in-case. Once the copy is done I delete the original data after verifying that the data has been copied alright. Sometimes I just do mv if I feel too lazy to clean original data afterwards. However, I am wondering, from purely technical point of view, which operation is more efficient? Why? Why we use $L_2$ Space In QM? I asked this question for many people/professors without getting a sufficient answer, why in QM Lebesgue spaces of second degree are assumed to be the one that corresponds to the Hilbert vector space of state functions, from where this arises? and why 2-order space that assumes the following inner product:  $\langle\phi|\psi\rangle =\int\phi^{*}\psi\,dx$  While there is many ways to define the inner product.  In Physics books, this always assumed as given, never explains it, also I tried to read some abstract math books on this things, and found some concepts like "Metric weight" that will be minimized in such spaces, even so I don't really understand what is behind that, so why $L_2$? what special about them? Who and how physicists understood that those are the one we need to use? If $a$ and $b$ are two roots of $x^4 + x^3 - 1 = 0$ prove that $ab$ is a root of $x^6 + x^4 + x^3 - x^2 - 1$. Is every invertible matrix a change of basis matrix? Debian : Verify disk encryption password for already mounted system Is it possible to overload the null-coalescing operator for a class in C#?    Say for example I want to return a default value if an instance is null and return the instance if it's not. The code would look like something like this:     return instance ?? new MyClass("Default");     But what if I would like to use the null-coalescing operator to also check if the MyClass.MyValue is set? Where can I find the source code for the Ubuntu Kernel? I'd like to build my own copy of the Ubuntu kernel. Where can I get the source code?