I don't really know where to post this.  I like Stack Overflow and it has been a great help as I build various applications - all with no formal training in computer science.  My concern is that I find many questions downvoted or criticized for being poorly worded or too simplistic.  I realize that often a Google search will reveal an answer, but is this site and its boards meant solely for folks who have already searched the internet for an answer? I thought this was an open forum for any code related question?  Why should Google or some other source be used prior to seeking advice from the dedicated and experienced Stack Overflow community?  Many of the questioners on this site have limited English, limited access to education or other issues. This site is supposed to be the solution for this, no?  I learned to code primarily by reading and posting to a message board called on  (this was 10+ years ago).  The help and advice I got, despite some VERY, VERY dumb questions by me, helped me build and sell a large website.  Anyway, I see lots of new questions on the PHP tag with negative scores within minutes of being posted as if they are "dumb" questions, when I find that they are honest questions by people who simply need help.
I've noticed a distressing tendency for questions that seem basic or overly short to be immediately closed and downvoted into oblivion.  Case in point:   Within a minute of being asked, this question received 12 downvotes and was closed as "not a real question".  That particular question is a very real, non-trivial question, but it had somewhat poor grammar and looked a little like a much simpler question.  Can we try to be a little more accepting?
I have just downloaded "ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso" and "ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso" through "".   Please can someone confirm the maximum RAM that is supported.  According to many sites, Maximum RAM supported by the OS  ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop : " 2^64 bytes " -- Kindly confirm  ubuntu-14.04.1-server : " 2^64 bytes " -- Kindly confirm I'm new to Linux and Ubuntu. People keep using ~/filename in their answers to my questions. What does ~/ mean? Javascript replace all "%20" with a space Smoothing polygons in contour map? Here is a contour map for which all the polygons of levels are available.  Let ask how to smooth the polygons keeping all vertices preserved in their exact locations?    Indeed the contour is made on top of a grid data, you may suggest then to smooth the grid data and hence the resulting contour will be smoother. Note that this is not working as my desire since the smoothing function such as Gaussian filter will remove small packs of data and will change the range of the third variable e.g., the height which are not allowed in my application.    Actually I'm looking for a piece of code (preferably in Python) which can do the smoothing of 2D polygons (any type: convex, concave, self-intersecting etc) reasonably painless (forget pages of codes) and accurate.   FYI, there is  that does this perfectly, but using third party commercial applications is not my choice for this question.        1)    Scipy.interpolate:        As you see the resulting splines (red) are not satisfactory!  2)    Here is the result using the code given in . It is not working well!      3)    To me the best solution should be something like the following figure in which a square is being smoothed gradually by changing only one value. I hope for similar concept for smoothing any form of polygons.       Satisfying the condition that spline passes the points:     4)    Here is my implementation of "whuber's idea" line by line in Python on his data. There are possibly some bugs since the results are not good.         K=2 is a disaster and so for k>=4.   5)    I removed one point in the problematic location and the resulting spline is now identical to whuber's. But it is still a question that why the method does not work for all cases?        6)    A good smoothing for whuber's data can be as follows (drawn by vector graphics software) in which an extra point has been smoothly added (compare with update   4):      7)    See the result from Python version of whuber's code for some iconic shapes:     Note that the method seems doesn't work for polylines. For the corner polyline (contour) green is what I want but got red. This needs to be addressed since contour maps are always polylines although closed polylines can be treated as polygons as in my examples. Also not that the problem emerged in update 4 has not been addressed yet.  8) [my last]    Here is the final solution (not perfect!):        Remember that you will have to do something about the area pointed by stars.  There is perhaps a bug in my code or the proposed method needs further development to consider all situations and to provide desired outputs. Plotting a function with an argument in degrees I want to plot a function. The function is, F is proportional to x/cos(x). Here x is rotation in degree and F is the force. I have to plot the graph where the x axis will be from 0 to 70 degree and the y axis will be linear value 0 to 5. I am not able to find any option to draw graphs where x axis is with rotational degree. Why aren't the braces showing Printing the value of a variable in SQL Developer Resize multiple layers around their respective anchor points I'm using Windows 7 as the host machine with VMWare Workstation 9. I created a virtual machine Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS 64 bit version. There are two options for log in, Ubuntu and Ubuntu 2D. Whenever I log in to Ubuntu, the task bar will not show up, is like having a black margin all around the desktop background and only the center is visible.  I wish I could attached a pic, but I need at least 10 reputation.  When I move my mouse over the left side of the desktop I can see that something is there but it is shown only as a black square. I tried deleting the virtual machine I created for Ubuntu and re-installed it, but it keeps appearing like that.  When I switched to log in with the Ubuntu 2D version everything worked alright. I could see the task bar, the icons, the clock etc. What might be causing this problem? Allow people to answer protected questions if they have earned at least some amount of combined SE rep The purpose of protected questions is, according to the message presented on such a question, "to prevent 'thanks!', 'me too!', or spam answers by new users." The more verbose  agrees on the purpose. And the  says this is why protected questions exist:     Some questions are protected because they are expected to attract   either spam or users -- often new users -- who may mistake the site as   a traditional forum, posting "noisy" answers such as "Thank you" or   "This worked for me" or "I'm also having this problem".   Considering this, shouldn't a user be able to answer protected questions if they have gained at least 10 rep on any stack exchange site? If they've already demonstrated one site that they are familiar enough with the SE Q/A format to not be a drive-by useless answerer, shouldn't that confidence in them carry over to other SE sites?  Or maybe at some level of combined SE rep this restriction should be waived. I find it silly that at 15k+ combined network rep, I'm unable to answer a protected question on a SE site I've just started using. .NET Attributes: Why does GetCustomAttributes() make a new attribute instance every time? With jQuery, how do I find out which key was pressed when I bind to the keypress event?  $('#searchbox input').bind('keypress', function(e) {});   I want to trigger a submit when ENTER is pressed.  [Update]  Even though I found the (or better: one) answer myself, there seems to be some room for variation ;)  Is there a difference between keyCode and which - especially if I'm just looking for ENTER, which will never be a unicode key?  Do some browsers provide one property and others provide the other one? Why was Hagrid's wand snapped in two when he was expelled from Hogwarts? Why was he banned from performing magic? Yes, he was expelled from Hogwarts after being framed by Tom Riddle as being responsible for Moaning Myrtle's death via Aragog the Acromantula. But why did he receive this punishment?  ‘What’ve you been feeding [the pumpkins]?’ said Harry. Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that they were alone. ‘Well, I’ve bin givin’ them – you know – a bit o’ help.’ Harry noticed Hagrid’s flowery pink umbrella leaning against the back wall of the cabin. Harry had had reason to believe before now that this umbrella was not all it looked; in fact, he had the strong impression that Hagrid’s old school wand was concealed inside it. Hagrid wasn’t supposed to use magic. He had been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year[...] Chamber of Secrets - page 90 - Bloomsbury - chapter 7, Mudbloods and Murmurs  Why would Hagrid's wand be snapped in two and he not be allowed to do magic when:  Attendance and completion of an education at Hogwarts was not compulsory by wizarding law¹; homeschooled children were allowed to do magic for their lessons, and then do magic fully when they turned 17. The Weasley twins dropped out of Hogwarts after practically destroying parts of the castle with fireworks (and conjuring an awesome swamp on the fifth floor), yet were allowed to do magic despite not completing Hogwarts or any kind of homeschooling curriculum (that we know of). No Death Eater character that we know of was banned from using magic, despite their crimes and devotion to Voldemort. I don't recall any Death Eater wands being snapped and the owner banned from performing magic after being convicted of Death Eater crimes (please do correct me if I'm wrong). For example, Bellatrix Lestrange's wand was not snapped in Goblet of Fire when she received a life sentence in Azkaban and, as we know, her wand played a fairly significant part in Deathly Hallows.  ¹I realize in Deathly Hallows Voldemort made attendance at Hogwarts compulsory; however, by that time, Hagrid had been cleared of the charges of being responsible for Myrtle's death and was allowed to use magic again. Ubuntu desktop 18.04 LTS freezes with USB WiFi dongle OS: Ubuntu desktop 18.04 LTS Linux version 4.15.0-24-generic  USB WiFi: odroid WiFi Module 3 with Realtek RTL8188CUS-GR  syslog has only ^@  Jul  4 12:31:50 udbv-HP-ProBook sudo: pam_ecryptfs: pam_sm_authenticate: /home/udbv is already mounted ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^$ Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd-modules-load[396]: Inserted module 'ppdev' Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd-modules-load[396]: Inserted module 'parport_pc' Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd-cryptsetup[424]: crypt_init() failed: Block device required Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Starting Flush Journal to Persistent Storage... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook swapon[415]: swapon: /swapfile: read swap header failed Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Started Create Static Device Nodes in /dev. Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Starting udev Kernel Device Manager... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Started Set the console keyboard layout. Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Reached target Local File Systems (Pre). Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for vlc... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for gnome-3-26-1604... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for gnome-calculator... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for pycharm-community... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for gnome-3-26-1604... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for skype, revision 41... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for gnome-calculator... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for gnome-calculator... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for skype, revision 38... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for pycharm-community... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for vlc... Jul  4 12:33:30 udbv-HP-ProBook kernel: [    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x84, date = 2018-01-21   I tried following  but it didn't help.  Any ideas? Is it feasible to transform each variable differently while doing multiple regression I'm a student of mathematics with not much background in physics. I'm interested in learning Quantum field theory from a mathematical point of view.  Are there any good books or other reference material which can help in learning about quantum field theory? What areas of mathematics should I be familiar with before reading about Quantum field theory? I've set up the physics of a swinging wrecking ball and set the animation to run for 240 frames.  This was not long enough for the entire "swing" of the ball-and-chain.   I'm unable to reset the timeline, but I can set the end frame to (say) 1000 frames, but when I try to play the animation, the animation progress halts at frame 240 and I cannot get it to go any further.   There are no markers or keyframes in the timeline.  What should I do to "force reset" the animation-timeline, to allow changes to the length? Is it possible for a system to have negative potential energy? With respect to both gravity and electromagnetism, to the best of my understanding potential energy is added or subtracted from a system based on the distance between two objects such as charged or massive objects.  Would this then imply that when oppositely charged objects or two massive objects are brought together within a small enough radius that the drop in potential energy would be greater than the combined mass of the two objects making the net mass/energy of the system negative? Prove that the multiplicative inverse of $a$ modulo $m$ exists if and only if $a$ and $m$ are coprime.  Can someone help me with this? Understanding quantum entanglement.. help me validate this analogy! I'm struggling to understand the concept of quantum entanglement. I've distilled my understanding into an analogy, and I need your help to validate it. Here it is:  Let's say I receive two envelopes. Both envelopes have this written on them:     Hello! Open this letter...   If the paper inside is red, then other envelope has blue paper.   If the paper inside is blue, then other envelope has red paper.   So, if I open one letter, and the paper inside is red, then I know the other letter contains the blue paper.  Is this equivalent to quantum entanglement? The fact that I will know the color of the other paper when I open (i.e. observe) one envelope?  In theory, if one of the letters "appeared" in a different galaxy, I would still know the color of the paper inside that letter, just by opening my letter, instantly, correct?  Before I open the letter, is the paper inside each envelope in superposition (??), i.e. 50/50, red or blue?  In this analogy, I am assuming that what's written on the letters is true. Is this a correct assumption in quantum physics? I think so yes?  In real quantum physics, would I be able to change the color of one paper, so that I change the color of the other one? No right?