What is a good way to respond to a boomerang answer, an answer that basically responds with &quot;You don't want to do that, do this other thing&quot;? Maybe I do want to use my cat as a mop for my kitchen floor (Stack Overflow Podcast). I asked a question, a person answered a bit of it, and then they  summarized it with &quot;You only need to trust the service doing the access&quot;. The user put a bit of good work into the answer that I think is useful. But I would like to point out to them that it is not an answer to my question, without losing their work.
A number of times I have asked a certain kind of ‘attractive nuisance’ question – that is, one in which I anticipate a certain kind of answer would be given that I already know I am going to find insufficient or entirely inadequate. Some examples:      A more abstract example would be asking ‘is it possible to do this 100% correctly’, where people itch to come up with hacks, workarounds and half-baked solutions of various degrees of robustness – while the point of the question is obtaining a fully correct and reliable solution.0 I try to be very explicit in the question body about what kinds of answers I am not interested in. And yet, every time I ask such a question, someone gives such an answer anyway, or an outright XY-type, i.e. frame-challenge answer – where in fact the framing of the question is exactly how I want it, and I don’t want it challenged. Since I have already said in the question body that such an answer would be inaqeduate, when I get one, I downvote it. I believe it’s only appropriate, but it tends not to be received very well – I get insulting comments and downvotes in retaliation. I realise that a proper answer would be much harder to come up with than an ‘obvious’ inadequate answer. I suspect that often a real answer should be negative: ‘there is no way to do that’ or ‘there is no way to answer that for sure’. Nevertheless, if that is the right answer, this is the one I want posted – I don’t want the Internet polluted with more tumbleweed of what is already well-known (and may even be subtly wrong), and I don’t want to give ‘A for effort’ upvotes. What is the most appropriate way to act in such a situation?  0 I am also reminded of when Gary Bernhardt  while trying to avoid reflexive ‘don’t use eval’ replies. Of course, expecting nuance from Twitter of all places is silly, but that’s beside the point.
How to Improve Mathematical Thinking and General Problem Solving Skills? I'm a sophomore in university and seriously feel that I'm bad at solving mathematical and algorithmic problems (be it discrete math, calculus or just puzzles). I noticed that I'm only good at solving questions that are similar to the ones that have been taught to us.  Here's how I generally approach it:   What is the problem? What do I need to do here? Does it look like I've encountered this before?  Can I think of a smaller problem to solve instead?   If the answer is no to all the above then I sort of blank out. I stare at it and force my brain to run through a wide variety of stuff, almost like a brute force attempt of solving it. Obviously that leads me to nowhere everytime. I simply can't think "outside the box."   What can I do to improve my situation? Getting from Denver Amtrak to Fort Collins The eastbound Amtrak arrives Denver 6:38 PM (18:38).  How can I get to Fort Collins from there?   The  runs  from Denver International Airport to Fort Collins, but the airport is 40 km from the Amtrak station, so that's a major detour, that would mean taking bus FX from Market Street Station 7:18 PM, arriving at the airport at 8:27 PM, then the super shuttle 9:05 PM, arriving Fort Collins CSU at 10:55 PM; almost 4 hours after departing from Denver. Greyhound Lines appears to have a bus departing 12:45 AM, arriving 02:00 AM — although probably as quick as it gets, this is not exactly a comfortable time. RTD Denver has transportation to Longmont and  from Longmont to Fort Collins, but  appears to depart 7:05 PM — so I won't make it there when arriving by Amtrak.  A taxi would cost an estimated .   Is there any other way to get to Fort Collins when arriving by the eastbound Amtrak, any way that I've missed? Is it possible to identify the font used in a specific document/picture?  Answers to this question should identify:   Possible methods to do this (perhaps one answer per method) and adequately describe how to use it (as opposed to merely stating it); Ways of finding the identified fonts, if possible (free or not); and Any prerequisites associated with the method used, if required (for example, "In order to use method X, your document has to be in format Y").   This question is meant as an FAQ, based on an . Its aim is to facilitate the community with the general procedures involved in font identification. Similar cases are solved on a per-usage basis on 's  tag. Standard formula for quick calculation of scores I have three datasets as follows:   Dataset A can have a maximum score of 30. (Individual scores can be from 1 to 30) Dataset B can have a maximum score of 45. (Individual scores can be from 1 to 45) Dataset C can have a maximum score of 25. (Individual scores can be from 1 to 25)   The three datasets contribute equally to a final score, hence it is 33.33% each. i.e. (33.33% for dataset A + 33.33% for dataset B + 33.33% for dataset C) = 100% (final score)  I have the following scores in each dataset:   Dataset A: 22 Dataset B: 15 Dataset C: 10   Is there a quick formula that I can use to work out the final score, based on the above datapoints?   (This is not a homework question.) Are there any massless (zero invariant mass) particles carrying electric charge?  If not, why not? Do we expect to see any or are they a theoretical impossibility? Correct spelling of Polish surname Dziubenofska? My Polish grandmothers last name was Dziubenofska, but I know that's not how it is spelt! I'm looking for the proper spelling.   Can you help find it for me?  She came over to Ellis Island and they changed it on her to dziuk. This is only a prefix to the full name. Given that $xyz=1$, prove that $\frac{x}{1+x^4}+\frac{y}{1+y^4}+\frac{z}{1+z^4}\le \frac{3}{2}$ Given that $xyz=1$, prove that $$\frac{x}{1+x^4}+\frac{y}{1+y^4}+\frac{z}{1+z^4}\le\frac{3}{2}.$$  I proved this with , but: is there a better/more elegant way? How do I search for available packages from the command-line? I have successfully installed some packages using the command line 'sudo apt-get install packagename' when I have known in advance that those packages are available.  But how can I search for or get a list of what is available in the repositories? I need to end my visa waiver period when leaving States to Canada so that I don't exceed the period of 90 days. But form I-94 is no longer a physical card, it's only online.  How do I know or ensure that it will be terminated and will not continue counting the days once I leave to Canada? How can I completely remove NetworkManager? How can I reduce screen brightness below the minimum without an app? I have an Optimus Elite, and it has a minimum brightness setting. In certain apps, I can reduce the brightness below the safe minimum, but when I leave the app, the brightness is increased to the system-wide minimum.  Using , I can permanently set the brightness below the safe amount, and it will stay even after going to other apps. Or using , I can accomplish almost the same thing even without needing root (it displays a translucent 'filter' over the whole screen, reducing brightness/contrast but not actually changing the backlighting power amount).  What I want to know is where the minimum screen brightness is stored. I have a rooted phone with CyanogenMod 9, so I have permissions to edit anything and could change a config or sqlite entry, but I don't know where this value is stored. What I would like to do is use the status bar brightness slider to be able to slide to the actual minimum of the screen, rather than the OS-controlled minimum. Having an app is useful, but having the functionality without the app seems to be within reach, if only I knew where the OS is getting it's safe minimum setting.  Where is this "safe minimum brightness" setting stored? If I can change it, I can remove my apps and use native controls. Determine group G as cyclic If $G$ has no proper subgroup, prove that $G$ is cyclic of order $p$, where $p$ is a prime number.     I know that since $G $is a group with no proper subgroups, $g \in G$ is not just the identity. I don't know where to go from there. Correct user names when tracking /etc/ in git repository and committing as root We use git to track changes in /etc/ on our servers.  Administrators work as root when changing files in /etc/, and thus their commits have author  root &lt;root@machinename&gt;   This is not very satisfying since you cannot see which admin actually did the change.  What can we do to get the real admin names in the git log? I don't think that keeping a local clone of the repository is feasible since we often change interatively until something works, and a change-commit-push-seeError-repeat cycle would not help here. How to get Microsoft Search to index common file types like .pdf and .pub I'm trying to get Windows Search (4.0) to index PDFs and .pub, .doc, etc. files.  The files are on an XP Pro PC acting as a file server. But I don't have MS Office, etc. installed (no need, trying to keep it "slim and trim") but WS 4.0 is doing the indexing of those files and not indexing .pdf and .pub.  I've found a few  (from Foxit PDF reader) rated 3/5 and only support WS 2.0 or 3.0.  Looking for other solutions and also a way to index .pub files. I think it would be very useful.  I have a question that I have an open bounty on. Putting up said bounty brought my reputation below the point where I am allowed to comment on other peoples' posts. It's so frustrating not to be able to comment and give feedback on the answers given!  Especially since it would be helpful, for them, me, and the readers, to know particularly what is good and isn't good about their answer, and therefore give some better guidelines to future answerers on how they can win the bounty. Computing: $\int_0^1 \sqrt[3]{x\log{\frac{1}x}} \, \mathrm dx$ VBA array sort function? I'm looking for a decent sort implementation for arrays in VBA. A Quicksort would be preferred. Or any other  other than bubble or merge would suffice.  Please note that this is to work with MS Project 2003, so should avoid any of the Excel native functions and anything .net related. I have two machines with RJ11 ports and I had a RJ11 Modular Telephone Cable lying around.I wondered if it was possible to create a network between the two machines with those RJ11 Modular Telephone Cable (back to back via RJ11 ports) much like a network we create between two computers with a single RJ45 Modular connector cable.  Is this setup possible at all ? If it is , what will be the maximum transfer speed i can achieve between these two computers ? Setting "checked" for a checkbox with jQuery Arduino Negative Voltage Reading with Positive Ground I am trying to measure voltage &amp; current off a solar charge controller from panel, battery &amp; load simultaneously with my arduino. I have managed to achieve this by tying all the negatives together and using it as GND, however, when I do that the charge controller doesn't function properly and when I switch to off-mode the loads still run. After checking the instruction manual further, I found out that the positives are shared common between Pan, Bat, Load. This was confirmed with a multimeter.   So now what I am thinking of doing is using the positive from the battery as the GND reference and then measuring all other voltages (through voltage dividers with respect to the GND). The voltages should then range between -17V to 0V.   However, I have read that the analog input pins are not able to read negative voltages, and with respect to the positive GND, the Analog inputs will all be negative.   EDIT: I was thinking of using an amplifier to invert positive ground to a negative ground, meaning I could measure all the positive sides of the voltages. But after getting answers from you guys it seems I may not have to use an amplifier and a voltage divider may suffice. I have currently included a 2 resistor voltage divider between each analog input, +5V source, Vmeasure which you can see in the diagram below.  According to my calculations, if this works, @-17V I should see 0.6V @ analog input. @0V I should see 4V at analog input.   I'd appreciate feedback on this circuit, and below in the second image I've also included a piece of another method suggested by @jonk (thanks), and would be interested in knowing what the benefits are of method B) over method A)  Thanks!  Ps. the ameters are there in place of ACS712 current sensors which also go into analog input pins.   Method A)        &ndash; Schematic created using   Method B (EDIT: This method has worked, I am still yet to test method A) thanks @Jonk))