Is it acceptable to answer a question where no answer has been provided, however a user has answered the question in a comment?  I would assume expending on the comment to answer the question would be acceptable?
I'm trying to go through and provide answers to every unanswered question (search &quot;closed:0 answers:0&quot;), somewhat following the spirit that was blogged about at  .  However, I'm finding this much more difficult than it needs to be, as many of the questions have already been answered without the use of an &quot;answer&quot; - but instead, in the form of a comment by either the OP or another poster. I wouldn't mind reading through and skipping these, as long as there was some appropriate action I could take to at least assist with preventing these questions from being seen again from the same query - either by myself or another SO member.  Is there such an appropriate action?  Should we vote to close?  If so, using what reason? Even if I vote to close, what are the chances that 4 other users will also view the question and also vote to close?  (i.e., will my individual vote even do any good?  Is there any report to show recent close votes, so that others may also review and contribute supporting close votes?) Should we post some sort of an answer - even just something to the effect of &quot;this was already answered by the OP's own comment to his answer (above)&quot;? Would something like this be appropriate to flag for moderator attention, and let the moderators deal with it?  (Or would this be considered too trivial?) Should we rename the question title to something standard that can be used in a search exclusion?  (Maybe &quot;SOLVED:&quot;?)  Basically, how can I help to denote questions as &quot;This question is no longer in active search of an answer - though better answers may still be appreciated.&quot;? I've already reviewed , which was closed as a duplicate of  - but this requires effort on part of a user who may very likely no longer be active. Otherwise, is there something I should be doing to improve my search to filter out these types of questions? I've run across this many times, so I don't consider it to be a rare issue.  However, the last question like this I just ran across, prompting this question, was .  In this case, the question was self-answered by the OP in the form of a comment, this question is the OP's only question, the OP has no other visible activity on SO, and the OP hasn't been seen on SO since he registered and posted the question 5 months ago. Another one I just ran across is .  However, here the &quot;answer&quot; comment was posted by a reputable and recently active SO member.  Should I leave a comment directed at him, asking him to re-post his comment as an answer, or should I post my own answer echoing his comment?  (Or something else?) Yet another is .  Interestingly, the OP actually self-edited the question to include the &quot;SOLVED:&quot; prefix on to the question, instead of posting his resolving comment as an answer (and ideally accepting it) as he was asked to do by another comment.  This brings up another good idea - is there a &quot;standard&quot; we should use to rename the titles on these &quot;resolved but unanswered&quot; posts that could be used as a search exclusion?  (Also added to the above list.)
I'm trying to create a command, which calls on an environment, which defines a custom column definition with one argument using \newcolumntype, and defines a second command, containing parameters for a table column.  Then, still within the first command, I begin the tabular environment and call the custom column, with the second command as its argument. I always get an undefined control sequence error, though. Any thoughts on why that might be?  I'm sure that was clear as mud, but I've cut it down to a minimal example, which follows:  \documentclass{article} \usepackage{array} \usepackage[table,dvipsnames]{xcolor} \usepackage{colortbl}  \newenvironment{tablecolor}{     \newcommand{\tlight}{\columncolor{SkyBlue!30}\color{black}}     \newcolumntype{C}[1]{&gt;{##1}c} }{}  \newcommand{\tablegoals}{ \begin{tablecolor} \begin{tabular}{l|C{\tlight}} Goal 7  &amp; \\ \end{tabular} \end{tablecolor} }  \begin{document}     \tablegoals \end{document}     Here's my second attempt. Different approach, same undefined control sequence error with \columncolor.  \documentclass{article} \usepackage{array} \usepackage[table,dvipsnames]{xcolor} \usepackage{colortbl} \usepackage{ifthen}  \newenvironment{tablecolor}{     \newcolumntype{C}[1]{&gt;{         \ifthenelse{\equal{dark}{##1}}{             \columncolor{Cyan}\color{white}             }{             \columncolor{SkyBlue!30}\color{black}         }     }c} }{ }  \newcommand{\tablegoals}[1]{     \begin{tablecolor}         \begin{tabular}{l|C{dark}}             Goal 7  &amp;   #1         \end{tabular}     \end{tablecolor} }  \begin{document}     \tablegoals{Check mark} \end{document} How can they see Harry's invisibility cloak when they are not wearing it? Have red shifted photons lost energy and where did it go? Understanding MCMC and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm Over the past few days I have been trying to understand how Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) works. In particular I have been trying to understand and implement the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. So far I think I have an overall understanding of the algorithm but there are a couple of things that are not clear to me yet. I want to use MCMC to fit some models to data. Because of this I will describe my understanding of Metropolis-Hastings algorithm for fitting a straight line $f(x)=ax$ to some observed data $D$:  1) Make an initial guess for $a$. Set this $a$ as our current $a$ ($a_0$). Also add $a$ at the end of the Markov Chain ($C$).  2) Repeat the steps bellow a number of times.  3) Evaluate current likelihood (${\cal L_0}$) given $a_0$ and $D$.  4) Propose a new $a$ ($a_1$) by sampling from a normal distribution with $\mu=a_0$ and $\sigma=stepsize$. For now, $stepsize$ is constant.  5) Evaluate new likelihood (${\cal L_1}$) given $a_1$ and $D$.  6) If ${\cal L_1}$ is bigger than ${\cal L_0}$, accept $a_1$ as the new $a_0$, append it at the end of $C$ and go to step 2.  7) If ${\cal L_1}$ is smaller than ${\cal L_0}$ generate a number ($U$) in range [0,1] from a uniform distribution  8) If $U$ is smaller than the difference between the two likelihoods (${\cal L_1}$ - ${\cal L_0}$), accept $a_1$ as the new $a_0$, append it at the end of $C$ and go to step 2.  9) If $U$ is bigger than the difference between the two likelihoods (${\cal L_1}$ - ${\cal L_0}$), append the $a_0$ at the end of $C$, keep using the same $a_0$, go to step 2.  10) End of Repeat.  11) Remove some elements from the start of $C$ (burn-in phase).  12) Now take the average of the values in $C$. This average is the estimated $a$.  Now I have some questions regarding the above steps:   How do I construct the likelihood function for $f(x)=ax$ but also for any arbitrary function? Is this a correct implementation of Metropolis-Hastings algorithm? How the selection of the random number generation method at Step 7 can change the results? How is this algorithm going to change if I have multiple model parameters? For example, if I had the model $f(x)=ax+b$.   Notes/Credits: The main structure of the algorithm described above is based on the code from an MPIA Python Workshop. How to connect to device via SSH over direct ethernet connection std::string formatting like sprintf For positive invertible operators $C\leq T$ on a Hilbert space, does it follow that $T^{-1}\leq C^{-1}$? What does pwd output? Does the command pwd in a shell script output the directory the shell script is in? I was very inspired by Michio Kaku's  on the possibilities of quantum computing and also listening to Talia Gershon's  on it.   As I come from a business &amp; analytics background, what materials can I begin exploring to prepare to learn more about the field of quantum computing? Eg. what would I need to study to understand Peter Shor's algorithm,  on physics, etc. I have a fraction with sums above and under the line. How can I convince LaTeX to write the indices of the sums under the sigma instead of next to it?  \begin{displaymath}   \frac{\sum_{s \in S} s^2}{\sum_{p \in P} p^2} \end{displaymath} Proving Eigenvalue squared is Eigenvalue of $A^2$ The question is: Prove that if $\lambda$ is an eigenvalue of a matrix A with corresponding eigenvector x, then $\lambda^2$ is an eigenvalue of $A^2$ with corresponding eigenvector x.  I assume I need to start with the equation $Ax=\lambda x$ and end up with $A^2 x=\lambda^2 x$ but between those I am kind of lost. I have manipulated the equations several different ways and just can't seem to end up where I need to be. Help would be greatly appreciated as I believe this will be on a test tomorrow. What Happens to electrons after Alpha Decay and Nuclear Fission? Where do the electrons go? In alpha decay do 2 electrons follow the alpha particle and make stable Helium or does the larger daughter nucleus become an anion?  Also what do the electrons do in the mixture of fission and alpha decay? With Beryllium-8 it decays into two alpha particles and 4 lonely electrons or do you get two Helium atoms?If someone could add an entry to Holocron it would be greatly appreciated, thanks. In , it is established that Thieves' Cant is more of an encoding system built on top of a language than a language in its own right. According to the Basic Rules,  is:  ...a secret mix of dialect, jargon and code allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. Only another creature that knows thieves' cant understands such messages. It takes four times longer to convey such a message than it does to speak the same idea plainly. In addition, you understand a set of secret signs and symbols used to convey short, simple messages, such as whether an area is dangerous or the territory of a thieves' guild, whether loot is nearby, or whether the people in an area are easy marks or will provide a safe house for thieves on the run. (PBR, p. 27)  Can two creatures communicate using Thieves' Cant if they do not have a basic spoken language in common, or if they are speaking different basic languages? E.g. if one creature knows Orcish, Goblin, and Thieves' Cant, and another creature knows Elvish, Giant, Common, and Thieves' Cant, can they communicate with each other by embedding Thieves' Cant into their own languages? Hypothetically speaking, I can see how this could be possible in our own world, if we assume that Thieves' Cant depends on nuances of body language, emphasis, and tempo, e.g., one might say to a non-Spanish speaker:  Tenemos quEEEEEEE ir (wink) a la tieeeeenda de (shuffle left foot) armas para (twirl hair and giggle) comprar una espada (wink twice) para mi herMANO (wag right pinky and nod).  The literal message itself (&quot;We need to go to the weapon store to buy a sword for my brother.&quot;) would just be a carrier - the real message might be hidden within the gestures and the accented and extended syllables. Perhaps the drawn-out &quot;E&quot; vowel means &quot;robbery planned&quot;, the wink means &quot;bank&quot;, shuffling the left foot means &quot;be there at sunset&quot;, etc., and these are things that you wouldn't necessarily need to know Spanish to extract. Is this how Thieves' Cant actually works, or does it require actual comprehension of the literal message transmitted before the &quot;secret&quot; message can be extracted from it? As human beings, we observe the world in which we live in three dimensions. However, it is certainly theoretically possible that more dimensions exist.  Is there any direct or indirect evidence supporting a fourth dimension? Single word describing a person new in something What is a word for someone who is totally new in something or participates in something for the first time? Continuous function does not map closed set to closed set Am I being scammed by a sugar daddy? I met a guy on a sugar daddy dating site and we talked, I told him my situation and he said he would help.   He asked for my bank account information and I told him you can use cash app or PayPal to go through. He said his account manager deals with his finances. So I set up an account with a bank that I don’t use so that my primary account isn’t used.  Eventually he was in the process of sending me money and we had agreed on a amount that wasn't crazy. But then he asked for my address and I asked why and he said just wondering. Then said he wanted to send me a surprise for being his baby. Which I didn’t give.  Then later on he sent the money and said he sent me a bonus and that I was supposed to use that to pay his mothers caregiver, which he didn’t mention until after.  I kept questioning him and he was saying that he works in construction and he’s trusting me to carry out the errand. Then he said don’t let him down and I asked him if he was threatening me and he kept saying I need this done but didn’t really answer my question.  Am I being scammed? I’m about to change my password but is this a scam? The general advise is that you should not call GC.Collect from your code, but what are the exceptions to this rule?  I can only think of a few very specific cases where it may make sense to force a garbage collection.   One example that springs to mind is a service, that wakes up at intervals, performs some task, and then sleeps for a long time. In this case, it may be a good idea to force a collect to prevent the soon-to-be-idle process from holding on to more memory than needed.   Are there any other cases where it is acceptable to call GC.Collect? Use of 'prototype' vs. 'this' in JavaScript? What's the difference between  var A = function () {     this.x = function () {         //do something     }; };   and  var A = function () { }; A.prototype.x = function () {     //do something }; What communication can be intercepted by network I'm connected over VPN to? I have to connect to client's network over VPN, and I was wondering if the client can intercept (and read) my Google Talk messages (or any other IM communication) while I'm VPN-ing.  My main concern is them having access to our internal conversations.  Suggest workarounds if you have any.