How could we encourage more non-software related questions?

Question: I don't like the fact that lately most questions relate to some software specific issues. I mean sure, thats where people get stuck probably, i asked some of them myself. But they re not those kind of questions which would perhaps shed light on some GIS concepts, methodologies, analyses,... questions that would make someone better at understanding GIS, carthography, and other related topics. I dont know what the aim of the site is, but i would like to see more of those. So, how could we encourage more non-software related questions?
Comment: Yes, but do you also agree that questions of type "PLZ HELP What does Error 1453: invalid supersomething.xxzzy mean?" are important/interesting in the context of what GIS represents and offers?
Comment: Related: http://meta.gis.stackexchange.com/questions/383/what-is-this-site-about-really
Comment: Not that I entirely disagree, but "Information Systems" is right in the name..
Answer: I agree that the most interesting questions are the ones where analytical problems are posed, rather than error messages.  However, I think you are seeing trends in the field.  Another issue specific to this site is that open-ended questions are discouraged when, in fact, they are often really interesting questions--yet, people are hesitant to ask them because they will be penalized and sent off to community wiki land (Example 1 and Example 2).  Finally, you will notice that many of the most experienced people on this site exclusively answer questions and never ask them.  I think these experienced GIS/RS professionals may be the best potential (and untapped) source of interesting and thought provoking questions.
Comment: +1 But I would like to suggest you reconsider your characterization of CW status as a "penalty": it's just different, that's all. True, your answers there will not grow your reputation, but on the other hand CW answers tend to be highly upvoted, leading to quite a few badges--which (when expressed in the form of badges per unit reputation) arguably are a better indication of the authority and reliability of community members, especially one of your experts who rarely asks questions (because then their badge counts reflect their answering abilities and community involvement) :-).
Comment: From what I see, we're also a very tolerant bunch. That can be new to many of our new users — quite a few will have experience from the main SE or the even more brutal Programmers. A reluctance to slightly deviate from the FAQ is therefore understandable. I doubt anyone posts open-ended/incomplete questions to game the community wiki system.
Comment: Couldn't agree more with everything you said.
Answer: If you go back through and look at some of the older questions with high vote, view and favorite counts you will find many "canonical" GIS conceptual/analytical/cartographic questions. Many of the kinds of questions that you are talking about have already been answered here and so new questions on some of those topics tend to be closed as duplicates.
Here is a StackExchange Data Explorer query you can use to find questions on GIS.se with > 10 votes and > 10 favorites.
Answer: Another option would be to ask the types of questions that you like to see more of. Sometimes, you just have to do it and hope that others will follow.
Answer: The AIM of the site is:

The Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is for questions
  concerning geographic information systems and science. We welcome
  cartographers, database administrators, geographers, programmers, and
  anyone interested in or using GIS.

https://gis.stackexchange.com/faq
Most users only have access to a specific GIS software platform.
Hence the specific software is basing their question.
Tags are used to filter your own favourites.
Yes there are a lot of ArcGIS/AutoCAD users - they are the biggest group(s) of users.
QGIS is gaining popularity as it matures and becomes more user friendly and customisable.
Concepts on GIS techniques are discussed.
Example:
What are the geometric principles and GIS techniques that I can use to generate a postcode coverage of my city at street scales?
Answer: Upvoting is the primary method to encourage any type of question.  Maybe we need a "non-software" tag to make it easier to browse these questions?
I figured people with vested interest in commercial drone operation would weigh in on this question.  But that hasn't happened (yet).
Answer: When a popular open-source GIS software package, QGIS, uses GIS SE as a tech support forum, then software questions/issues will be frequent questions on the site.
This is simply an observation, and not meant to belittle QGIS or this practice.
Comment: @whuber I use a product called Mvvm Light.  Their [site](http://www.galasoft.ch/mvvm/) encourages users to use StackOverflow.  "We encourage the use of StackOverflow for questions regarding MVVM Light Toolkit. StackOverflow is an awesome site for questions related to programming. There is a huge community of developers answering questions there. Please use the tag mvvm-light to tag your questions."
Comment: @whuber if you go to www.qgis.org and click Questions in the menu, if goes directly to GIS SE with all the questions tagged "qgis". Furthermore, if you click the "Need help: find it here" button, the first option listed under Support is the GIS SE site. Again, I'm not finding fault with this practice; just noting it exists and will influence the number/type of software support questions here.
Comment: Would you mind saying how you know the QGIS developers are using our site for their tech support? (I'm not suggesting you're wrong; I'm just not that familiar with the QGIS tech support procedures.) Is there a written policy that you could refer to, for instance?
Answer: Opening up an old thread, but I had a similar question in mind, but decided not to ask after opening up a new question and seeing on the sidebar:

We prefer questions that can be answered, not just discussed.

The word 'prefer' does not forbid open-ended or discussion type questions from being asked. But that statement highly dissuades me from asking such a question.
I would like a place to come for advice or direction from people with more experience. I am the only person in my office that works with GIS. Although I might not have a software/hardware issue to specifically ask about, sometimes I could greatly benefit by running a general idea by you guys.
Should I look elsewhere for a discussion/idea community, and use GIS.SE for asking/answering specific GIS questions?
Comment: I think that there is room for those types of questions; indeed some of the best questions on GIS.SE are more open-ended and not just "fix my problem" questions. The key is to frame the question in such a way that it invites good answers, which ties into [How to frame a good Question?](http://meta.gis.stackexchange.com/questions/3349/how-to-frame-a-good-question?rq=1)
Comment: I think that you should look to the [GIS Chat Room](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/939/gis) for a discussion/idea community, and use the Main [gis.se] Stack Exchange for asking/answering focussed GIS questions.
Answer: How am I supposed to ask questions on things that I don't know exist? Just my two cents.
To do what op is suggesting would make Stack Exchange sites in general about learning and that's not what SE is for. SE is for collecting good questions. That's pretty dumb if you ask me, but it is what it is.
It would help if there were some sort of learning element here though.


Issues with 11.10 display resolution

Question: I want to increase the resolution of my Acer Aspire One D250-1326 which has Ubuntu 11.10 installed. The native resolution is 1024x600 and I want to increase it to 1440x810 or 135%. I've tried two methods that both use xrandr...creating a new resolution mode and applying it to my display, and scaling the display.
This picture shows the commands I entered into the terminal to create a new resolution mode:

Enter "xrandr -q" to show that the current resolution is 1024x600.
Enter "cvt 1440 810 60" to find the modeline for a resolution of 1440x810 at 60Hz.
Enter "xrandr --newmode..." to create the custom mode.
Enter "xrandr --addmode LVDS1..." to apply the mode to my netbook display. Here is where I experience the "BadMatch" error.
Note: When I enter "xrandr --addmode VGA1..." instead, the mode is successfully applied to the VGA1 display.

The second method I attempted is scaling the display. I had success using this method when I used Ubuntu 11.04. Now for some reason, when I use the same scaling command, my mouse becomes constrained to the top-left portion of the screen. Here are the steps I took:

Enter "xrandr -q" to show the current state of the display.
Note: You can see the mode I created during the previous method. Again, I was not able to apply it to the LVDS1 display, but I could apply it to VGA1.
Enter "xrandr --output LVDS1 --scale 1.35x1.35" to scale the display. After this is done, the resolution is changed but the mouse cannot move any lower than you see here in the picture.

I also tried using different panning options without any success. One route I did see is to revert a patch which is said to solve the scaling problem. I have not been able to figure out how to perform this action though. Here is a link, with the confirmation near the bottom:
BUGS(dot)freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39949  (Dang spam prevention, can't post >2 links)
I would appreciate your help solving this problem. Otherwise I guess I'll just go back to 11.04. Thanks
Answer: I Also have a Netbook with a native 1024x600 resolution which is too small sometimes.
I struggled hard with xrandr and searched a lot in www and so on.
Finally, I got a Solution which works for my EeePc.
I Use a trick: I configure a not-connected VGA-Output, that helped increase the resolution
without the mouse been catched.
This Example shows a scaling by 1.5:
xrandr --newmode "1536x900" 113.75  1536 1624 1784 2032  900 903 913 934 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1536x900
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1536x900 --output LVDS1 --fb 1536x900 --scale 1.5x1.5
I hope it works for you too !
Oliver
Answer: <code>xrandr --newmode "1536x900" 113.75  1536 1624 1784 2032  900 903 913 934 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1536x900
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1536x900 --output LVDS1 --fb 1536x900 --scale 1.5x1.5
</code>

Issues with 11.10 display resolution


WP CivicCRM Menubar styles not loading

Question: In display preferences I have an option to set the menubar above or below content, but the styles for the menubar are not loading. It just dumps the list of links. Any ideas what the deal is?
Comment: This link is for drupal but is the same symptom: https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/30547/menu-problem-with-civicrm-5-13-2
Comment: If you check your browser console for errors do you see any errors? -> Particularly any blocking of loading of css files?
Answer: Welcome to SE! You don't give a lot of detail. Are you just setting up or did it work and now it doesn't?
I've seen something like this (though the menu items were part hidden under the LH WordPress menu) when I'm hosting in a subdomain. Possibly because of the symlinks in my hosting provider. I got round this by going to Adminster >> System Setting >> Resource URL (or http://..org/wp-admin/admin.php?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fadmin%2Fsetting%2Furl&reset=1 if you can't actually see the menu) and changing the Image Upload URL to http://..org/wp-content/uploads/civicrm/persist/contribute/
Can't remember now how I worked that out as it isn't obvious!
If that doesn't work you need to provide a few more details.

WP CivicCRM Menubar styles not loading


Does Rational Functional tester Support Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2012 integration?

Question:
When i am trying to install RFT. At this moment i am not able to select visual Studio integration. My system already have visual studio 2012 installed on my desktop. The check box for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET integration is also disabled.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the answer is available in IBM's support knowledge base (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21378152)
Answer: I know this is dated but are you still looking for this integration ? There is an RFE open on this topic at
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=44398
that you could go vote and influence a change. I would strongly encourage you to do that if there is still the need.


Footprint select box disabled in Experience Manager

Question: I have noticed on a couple of environments that I use that the Experience Manager Footprint selection box is disabled on the Preview tab (it just contains the message 'There are no items in this view'). I have it enabled and showing the default on another environment, and as far as I know there was no configuration involved to get this showing. Any ideas why its not showing or how I can troubleshoot it further?
Answer: To have Footprint sets showing up in the Footprint Gallery in the Preview, you need to have your Staging website listed under "Website URLs" in the "Session Preview" tab of your Publication Target. You don't need to fill in an odata end point or any other field. Sometimes I make the mistake of specifying the website URL but then browsing my page through 'localhost' - which won't match up then.
Comment: Thanks Richard - glad that I dont have to enable session preview afterall...
Answer: Check whether Session Preview is Enabled (see this post on how to enable/disable) It seems that Session Preview is required to use Footprints (although I am not sure why, as my understanding is that footprints just send a cookie to the staging website, where the ADF does its magic in overwriting claims based on the cookie values).
Comment: You don't need Session Preview as such -- see Richard's answer.
Comment: Actually the Footprint buttons will stay enabled even when you disable Session Preview. I am not sure if this makes sense, I am assuming Session Preview is required for Footprints to work.
Comment: No, Footprint changes only need to reload the (CD) page to be reflected, no need to re-render the page on the CM


close form for stochastic integral

Question: I am new to stochastic calculus. Can I know how to compute the close-form solution for
$$\int_0^t \exp(\alpha s - \sigma W_s) \; ds$$
and
$$\int_0^t \exp(\alpha s - \sigma W_s) \; dW_s.$$
I encounter that when trying to solve for the following SDE
$$dX_t = \theta(\mu - X_t)\; dt + \sigma X_t \; dW_t$$
Comment: If the SDE is written correctly, that is not an [Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornstein–Uhlenbeck_process) and your integrals don't seem to match it either. An O-U process has additive noise (i.e., diffusion function is not a function of the state variable) while the SDE as written has multiplicative noise. Also, an O-U process definitely does have a known analytical solution (see Doob, Ann. Math. 43, 1942).
Comment: @n.c. Your comment isn't accurate unfortunately. As "horchler" pointed out, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process does NOT have multiplicative noise, unlike the process posted in this question. To appropriately solve this SDE, consider applying Ito's Lemma on $Y_t = ln(X_t)$
Answer: Another Solution
We should look for a solution of the form
$$X(t)=U(t)V(t)$$
where
$$dU_t=-\theta\,U_tdt+\sigma\,U_t\,dW_t$$
and
$$dV_t=\alpha(t)dt+\beta(t)dW_t$$
$U$ is a geometric Brownian motion, therefore
$$U(t)=U(0)\,e^{-(\theta+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)t+\sigma W_t}$$
let $U(0)=1$, this yields $V(0)=X(0)$. Now we should find $\alpha(t)$ and $\beta(t)$.
$$dX_t=U_tdV_t+V_tdU_t+d[U,V](t)$$
we have
$$dX_t=(\alpha (t)U_t-\theta\,X_t+\sigma\beta(t)U_t)dt+(\beta(t)U_t+\sigma\,X_t)dW_t$$
thus $\beta(t)=0$ and $\alpha(t)U_t=\mu\,\theta$, as a result
$$dV_t=\frac{\mu\theta}{U_t}dt$$
in the other words
$$V_t=V_0+\mu\theta\int_{0}^{t}\frac{1}{U_s}ds$$
finally
$$X_t=U_tV_t=e^{-(\theta+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)t+\sigma W_t}\left(X(0)+\mu\theta\int_{0}^{t}e^{(\theta+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)s-\sigma W_s}\right)$$
$$X_t=e^{-(\theta+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)t+\sigma W_t}+\mu\theta\int_{0}^{t}e^{-(\theta+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)(t-s)+\sigma (W_t-W_s)}ds$$
Answer: To solve this equation, let
\begin{align*}
M_t = e^{(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) t - \sigma W_t}.
\end{align*}
Then
\begin{align*}
dM_t = M_t\Big[\big(\theta +\sigma^2\big) dt - \sigma dW_t\Big].
\end{align*}
Moreover,
\begin{align*}
d(M_t X_t) &= M_t dX_t + X_t dM_t + d\langle M, X \rangle_t\\
&=\theta\,\mu\, M_t dt.
\end{align*}
Then,
\begin{align*}
M_t X_t &= X_0 + \theta\,\mu\,\int_0^t M_s ds.
\end{align*}
That is,
\begin{align*}
X_t &= X_0 e^{-(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) t + \sigma W_t} +  \theta\,\mu\,e^{-(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) t + \sigma W_t}\int_0^t e^{(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) s - \sigma W_s} ds\\
&=X_0 e^{-(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) t + \sigma W_t} +  \theta\,\mu\,\int_0^t e^{-(\theta + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 ) (t-s) + \sigma(W_t - W_s)} ds.
\end{align*}
Comment: Fine solution +1

close form for stochastic integral


Should I provide Favicon.ico for my website?

Question: I don't have a favicon.ico. I noticed that many visitors repeatedly request it. Should I just put a blank GIF or ICO file?
Thanks for the input. But I have one question that no one answered: should I use an animated favicon?
Answer: Why don't you just create a small icon that suits your web site and use that?  It's trivial to do.  Most modern browsers look for this file.  I haven't tried it myself, but Googling, I found the website favicon.ico Generator that presents a simple image editor interface.
You don't, of course, need to do this.  It just gives a web site a little bit more personality and recognizability.  I suppose you could do as you suggest and put up a blank icon file, but if you'll go to that much trouble, you should just put up a real one.
Comment: I like to do it just to not see all the 404's it generates in the log files, or the web stats.
Answer: smashing magazine (online) has several articles on favicons:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/favicons/
While not required, favicons will often be requested by modern browsers
to add some eye-candy to the location bar, table labels, and bookmarks.
Once you are inspired by the examples from the link above,
you can try using an online generator to build your own:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2006/11/09/online-generators/
(look down the page for favicon generators).
I found the following one pretty nice:
http://www.degraeve.com/favicon/
Answer: While not required, having a favicon.ico will improve the user's experience on your webpage.  Most modern browers request one, and not having one requires your server to generate a 404 error and send this back to the browser.  404 errors can degrade the user performance because of how slow they are.
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
Answer: I suggest yes, make a favicon using your logo - it dresses up the URL in the address bar and for bookmarks and gives visitors another visual reminder of your site
this is a marketing answer, not a programming answer ;-)
Answer: The more pertinent question is "why not"?
In these days of tabbed browsing, the favicon is more important to me than ever - I wouldn't consider running a site without one.
Answer: I don't think you absolutely need one. Most modern browsers will request one and display it if you have it.
Comment: "All browsers" isn't entirely true.
Comment:  so that explains: elinks www.google.com :)
Comment: My apologies, not all browsers will request the favicon. Answer edited.
Answer: Sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth. IE is well known for corrupting its icon cache and displaying the wrong favicon for the wrong websites.
That said, given that most browsers will request a favicon it gets rid of all those 404's from the logs.
Comment: Indeed all browsers now request one - PITA if you don't have one!
Answer: I had this clogging up the Apache logs and wanted to clear it out. For one of my websites, I created a valid favicon.ico. For the rest of my virtual hosts, I simply "touch favicon.ico" and created an empty one [Note: Apache running on Linux]. No more errors in the error logs.
I thought about the waste of resources, but only for a short time. If I provided a real favicon.ico, then I would be transferring a lot of bytes very frequently. If I provided nothing, I would be sending back a 404 response. Sending back a zero length file appears to me to be the least waste of resources and bandwidth. And my error logs are clear of a spurious problem, so I can focus on real problems with my webserver.
Comment: Waste of resources?  A favicon is a tiny file that should be cached on any browser, thus, fetched rarely.  If you're really worried about bandwidth, then set your favicon to be in the cache for a year with mod_expires.
Comment: Every time some browser requests a favicon, there is a socket connection, a text based send/receive transaction, and all for a tiny file with a useless bit of graphics. That's a waste of resources. There are more resources involved than disk space.
Answer: Most sites have a favicon to leave an impression on visitors. It's not needed, but helps distinguish from other sites (say in your bookmarks or something similar).
Here's another site for favicon generation: http://www.favicongenerator.com/
Answer: I would add favicon. At least it will get rid of 404 errors in access logs, because most of the browsers request it.
Answer: Like many I agree to include a favicon file; if not necessarily for the presentation do it so it doesn't fill up the web logs with that favicon missing nonsense
-V


Have Spider-Man and The Hulk ever fought in the comics?

Question: Just wondering if Spider-Man and The Hulk have ever fought in the comics, and who won if they have?
Comment: a quick [image search](https://www.google.com/search?q=spider-man+vs+hulk&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KMSGVcnBDcyq-QG7-a_wBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ) shows a bunch of different issues where they've fought. **NOT a shark vs gorilla.**
Comment: why would you hate to say it? it's a legitimate answer.
Comment: This question is worded incorrectly, I'd prefer if it asked whether they've ever fought and who won.
Comment: There is a fairly old "comic" that was more of a comparison of Spiderman and his strength and abilities to other superheros rather than an actual storyline.  I recollect a picture of spiderman zipping around the Hulk.  I believe the comparison was that the Hulk was much stronger (early Hulk wasn't quite the unlimited strength brute), but that Spiderman was much quicker and more agile and could use his webbing to slow the Hulk down and his spider-sense would prevent the Hulk from landing a fight-ending smash.
Comment: Hate to tell you this but in no universe would Web head even stand a chance against Hulk 1-v-1 without extras like Iron-Spider armour, or the power cosmic. Just look at World War Hulk to start with, and Future Imperfect where Hulk basically controls the human race as he has flat out murdered every other hero.
Answer: I'm going to try to give an adequate reasoning of why Spider-Man would never beat the Hulk (in a straight-out fight with no extra powers), although in mainstream Marvel there are very few earth heroes who can fight Hulk to a stand-still or even put up an adequate defence against him — off the top of my head: the Sentry, the Thing, Hercules, She-Hulk, and Abomination.
I am not as knowledgeable as many fans I will admit, a few might even be able to give direct examples like where this image below came from.

Firstly, Spider-Man, who is still extremely powerful alone, can have trouble with various villains such as Venom, the Lizard and Rhino, who are not even Hulk's power level, and can usually only win through outwitting them.
Notably he can usually only beat his arch-nemesis Venom using noise, fire or a very large object to subdue him eventually. Even in the very new 'Secret Wars: Renew Your Vows' title (warning slight spoilers!) Spidey fought Venom into submission only when his daughter's life was in the balance, and also at great personal injury.
I'm not saying I am 100% certain, Hulk and Spidey have come to a lot of blows over the years, but these are some titles that have shown Hulk's power to be greater then Spider-Man's, and a few interesting semi-related bits.
PLANET HULK/World War Hulk: Hulk returns to earth on a rampage and it takes the combined strength of every hero on earth to even slow him down. I'll admit he had a small alien gladiator team of his own to help him, but they were more the mop-up crew in his wake.

World War Hulk: Spider-Man vs Thor (a.k.a Spider-Hulk vs Mighty Thor): Random heroes are charged with Hulk's Gamma power making them massive "Hulked-out" versions of their selves. As far as I know, Spider-Hulk does not fight Hulk at this time, But my opinion is in this state he would be able to beat Hulk (although this is out of scope of this question).

Punisher Vs Marvel Universe: In a timeline where the Punisher unwittingly ended civilisation by releasing a toxin into the world that either kills you or makes you a crazy beefcake cannibal killer, obviously super-beings become the top of the food chain. This is a fun little run in the mould of 'I Am Legend' and the Punisher is the last man alive.
In this timeline Spider-Man is the first to turn and becomes patient zero. He goes on to control a large portion on New York as it's Warlord. The Thing and The Hulk were also warlords in New York and each stayed clear of the other. So even in Spider-Man's total pumped up cannibal state he steered clear of the Hulk (who had also killed Wolverine by eating him?!). Spider-Man actually approaches the Punisher for help in taking on other super-cannibals as he alone is not strong enough.

I have also stumbled over this tongue in cheek debate on this very subject which has a lot of pin-point observations from people who have obviously read a lot of titles, which you might like to have a read through. Hulk Vs Spiderman - Hulk wins
Comment: Spidey did punch the Hulk to the moon when he was empowered by the Uni-Force, so there are extenuating circumstances where Spider-Man *could* defeat the Hulk.
Comment: Is World War Hulks as stupid as it looks?
Answer: Spider-Man met and fought the Hulk (a bit) in a cave way back in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (first appearance of the Green Goblin).
Spidey wisely decided to run away fairly quickly during that encounter, so I guess Hulk kind of won?


What type and size conduit should I use for my service entrance cable?

Question: I am running my aluminum service entrance cable from the main panel to a sub panel in my garage. It runs from the garage under the house then out the wall, makes a 90 degree turn to go into my side of the main box. I cannot find the code that says what kind of conduit it should be in when making the transition to outside and into the box. Any suggestions?
Comment: Is this garage attached or detached?
Comment: Attached. The wire goes through the wall down to the crawlspace and across to the outer wall. I'm just trying to figure out what the wire needs to be covered with when it goes out the outer wall and bends up to my side of the main breaker box.
Comment: Is running it directly out the back of the breaker box into the inside of the wall not an option?  Do you already have the SER cable in hand for that matter?
Comment: We do have the wire. We ended up using liquid tight to make the bend.  I had thought about going directly in the back, but it ended up coming up from the bottom. Thanks for the help though.
Comment: Post that as an answer and I'll give you a +1 for it
Answer: How deep do you go? You can give metal Rigid (/RMC) or IMC conduit only 6" of cover.    Other conduit needs 18" of cover.   If you want to direct bury, you need 24" of cover.
Since you are downstream of a main panel that presumably serves other loads, this is not service wire, this is feeder, and needs to be sized as feeder not service conductors.  You need to run separate neutral and ground wires, unless you are running in IMC or Rigid conduit, in which case you are allowed to use the conduit shell as the ground wire.
Don't run cable in conduit, that is the mark of the amateur.  It is also a very, very hard job.   Either direct bury at 24" or use THWN-2 wires instead of cable.
Answer: It can be conduit or direct burial. Above ground to 18" below ground it would need to be schedule 80 PVC or could be rigid metallic or IMC. Below 18" schedule 40 would work. If you go with direct burial it needs to be 24" with the sections above 24" protected by schedule 80 or rigid metallic or IMC as a quick overview. Table 300.5 in the NEC.
Comment: Schedule 40 is also rigid but not legal where it can be damaged. That's why I tried to differentiate. Will add metal.
Comment: Layperson question: Isn't Sch. 80 PVC "rigid"?


Bes El or Bes Kel?

Question: There is at least one city mentioned in Tanach named Bes El, written as two words; that name currently belongs to a city in Israel and a number of synagogues and Reform temples. Does that "El" have the status of a shem (name of God), so that one should replace it (e.g. with "Kel") under certain circumstances (e.g., I think, when writing it on a paper that will be put in the garbage, though consult your rabbi for practical guidance)?
Answer: There is a dispute about it (in connection with writing a Sefer Torah, whether the sofer should declare it holy or not).
R. Elazar Fleckeles (Meleches Hakodesh, Lech Lecha 1) suggests that this depends on an earlier machlokes, recorded in the Yerushalmi (Megillah 1:9) and Maseches Sofrim (5:10), as to whether the name should be written closed-up (ביתאל) or as two words. Since the halachah is that we write it as two words, he says, then the second element should be considered holy. (Although he also cites Birkei Yosef (Yoreh De'ah 276:29) that some soferim have a tradition to consider it non-holy, and so he accepts that such soferim should continue this practice.)
Kesses Hasofer states flatly that it is kodesh, and in Lishkas Hasofer there (note 9) he says that this may be true even according to the opinion that the name is written as ביתאל. (Which, I guess, raises the question, according to him, of names like שמואל.)
On the other hand, Beis Aharon states that it is definitely chol, based on Targum Onkelos, which doesn't translate the name (whereas he usually translates the name א-ל as א-להא).
All of this is as far as writing it in a Sefer Torah. I don't know whether this would also affect how it should be spoken (when not saying a complete pasuk).
Comment: @msh210: Kesses Hasofer is indeed the standard go-to sefer for this purpose, and maybe Beis Aharon too (his list of shemos kodesh and chol is reproduced in a sefer on safrus that I have). In turn, both of them refer to Meleches Hakodesh.
Comment: +1, many thanks! I'm wholly unfamiliar with the three books you link to. Are they standard _hilchos safrus_ books?
Comment: @Alex - Why do you put a dash between the letters of "אלהא")?  Rav Soloveitchik taught that it wasn't necessary to put a dash between the G and the D in English, so I don't know why Aramaic would be any different seeing as it is another non-Hebrew language (i.e. not holy).
Comment: @Adam: I'm not so sure about that, since Aramaic is used in Tanach, and this word is used there too to refer to Hashem, so arguably it has real kedushah. (I would have to look up sources about that, though.) Anyway, b'mechilas kevodo of Rav Soloveitchik, I do write "G-d" in English.
Comment: I don't think this answers the exact question being asked (although it is good background). The questioner asked "does THIS 'El' have the status of a shem," referring specifically to the 'El' in 'Beth Kel' (and likewise in a lot of Hebrew names such as Eliyahu, Yael, and, yes, Shmuel.) I'd be really interested to know if one who has the custom to say "Kel" instead of "El" would need to do so in these cases.
Comment: @SAH This answer is specifically about "_Bes El_".
Comment: @SAH Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/49250.

Bes El or Bes Kel?


Why does MySQL use a different index for my query in different versions?

Question: I have a large-ish InnoDB table (about 800MB), and I'd like to count rows.  I know SELECT COUNT(*) has issues in InnoDB, but one of the solutions I've seen is to create a secondary index, which is much faster than chewing through the PRIMARY, at least for row counts.
I've copied the table contents to a second server. The server's faster, and of course the copy resulted in a nice, compact table that hasn't suffered deletes and updates.  So on the new server everything's nice and fast, but something about the behavior of the old server still puzzles me:
I have a PRIMARY index, and another index (call it index2) already defined on the table.  On the old server (MySQL 5.0.27), I can EXPLAIN SELECT COUNT(*) FROM myTable and see that it will use the PRIMARY index.  The query takes over a minute.  If I SELECT COUNT(*) FROM myTable USE INDEX(index2), it takes ~100ms.  If I put WHERE someCol > lowest_possible_value it also chooses the faster index.
On the new server (MySQL 5.1.52), the same EXPLAIN statement tells me it's going to use index2, without any hinting.  A simple SELECT COUNT(*) FROM myTable is very fast, on the order of 20-30ms.  I can run SELECT COUNT(*) FROM myTable USE INDEX(PRIMARY), to force it use the "bad" index, and it takes longer -- only 3-4 seconds, but as I said there are other differences to account for that, and that's still more than a hundred times slower than the "good" (non-PRIMARY) index.
Why is the newer MySQL instance picking the "right" index?  Can I do something on the old server to reproduce this behavior?  I'd like to avoid a full upgrade just now, but it's not out of the question.
Answer: Two possibilities:

The fact that it's a new table means that the statistics that MySQL uses to try and estimate which index is the right one to use are different.
The newer version of MySQL is smarter.

Fixing the former may be as simple as an ANALYZE TABLE; fixing the latter is just a package upgrade.


How to use percents in Illustrator Graph Tool?

Question: I am currently making a bar graph with various percentages. Illustrator graph tool seems to be limited in formatting the style of numbers compared to one would in Excel. How do I set graph tool, to display the numbers being used, and the scale of the graph to show as a percentage?
Answer: For adding percents to labels - manually, I'm afraid.
Illustrator's graph tool is truly ancient, and Adobe have neglected it for years. It's a major frustration for those of us who need to use it a lot. It can't even cope with commas in 1,000s.
I actually got so fed up of typing % symbols into Illustrator graphs that I made a script to speed up mass text changes like this. It's here: How to do a wildcard / GREP / regex find-replace in Illustrator?
Don't be put off by the technical language - to add a % to every selected number, you can just follow the example in my second bullet point.
(If you don't know how to use Illustrator scripts, Google it, there are lots of clearly written guides. Scripts are really useful for data graphics)

For adding labels to data points e.g. the ends of bars - this is actually one of the few things where Illustrator's graph tool is very flexible, but the steps are quite unintuitive and it's very fiddly.
The Adobe help pages explain it clearly (but long-windedly) - see https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/graphs.html and scroll down to "Add totals to a column design" (tip: you'll immediately need to scroll back and skim through the preceding sections to understand what it means by "graph design").
The VERY short version, assuming a bar chart, is:

Draw a rectangle (or whatever) representing a sample bar, styled however you want bars of that series styled
Draw a line across it, and turn the line into a guide
Add point text (click, don't drag, with the text tool) and type %00 (to round to the nearest whole number - consult the guide if you want something else), style it how you want your labels
Select (make sure guides aren't locked), then Object - Graph - Designs then new design
Select that series by using the little-known "group select" tool, horn behind the normal white arrow, clicking one bar repeatedly until it selects that series and nothing else
Apply the design with Object - Graph - Columns, choosing sliding design.

That's the gist. It's tricky, so you'll probably need to consult the guide first time.
Then after all that, when you're happy with it, use the above linked script to save yourself manually typing % however many times.
Answer: In case anyone still requires an answer to this question.

Using the selection tool, right-click your chart and choose Graph
Type.
In the drop down at the top of the dialog box switch from
Graph Options to Value Axis.
For the suffix enter a percentage symbol.

You will have to go back and multiply all your numbers by 100, otherwise the values will be incorrect on your chart.


As a renter, do I need the Dutch energy label for anything?

Question: I'm moving to the Netherlands, and am arranging contracts etc with a rental agency. They say that an Energy label/energy performance certificate is "not available". My understanding is that the owner is legally required to provide one (https://www.government.nl/topics/energy-performance-certificates-for-homes-and-buildings/epcs-for-buyers-and-tenants), but I'm not going to push super hard unless I have a specific need for it for something else (energy provider, local authority, etc.). Do I need it?
Comment: If you have all inclusive contract I would say you don't need it
Comment: With energy label, you can calculate/estimate spendings on the warming the house (recently cooling also becomes important)
Comment: @EugenMartynov If all inclusive means paying for Gas/Electricity/Water, then I don't have that.
Comment: If you try insisting that you're provided with an EPC - please report back on this page what eventually happened.
Answer: Tenants do not really need this certificate for anything, I certainly never had to present it anywhere. But this is presumably designed to enable you to make an informed decision when moving in. An accommodation with poor energy efficiency could cost you tens of euros a month down the line. And refusing to provide one might suggest the landlord is trying to hide the fact that his property is not terribly attractive from that point of view.
Even with a contract covering energy costs, you have to read the fine print, I once had such a contract but the monthly payments were only provisions to be adjusted at the end of the year, when I was it with a €1500 bill for heating for a rather small apartment.
Comment: Gala, you're right. I forgot and I was in the same situation and had to pay extra burned because of the apartment was cold. And it is not pleasant thing and it was a quite significant sum of money
Comment: @einpoklum Same difference. [It does not require to "bring in" an expert](https://www.government.nl/topics/energy-performance-certificates-for-homes-and-buildings/epcs-for-homeowners), it's done online. I am sure there are also landlords who "think" they should not be "bothered" with renovations, smoke detectors and what not but that's the law and it's there for a reason.
Comment: "Refusing to provide one etc." - In many places, an energy rating has never been calculated and landlords might simply not think they should be bothered to bring some specialist in to do that.
Comment: And those landlords who don't have the definitive energy rating at hand in the first place are probably more likely than not to have a poorly isolated property too. Many years after this was introduced EU-wide, they are actively refusing to comply at this point.


Does our baby need to file a tax return?

Question: My friends had a baby last year, and he's turning 8 months by April 15, 2016.  The parents are going to file a joint tax return this year.  Can they claim their baby as a dependent?  Should they consider filing separately? If they claiming him as a dependent, do they need to file a tax return for him too?
Comment: The key question - how much income does the baby have, both earned and unearned? As a baby/toddler, POTUS was good for $100K/yr, and therefore filed his own return.
Answer: As long as the baby was born by December 31, 2015, he can be claimed as a dependent by his parents for tax year 2015.  He should definitely be claimed as a dependent; it will save them money on their taxes, and there is no reason not to.
The baby does not need to file a tax return, but he does need a Social Security number in order for the parents to claim him as a dependent and claim child tax credits.  Often Social Security numbers are applied for at the hospital right at birth, so he might already have one, but if for some reason this was not done, they will need to visit a Social Security office to apply for one.
The question about whether or not a married couple should file jointly has nothing to do with the fact that they had a baby.  If they are planning on filing jointly, we don't have any information that would suggest this is a bad idea.
Comment: @MatthewGreen You can claim the child even if he was younger than 6 months old at the end of the year. See also: [IRS Dependents & Exemptions FAQ](https://www.irs.gov/Help-&-Resources/Tools-&-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Questions-&-Answers/Filing-Requirements,-Status,-Dependents,-Exemptions/Dependents-&-Exemptions/Dependents-&-Exemptions-8). You can claim as long as you provided at least half the support for the child.
Comment: @MatthewGreen From the [1040 instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040gi/ar01.html#d0e3154): "If the person meets all other requirements to be your qualifying child but was born or died in 2015, the person is considered to have lived with you for more than half of 2015 if your home was this person's home for more than half the time he or she was alive in 2015."
Comment: @MatthewGreen If, after looking at last year's return, you find that you didn't get an exemption or credit that you should have gotten, you can file an amended return.
Comment: I don't believe it will matter though this first time as the child was not 'living' with them for more than 6 months in the previous year. At least that seemed to be what I understood last year when doing our taxes (my son was born in October so less than three months).
Comment: @BenMiller Does that exception cover the Child Tax Credit as well? That might be what I was thinking of.
Comment: @MatthewGreen Indeed, it covers both.  See the link that kingofzeal posted for quick confirmation.
Comment: @BenMiller That page mentions that they "may" qualify. But, know that I'm looking, I did find the same exception on the [Pub 972](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p972/ar02.html). Now I'm wondering if I was mislead out of some deductions last year.
Answer: Whether someone needs to file a tax return for a given year is covered in a section at the beginning of each year's Form 1040 instructions, called "Do You Have to File?". Generally, if the income that year is below a certain threshold (this threshold varies depending on filing status, whether the person is claimed as a dependent, and other factors), then the person isn't required to file (though they could still choose to file if they want to).
For a single dependent under 65, they must file if they have $1050 of unearned income, or $6300 of earned income, or their gross income is more than $1050 and more than earned income + $350. If your friend's baby didn't have income for 2015, then the baby won't need to file.
Whether a person needs to file is separate from the consideration of whether the person can be claimed by someone else as a dependent. Some children who are claimed as a dependent nevertheless must file if their income is high enough.
Comment: In addition, parents can include their child's income on their own tax return under [certain conditions](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p929/ar02.html#en_US_2015_publink1000203800), including that the child would otherwise be required to file a return and all of his income is from interest and dividends. The advantage, as explained in the IRS link, is that you don't have to go through the trouble of preparing a separate tax return for the child; the disadvantage is that you might end up owing more tax by doing it this way. If the child doesn't need to file at all, that's even better.
Comment: @ZachLipton - right. For long term cap gains and dividends, it might be a wash, but where anything hits the ordinary rate, a difference from 10% to 25% would add up fast. A kid's return shouldn't be too tough to do.


How to change the themes "Live Preview" url within the Appearance->Themes page?

Question: I need a way to change the themes "Live Preview" url within the Appearance->Themes page? I want the themes thumbnails to link to a demo site showcasing the theme and not open the customizer.
I looked into the code some but I am not seeing much for a solution, but was wondering if someone else has a trick for this.
Thanks
Answer: External Live Previews For Themes
The Live Preview buttons, on the /wp-admin/themes.php page, are generated from the tmpl-theme micro template:

We can modify the template data via the wp_prepare_themes_for_js filter.
Here's an example:
/**
 * External Live Previews
 */
add_filter( 'wp_prepare_themes_for_js', function(  $prepared_themes )
{
    //--------------------------
    // Edit this to your needs:

    $externals = [
        'twentysixteen' => 'http://foo.tld/demo/twentysixteen/',
        'twentyfifteen' => 'http://bar.tld/demo/twentyfifteen/'
    ];
    //--------------------------

    foreach( $externals as $slug => $url )
    {
        if( isset( $prepared_themes[$slug]['actions']['customize'] ) )
            $prepared_themes[$slug]['actions']['customize'] = $url;
    }

    return $prepared_themes;
} );

But this will not work as expected, because of the load-customize class, that will trigger a click event and open up an iframe overlay with:
$('#wpbody').on( 'click', '.load-customize', function( event ) {
    event.preventDefault();

    // Store a reference to the link that opened the Customizer.
    Loader.link = $(this);
    // Load the theme.
    Loader.open( Loader.link.attr('href') );
});

When we click on the Live Preview button, with an external url, it will trigger an error like:

Uncaught SecurityError: Failed to execute 'pushState' on 'History':  A
  history state object with URL 'http://foo.tld/demo/twentysixteen/'
  cannot be created in a document with origin 'http://example.tld'  and
  URL 'http://example.tld/wp-admin/themes.php'.

We could prevent this, by double clicking (not really a reliable option) or by removing the load-customize class for the external preview links. Here's one such hack:
/**
 * Remove the .load-customize class from buttons with external links
 */
add_action( 'admin_print_styles-themes.php', function()
{ ?>
     <?php
} );

where I got the this.host idea from @daved here.
Another more drastic approach would be to override the tmpl-theme template.
Comment: Sorry it has taken awhile to get back to you. The later portion of your code (removing the load-customize class for the external preview links) is not working right. I am working within the wp-contents/mu-plugins folder (multisite setup). Nothing happens when I add that snippet...meaning when I click the preview link I still get the same error that was created by the first snippet you offered. Should the action be 'admin_print_scripts' as your snippet is not printing the script. I tried 'admin_print_scripts' but then I get the 'jQuery is not defined' error, but the snippet is printed.
Comment: I got it to work by enqueuing the js and adding your snippet in the external .js file. However, I also need the same thing to happen for all the 'Live Preview' links such as when you click the 'View Details' button it also gives you the option to 'Live Preview' from the popup window. Another place is the theme switching within the Customizer. Thanks again for your help.
Comment: Glad to hear that worked, I only tested this on a single install, where it worked also for the overlay (pop-up). Regarding the Customizer you might try to override the `tmpl-customize-control-theme-content` micro template, maybe it's even possible to extend `WP_Customize_Theme_Control` to your custom needs? or play with the `attribute_escape` filter ;-) @DavidLabbe
Comment: How did you go with this @DavidLabbe?
Answer: Wordpress seems to call wp_customize_url to get the theme preview URL, and there's not much there in the way of filters that you can hook into (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_customize_url/). You could potentially hook into the admin_url filter to make changes - but returning a different URL when customize.php is sent through will obviously affect every instance of the customizer, not just the Live Preview function. If this doesn't concern you, then this could be what you need:
add_filter("admin_url", "my_live_preview", 10, 3);
function my_live_preview($url, $path, $blog_id){
  if($path == "customize.php"){ $url = "http://offsitethemepreviewurl.com"; }
  return $url;
}

This $url will then be appended by ?theme=name-of-theme which would allow you to determine at that page what theme is being requested.
This may or may not suit.
If it doesn't, I think you're left with some front-end JavaScript to change the URL. You'll need to enqueue a JavaScript file in the admin using admin_enqueue_scripts (see https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Action_Reference/admin_enqueue_scripts for help), then reference the Live Preview link:
jQuery(".theme-browser .theme[aria-describedby*='twentysixteen'] .button.load-customize")
  .attr("href", "http://offsitethemepreviewurl.com/");

This should change the Load Preview link for the twentysixteen theme to http://offsitethemepreviewurl.com.
I haven't tested either of these solutions... but I think they'll work :)
Comment: You might want to add a `.removeClass( 'load-customize')` to the jQuery chain, to prevent a Javascript *pushState* security error, regarding external urls.
Answer: If you are in wp customizer, here is how you can change the current preview URL via Javascript:
Try this one when you plan to change the current URL from controls panel:
wp.customize.previewer.previewUrl( url )
or try this one while you intend to change the URL from preview frame:
wp.customize.preview.send( "url", url )

Moreover, here is how to get the current preview URL from the controls panel:
wp.customize.previewer.previewUrl()


How bad is a "bad" oil spill?

Question: I live in British Columbia, and a hot topic right now is the proposed Enbridge pipeline. One aspect in particular gets a lot of attention, the risk of a "bad oil spill". Is there a clear guideline as to what exactly constitutes a bad oil spill? How much oil must be spilled? Is it dependent on what type of oil is spilled and in what area, populated by what species? Looking for some general guidelines.
Comment: I don't think 'bad oil spill' is a term that has a defined meaning. It's bad if it can have severe consequences for the ecosystems affected. So the amount of oil will heavily depend on the ecosystems at question. So a 'bad oil spill' might also be a constant 'little' amount of oil draining from piplines to the environment.
Comment: Agree with taupunkt. It might be more useful to take a step back, and tell us the question behind this one. What about "bad oil spills" do you want to know?
Comment: EPA (a paper-hauling agency south of the border) pretty much requires reporting of any sheen/slick unless an exemption has been made.
Comment: The answer to the question as currently posed is almost certainly "No". Perhaps some editing may be in order?
Answer:
Is there a clear guideline as to what exactly constitutes a bad oil spill?

No, "bad" has no legal definition in any jurisdiction in North America. As a practical matter you can only establish regulations and enforce legal penalties, regulatory, civil or criminal by some sort of numerical, measurement based criteria.

How much oil must be spilled?

All material economic activity has some sort of negative tradeoff, all jurisdictions have some level of permissible harm. Each jurisdiction a pipeline passes through will have some level of oil leakage or other types of environmental harm that are permitted without triggering as legal consequence for the operator. However, this does not define "bad" but merely the trigger threshold.
An international pipeline like the Enbridge pipeline that crosses countries, provinces, states etc will be subject to a different set of rules for every jurisdiction and at times combinations of jurisdictions. You'd have to check each individual jurisdiction to find the threshold for each one.

Is it dependent on what type of oil is spilled...

Usually, yes. Since the primary harm from oil is mechanical, the viscosity of oil is the prime predictor of the harm it will cause if spilled. Crude oil varies in viscosity from a thin syrup to thick paste. The former can spread fairly far in warm weather while the later usually just piles up at the leak. The former causes more harm per unit of escaped volume than the later.
Most of the oil moved in the Enbridge is dilbit a diluted form of bitumen/asphalt from the tar sands. Bitumen/asphalt is arguably a solid so it has to be diluted with something else to make it a pumpable liquid. Depending on the viscosity chosen, the spread and mechanical risk will vary as well.
The diluent itself is going to be something volatile which could in principle constitute a greater toxicity danger than simple crude oil. Naphtha has been used in the past which is the most volatile fraction of any crude oil. Depending on the actual ratio, spilled dilbit will present a greater or lessor danger than a comparable (usually light) crude.

and in what area,

Quite definitely.  As noted above, the oil does not spread to any significant degree without water transport. A pipeline crossing a body of water or running near one will require more rigorous construction and closer monitoring than one that does not. Oil pipelines crossing desert or arid regions cause much less harm be unit of leaked volume than do pipelines in swamps or under body of water.

populated by what species?

Usually, but again, this varies considerably depending on jurisdiction.
Comment: Most of this lengthy answer does not appear to be answering the question - but rather commenting, in an arguably partisan way, on the questioner's assumed motivation for asking it.
Comment: Question has been edited to clarify the request for bad. Although, my last sentence was probably uncalled for but I have had to deal with exported pollution in my region so I'm a little touchy on the subject.
Comment: @SimonW - Per your observation, I've edited my answer to remove any technical information about pipeline risk or information about real world risk assessment. Instead, I've confined myself to generalization about regulatory levels and jurisdictions.
Answer: An example of a "bad" (or at least notorious) oil spill was that of the Exxon Valdez in 1989 in Alaska. It was variously estimated at between one-quarter and three quarters of a million barrels of spillage.
The sensitivity of it was due to the fact that it took place in the Prince William Sound (near land) instead of on the open ocean, and greatly affected wildlife.

How bad is a "bad" oil spill?


Healthy 10 month old baby bouncing himself while standing - will this injure his hips?

Question: Someone told me that my 10 month old grandson was injuring his hips by continually bouncing himself when he stands while holding onto a couch or table. He seems very healthy and strong. Is there a health risk?
Comment: I think the question, precisely as asked, must be closed, for it is asking a medical question: `Is there a health risk?`. We should not be judging if there is _any_ health risk from a question here (as we don't know the child nor can we say definitively there is absolutely no risk, as many common activities include some small risk).  I don't see any problem with the question adjusting that phrase to `Is this normal?`, and would edit it if there is general agreement.
Comment: Is a question of the form "Is X a health risk?" really a medical question? I can see it being borderline, but if it has a general answer that can be documented and that's appropriate for children without special medical conditions, I don't see how it's any more inappropriate than other typical questions. There's hardly any question about babies that doctors won't have an educated opinion on, but I don't think that reaches the scope of a "medical question" unless it's specifically about treatment of an illness or similar.
Comment: AE's answer, on the other hand, shows how this can have a very good answer (at least mostly) as written; maybe I'm just picking nits on the specific wording.  I do think that the top answers are, while accurate, not what I'd want to see as answering the question as written, and is why I voiced this concern: while Anongoodnurse is a medical professional and a good source in and of herself, it's very easy to see answers from non-professionals that are basically "no" without sources, and that makes me worry about venturing into medical advice.
Comment: 30+ years of bouncing; no problems yet other than always being asked to stop rocking the table.
Comment: My son was running all over the place by 9.5 months. He was bouncing on his legs before six months. Happy, healthy 11yo now!
Comment: @Joe Every question on this site is ultimately health related in at least a general, if not very often narrow and specific, sense.
Comment: "Is X a health risk" is effectively asking "is it safe to do X".  To the extent medical questions are not acceptable here, I think this wouldn't be also, worded that specific way: any liability concern would exist ("Is skateboarding down Main Street a health risk?" for example) and on the other hand, imagine "Is throwing my baby in the air a health risk?": the fact that sometimes the answer is "maybe" and depends on specific information makes it (to me) a medical question.  Like I said - take away those words and make it "is it normal" or something like that and it's avoiding that grey area.
Comment: I don't think there _is_ a health risk here, but the point is that if some questions of the same construction would be effectively medical questions, this must be also, phrased this way.  At least in my mind (which is why I ask rather than just edit).
Comment: @zxq9, exactly. "Is activity X a health risk?" can be interpreted as a 'health question' for any X. Going to the play farm, eating dirt, playing with sand, leaving the house ... I don't see any logic behind us trying to avoid the word 'health'. Obviously it would be inappropriate for anyone here to try to make medical diagnoses over the internet, but anything/everything has a 'health' aspect.
Answer: I can't think of any risk in this normal behavior (yes, this qualifies as normal) in a normal baby (contrast this to children who engage in abnormal activity, e.g. head-banging, who are putting themselves at risk).
If anything, your grandson is showing good strength in his legs, good balance (he's not falling over with movement), and good large-motor skills in his lower extremities.
People believe in all kinds of myths. I don't know where this one came from, but you don't have to worry about your grandson damaging his hips be doing what comes naturally to him.
Comment: Both my mother an mother-in-law sternly told me not to let my baby stand and put weight on her legs before a year old: "all that weight on a little developing body will make her bow-legged!" They were going off the outdated notion that rickets is caused by too-early pressure, unaware of its actual cause (vitamin deficiencies). It's possible there's some similar misconception at work here... although guessing the real root cause isn't necessary, since it's not a problem for the baby to bounce :)
Comment: Erica, if I had a dollar for every outdated piece of advice from my mother and mother-in-law, I could take you, me and our spouses out to a nice dinner.
Comment: If he starts feeling pain as a direct result of bouncing he will probably stop on his own.
Answer: That's absolutely fine - in fact it helps him to develop.

How can I help my child to stand?
Your child can be held supported in a standing position from
  an early age
This allows the child to experience the feeling of their body
  weight through their feet.
They may bounce up and down. They do this to develop the
  strength in their leg muscles.
You can stand your child in many different ways, for example on your lap when you are sitting in a chair, in front of a
  coffee table or sofa or on the sofa cushion next to you with their back against the
  back cushions.
As they get stronger, they will need less support from you and they will use their
  hands on the furniture to support themselves more.
When they can stand briefly without holding on, they are ready to learn to step along
  the furniture or 'cruise'.

Helping a baby develop standing and steppingAdvice sheet CYP ITS ASEY012, NHS Somerset Partnership, 2012.

Five months to 10 months
By the time your baby is about five months old, if you let him balance his feet on your thighs, he'll bounce up and down. Bouncing will be a favourite activity over the next couple of months.
Many babies love jumping up and down in their door bouncer. However, if you have a door bouncer, limit the time your baby spends in it to three supervised 15-minute sessions a day.
As your baby learns to roll over, sit, and crawl, his muscles will continue to strengthen.
Between eight months and 10 months he will probably start trying to pull himself up to stand while holding on to furniture. If you prop him up next to the sofa, he'll hang on for support.
As your baby gets better at standing, he'll start to cruise (moving around upright while holding on to furniture). He may then feel confident enough to let go of any support and stand unaided. Once your baby is ready to let go of the furniture, he may be able to take steps when you hold his hands. Your baby may even stoop to pick up a toy when standing.

Developmental milestones: walking
babycentre.co.uk, Medical Advisory Board, August 2014
The myth is more usually about small babies 'bouncing' on their parent's lap, supported by the parent's hands around their torso. Parenting magazine has addressed it in this form:

Myth: Letting your little one stand or bounce in your lap can cause bowlegs later on.
The truth: He won't become bowlegged; that's just an old wives' tale. Moreover, young babies are learning how to bear weight on their legs and find their center of gravity, so letting your child stand or bounce is both fun and developmentally stimulating for him.

14 Most Outdated Pieces of Baby Advice
Parenting, Amanda First / Ari Brown, M.D
Paediatrician Dr Kristen Stuppy has also addressed it:

I am surprised how often I am asked if having a baby "stand" on a parent's lap will make them bow legged or otherwise hurt them.
Old Wives Tales are ingrained in our societies and because they are shared by people we trust, they are often never questioned.
Allowing babies to stand causing problems is one of those tales.  If an adult holds a baby under the arms and supports the trunk to allow the baby to bear weight on his legs it will not harm the baby. Many babies love this position and will bounce on your leg. It allows them to be upright and see the room around them.  Supported standing can help build strong trunk muscles.

Will "Standing" Hurt a Baby's Legs?
Quest for Health, Dr Kristen Stuppy MD, 4 August 2012
Comment: Excellent documentation!
Comment: Thank you, @Erica! The one thing I would improve (if I could find a good source for it) would be that most of these sources are talking primarily about younger babies than the OP is asking about, with 'later months' as an extra addition, and that they're talking primarily about babies being 'bounced' on their parents' laps (with parent supporting torso) rather than independent self-supporting standing babies like the OP's.
Answer: No, there is no health risk. Your grandson is actually doing something healthy — building his leg muscles to be able to stand more easily, and to raise and lower himself in a more controlled, coordinated way. Sounds like he'll be walking in the next few months!
Answer: There are seats you can get for babies to bounce in, which my daughter loved, but her orthopedic doctor said not to use for risk of hip problems.  However, that was an external device for a child who already had a high enough risk of hip problems that she had an orthopedic doctor.  My guess is the person who told you had heard similar advice, perhaps secondhand, and falsely extrapolated it to the situation of a perfectly healthy child bouncing himself.
Most of the time how a toddler moves under his own power is safe.  Even our daughter's orthopedic doctor encouraged that kind of exercise.  It's when you add external factors, like bouncers or walkers, that you might want to run it by an expert.
Comment: Bouncers specifically are often discouraged by doctors of all sorts, not for orthopedic reasons but because they support the baby too much - they don't learn a sense of balance as quickly as they ought otherwise.
Answer: As someone else has said above, if it was painful for him to do this he would stop.
I believe any movement they are making is only helping to strengthen their muscles so that there is less risk of joint problems when they are older.  Stronger muscles will help to support joints. My daughter loved to bounce when she was younger (less than 1 year old), she is now 2 and doesn't show any signs of problems so far.


How to merge /usr and /var partitions into slash root?

Question: Seem to have missed the bit about NOT creating a separate /usr partition while setting up Fedora 18 last month.
Everything works fine (or at least appears to), but looking at my partitioning scheme there's a lot of wasted space:
/dev/sda1 /boot 181MB of 400MB
/dev/sda2 /     606MB of 20GB
/dev/sda3 /usr  6.0GB of 15GB
/dev/sda5 /var  1.5GB of 15GB*
/dev/sda6 /home 15GB  of 185GB*

sda5 (/var) and sda6 (/home) are on extended partition /dev/sda4
This might be a better partitioning scheme:
/dev/sda1 /boot 181MB of 400MB
/dev/sda2 /     8.0GB of 20GB (after transferring /usr & /var data)
/dev/sda3 /home 15GB  of 60GB
free space 160GB

Need to backup above primary SSD to 2ndary 256GB SSD (and then to external 500GB HDD); current partitioning scheme looks suboptimal, so much wasted space.
Here's the 2ndary drive:
/dev/sdb1 ntfs boot 35MB of 100MB
/dev/sdb2 ntfs system (Windows 7) 11GB of 20GB
/dev/sdb3 ext4 /vm-storage 25GB of 80GB
/dev/sdb4 extended (primary SSD data should be replicated here)

So, the question is, is it possible to gparted clone existing /usr and /var partitions into / root on primary drive? If so, I assume I then remove /usr and /var mount points from /etc/fstab and Fedora will be fine with / root mount point and the /usr and /var directories that it contains post-gparted cloning?
I can put gparted on Fedora 18 LiveCD (unless it's already there) and boot off of that to get at the unmounted disks to do the surgery -- just want to make sure this is a possible/wise operation.
Thanks
Answer: Just boot any Linux LiveCD, copy partition contents to appropriate directories and edit fstab, everything should be fine. But if I were you, I'd keep /home on separate partition - if you ever want to reinstall OS it could be left untouched. Also you can share it across multiple distros.
Comment: +1, yes, home will be on separate partition. Was thinking along the lines of server setup (e.g. /var on separate partition to prevent runaway log scenario) and Anaconda autocompletes for you once to type the "/" so when "/user" came up I just created it thinking I could micromanage partitions and minimimize disk usage, but did the opposite, wound up wasting a ton of space ;-)


The paradox of oneness

Question: It gives divine joy to the mind, when one realizes the spirit of oneness. Even in Bhagavad Gita, when Arjuna questions about true knowledge, the supreme Lord tells him that true knowledge is identifying oneness in all the matter and energy around us. However, if actually oneness were the only truth, then why will it require the reference "oneness? What is meant, is that, when we refer to oneness, we are actually implicitly acknowledging the existence of duplicity. The true "oneness" must be so unique, that it should be free of all references. However, at the same time, we cannot perceive anything without reference. So is our understanding of oneness paradoxical?
Comment: What do you mean by 'oneness' and 'spirit of oneness'? Maybe you can provide some context too?
Answer: Are you talking about unity or non-duality?
It's possible to be a non-dualist without asserting unity.  It isn't that you're rejecting unity, it's just that you reject duality and make no (positive) assertions in its place.
Likewise, it's possible to assert unity while implicitly asserting duality.  The problem here is that to even assert something is to imply the existence of its opposite, otherwise why assert? Why do we need to speak (or think) X if there is no not-X?
Can you see the problem?  This is fitting, as the non-dualist points to conceptualization as the problem.  Not a specific concept, but conceptualization.  Well, if you try to fix conceptualization with conceptualization, are you really fixing anything?
In fact, I read this as the fundamental difference between Buddhism and Hinduism.  Hinduism asserts unity.  Buddhism asserts non-duality without asserting anything else.  Yet this is a hard position to maintain, so a variety of positive assertions were made, yet these were a mistake, so a variety of attempts to counter those assertions were made, and the result is much of the (apparent) nonsense, contradictions, logical flouting and... well Nagarjuna :)
Yet if we look at Buddhism and Hinduism as being non-dual, we can see them as choosing two paths to solving the same problem.
The key here is realization; one is supposed to realize non-dualism, to feel or perceive this, perhaps even as a realization of how baseless duality is. One should not reason about this, or if one does so, to do so only insofar as is needed to get one on the right track (or just off the wrong one).
If you haven't done so, I recommend you read David Loy's Nonduality.  It's a solid treatment of this subject.
Answer: Referencing oneness does not establish a duality if the agent of awareness (in this case the self) is a subset of the One.
As you observe, we can see that the One would have nothing outside itself for reference. The One itself is incongruous with categories or divisions of any kind.
However, a point of self-consciousness that exists in the context of time, place and other references, is bound to relate to them, in fact is defined by them. One of these references can be the relationship of the self to that which is beyond reference.
The neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus identified a continuum of relationship from the individual item to the perfect unity of the One. His view was that we as individuals find bliss and fulfillment insofar as we approach "likeness" to the One, as opposed to the veil of tears he called "differentiation," fraught as it is with ambition, competition, desire. I believe this is a similar construct to that of Buddhism, but I defer to those with expertise on the subject.
I know I have heard consistent advice from esoteric teachers that we should eschew our individuality, try to blend back into the All or the One through various techniques, including meditation, and various life choices, such as asceticism.
However, given our natures, and assuming that we take our present form only for a time and in a particular place, it appears our differentiated selves are the only window we have on the One, which is our source, and in some way our home. So, I must account such awareness as precious, even if its existence only reinforces how temporary and fungible are all subset constructs in contrast to the great construct that includes everything. So identifying the concept of "oneness" strikes me as entirely worthwhile, in that it helps us understand ourselves.
Answer: Here is a speculative solution to the paradox:
There is "oneness in all the matter and energy around us", but consciousness is an exception to that oneness; you can observe this if you realize that there is no apparent continuum between your consciousness and another's; therefore consciousness is like a singularity point in the oneness which surrounds it.
Now, by consciousness I refer to the so called qualia, or to what is possibly referred to as watching in some eastern philosophies; it doesn't include ones psychology and cognition, which relative to watching are part of the "external" oneness and the continuum.
to make a metaphor, think of the galaxies in our universe, where each galaxy consists of hundreds of millions of stars orbiting a central massive black hole, which is a singularity in spacetime; these galaxies are part of an ever changing continuum, and yet each black hole is a separate singularity; a person is such a galaxy, and in its center there exists a singularity we call consciousness or watching.
Now, not only is that singularity separate, it also does not seem to change; this is because we can ascribe to it no attributes, and therefore we cannot say it ever changes; so watching is both separate and constant.
This seems to be in conflict with Buddhism, which I believe preaches that everything is in constant change, and nothing is separate; therefore, it seems as if Buddhism rejects the existence of watching, just as so many contemporary philosophers and scientists reject the existence of qualia (e.g. Dennet, and most physicists); could this view of Buddhism be the influence of a single philosopher such as Nagarjuna?
I am aware that this is all free-styling speculative, but I have not stumbled on similar ideas or discussion elsewhere, and I welcome corrections and comments.
Comment: The problem is that it stands in the face of a key premise of such non-dualistic philosophies -- the identity among us and others.  If anything, it's this separate consciousness, this separate sense of self that we're trying to overcome.  Every other non-dualistic premise can be abandoned if we only focus on this one.
Comment: @R.Barzell, I don't understand what you are trying to say. Can you clarify?
Comment: Sure.  These philosophies are therapeutic and a key part of their therapy is overcoming the self/other distinction, which they site as the main cause of pain.  As such, any interpretation that would retain a self/other duality is antithetical to them and defeats the purpose.  In fact, given a choice, one would retain all other dualities and focus only on the self/other duality.  In fact, many treatments of these philosophies make a beeline for the self, as it's central, and leave other dualities alone.
Comment: @R.Barzell, I added a second paragraph to address that.
Comment: Interesting... would you mind developing that second paragraph?
Comment: @R.Barzell, done; would appreciate your opinion, since I actually don't know Buddhism well.
Comment: Much clearer -- thanks!  Your explanation is consistent with Hinduism, which tells us to identify with our consciousness itself rather than the objects of consciousness (which includes thoughts, feelings, identifications and so on -- things we think are us).  Your mention of Buddhism's parting is good as well.  Positions on watching in Buddhism vary, but I think your view represents one school of thought, so this works!

The paradox of oneness


Dell Dimension 4600i won't awaken from Suspend

Question: Dell Dimension 4600i with 1GB RAM. Installed Ubuntu 12.04 without difficulty. If left unattended, it appropriately goes to sleep and I can awaken it with a mouse gesture or keyboard press. However, if I use the Suspend command it sleeps and then will not awaken, forcing a hard reboot.
Pretty new install. Not many modifications from the stock distribution. I am new to Linux and would appreciate any direction someone can give.
Thanks.
Answer: Thanks to 2F4U on ubuntuforums.org, who got me pointed in the right direction. Google search for "how to install nvidia drivers in ubuntu" led me to
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia
I tried System Settings > Additional Drivers but it seemed the "Nvidia accelerated graphics driver (version 173) [Recommended]" was already installed. I instead activated the "Nvidia accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (version 173-updates)". This didn't change the behavior. Still wouldn't recover from suspend.
So, lower in the above page is a Suspend/Hibernation section. I followed the advice to edit xorg.conf and blacklist.conf and now I can recover from suspend.


How does a Manual tester become expert in automation testing in selenium?

Question: How does a manual tester become expert in automation testing in Selenium? Please also explain where to start and how to start. I am also not good in Java but I have  basic knowledge. I want to do selenium using Java
Comment: You need to become competent programmer. Recently research was published that learn programming in Python (or Ruby) is easier for beginners than Java, C# and other statically typed languages. Competent programmers do not have problems learning more languages, but that first one is harder. So I challenge your assumption that Java is best intro for beginner programmer like you. But of course, do whatever you want! Good luck! milinpatel17 answer is relevant, I would just suggest to start with Python.
Answer: Alan Richardson has a great beginner book called Selenium Simplified.
A good solid way to learn with code examples is to use his Udemy courses and then follow up with Java for Testers.
I had a background with PHP, JavaScript, and of course CSS and HTML before getting into Selenium.
Java isn't compiled with WebDriver, it's parsed.   There's a fundamental difference between how you'll use it and how a Java developer will, but you're still using object oriented code the same way.
When you're confident enough, there's a free book on many .edu websites called Thinking in Java.
Answer:
Set up a FirefoxDriver. It's the best supported driver and supports advanced features.
Automate a simple test such as opening a page and verifying the page contents. No form filling or JavaScript at this point!
Run the test to verify it's working. This is necessary for the next step. After every subsequent step (except committing) make sure all the tests still pass.
Make the test as specific as possible, in this case by finding the element closest to the text you're looking for and verifying its contents. Ideally, the element should only contain the exact string you're looking for.
Remove code duplication. Many developers skip this step, which usually ends up hiding the important logic in the tests in lots of inconsequential details. This makes tests harder to maintain, and global fixes more tedious to implement.
Abstract away details and internals. Done right, this gives actual business value by making the code readable to people with limited programming experience.
Commit to source control. With sensible commit messages you and other developers can learn from your mistakes and easily revert breaking changes when tests no longer run in the continuous integration system. When creating the test setup or doing heavy refactoring you might want to commit earlier in the process, but for pure test development this should be it.

At this point you have all the basics and can start using the API and Stack Overflow to do more advanced stuff like form filling and asynchronous JavaScript. Repeat step 2 onwards with the next most simple test and you're off.
Answer: To become an expert test automator using selenium and java a manual tester should do the following,

Learn java.
Learn selenium. What it does? How it does it?
Learn the limitations of selenium.
Get hands on practice with selenium.
Learn tips and tricks to use selenium effectively and efficiently.
Learn how to customize selenium to make it more suitable for one's needs.
Learn to understand what should be automated and what should be left to manual testing.
Please never stop thinking.

And I'm sure there is much more to this list, which other experts will add here!...
Happy learning :)
Answer: Although learning programming and web-testing with Selenium from scratch as an autodidact is totally possible.
I think you should find a team that does both manual and automated web-testing. Try to gather more experienced colleagues around you and work with them.
If finding a team is impossible due to lack of actual real life experience I suggest you follow an online training, for example: http://courses.compendiumdev.co.uk/course/selenium-2-webdriver-with-java (Disclaimer: I do not have any relation or experience with this course, just something I found which looked OK and affordable)
Answer: Great Answers, Adding few more pointers

With basic coding knowledge and design basics we will be curious to know selenium specific approach for (iterating tables, uploading files)
Selenium tips you should sign-up to understand know-how using Selenium. Identify to-do items for (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Often I have observed learning is useful when it comes with on-job tasks. Find opportunities in your job where you can use selenium to automate your manual steps. Try simple cases before targeting large workflows
Find a mentor, Its difficult to find all answers through SQA or other portals. You may not receive positive reply from industry experts for all your questions
There are lot of resources but consistent learning and reducing time for blockers becomes the key for quick learning. Keep learning it as a continuous task not just for your job related aspects
Seleniumtests.com, Try coding simple examples and start preparing your own script repository, Download, execute, modify scripts. I recommend Selenium Simplified book.
More Detailed Answer - Manual tester wanting to get into automation
Answer: The place to start is the Selenium IDE. This is a Firefox plugin that allows you to capture a sequence of interactions using the Firefox browser. Once you stop recording, you then store the recorded steps as a test case.
The Selenium IDE allows you to play back the test case that you recorded earlier. You will get a sequence of steps replaying in the log This will introduce you to some concepts of timing and state. You will find that you have to edit the Selenium test case to insert delays and wait for certain kinds of properties of the pages under test. For instance, when you click a button, you will need to wait for the new page to load and check that it loaded.
You will note that the Selenium IDE "programming language" is very limited, composed of just a series of command verbs and testing predicates. There is no looping, or any real conditionals. However, you can create some very useful tests with just this set of tools.
Selenium IDE allows you to organize your test cases into a test suite. This is a sequence of cases, each stored in its own file, that is referenced from the test suite file. You can then run the test suite file from the Selenium IDE.
With these steps mastered, you will have learned a number of important things about using Selenium: how to write tests that are repeatable, reliable and maintainable.
The next step is to use a plugin within Selenium IDE that will generate Java (or Ruby or Python or C#) code to invoke Selenium in several different test drivers. The resultant code can then be compiled and run under JUnit or TestNG and give you the same results as you got running under the Selenium plugin.
Now you have a base of working code that you can start to learn to modify, to add loops and conditionals and to begin the process of engineering your testing code to meet your other requirements. You can refactor parts into page testing patterns, link together tests, make your tests more sophisticated, all based on working, good code.
Comment: I believe Selenium Builder is favored over IDE, the IDE development will stop in +- a year. See http://sebuilder.github.io/se-builder/ and https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/selenium-developers/8_GULPxxxGs for more info.
Comment: That is good to know; I will investigate Builder when I can find more information about it. In the meantime, the original poster has a wealth of test code to work with from the IDE.


How to apply the Rule of Thirds with people?

Question: If the subject of the photo is a mother beside her child who just graduated in a graduation ceremony, how would I be able to apply the rule of thirds?
Answer: The rule of thirds is a very arbitrary guideline, and there's really nothing magical about it. In its original form, it suggests that whenever you have a line or area of color within a photo and something which divides that line or field, you should split it so one section is a third of the thing and the other the remaining two thirds. So, if your portrait has anything to split, do it that way.
Another more recent conception of the rule suggests that important elements be placed one third of the way into the photo, or even more particularly, a third of the way in both horizontally and vertically. That's also easy to apply in a number of ways: align one or both of your subjects in this way (often particularly their eyes).
When taken strictly, this rule is mostly wishful thinking and a sort of numerology. 1:2 is a very basic and strong integer ratio, but as with the golden ratio, there's no real indication that it is particularly more appealing than any other. I think most likely the only reason it's stuck around for so long is the catchy name. (And, indeed, it seems like its inventor, a small-time English landscape painter, dreamed of contributing a famous axiom which would make his name remembered. It's John Smith, for the record.) Art is hard and success seems arbitrary, and many people hope that there is a simple secret code to beauty, which when learned can guarantee results simply by formula. Like the equally dubious "golden ratio" and several less famous rules, the rule of thirds purports to give that — without much real basis. (See When should I break the rule of thirds?)
However, there is a useful kernel of truth: balanced, centered alignments tend to be more visually static, and it's usually more interesting to have dynamic balance. Putting your subject off center (and avoiding dividing areas evenly) can help with that. But, don't be too obsessed — putting a portrait subject in the center certainly isn't wrong in any way.
In your specific case of a two-person portrait, unless the mother and child are especially identical in appearance and dress, you are likely to have plenty going in terms of different visual weights. Rather than worrying specifically about numerical rules, when composing, be mindful of the balance between the two subjects and in how each fits into the frame overall. When it looks nice to you, it probably is — as long as you are paying attention and not just clicking.
Answer: Think of it as more of a principle than a rule - you don't have to abide by it but it generally works.
If your camera offers a grid overlay (select live-view if using a dSLR) try it out as the grid is commonly set to split the display up according to the Rule of Thirds. Try aligning your human subject(s) with the grid lines and see how "balanced" the image looks or feels. Aligning faces and feet to the grid crossing points would be a possible starting point...
Comment: "Aligning faces and feet to the grid crossing points" would likely lead to very small people in a very large background!
Comment: Not if you shoot in portrait format, which lends itself nicely to vertical people - and I did suggest it as a *possible starting* point for someone wanting to know about applying the rule of thirds...