At prayer time, when reading the Kuran, can Shaitan misguide me?

Question: When I read the Quran, negative thoughts are produced in my mind about parents. Then I feel guilty, but this thought is not going away. What can I do according Qur'an and sunnah?
Can Shaitan trick me to misguide me?
Comment: Salam and welcome to Islam SE the Q&A site about Islam. To make yourself familiar with our site and model I strongly recommend you to take our [tour] and check our [help].
Answer: Yes, Shaitan is always there to look for an opportunity to do or let us do something evil and leave good deeds and do bad deeds, as this hadith seems to indicate:

when Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was in the company of one of his wives a person happened to pass by them. He called him and when he came, he said to him:
0 so and so, she was my such and such wife. Thereupon he said, Allah's Messenger, if I were to doubt at all, I would have entertained no doubt about you at least. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: Verily Satan circulates in the body like blood. (see for example in sahih Muslim)

The hadith therefore compares the action of a-Shaitan with the circulation of blood.
Of course if he could hinder us from worshiping Allah () he would come much closer to his goal and therefore he tries with all his might to whisper and to convince us not to pray on time etc. as this hadith seems to say:

"When the Adhan is pronounced Satan takes to his heels and passes wind with noise during his flight in order not to hear the Adhan. When the Adhan is completed he comes back and again takes to his heels when the Iqama is pronounced and after its completion he returns again till he whispers into the heart of the person (to divert his attention from his prayer) and makes him remember things which he does not recall to his mind before the prayer and that causes him to forget how much he has prayed." (See for example in sahih al-Bukhari)

But Allah taught us what to do in the Qur'an:

And if there comes to you from Satan an evil suggestion, then seek refuge in Allah . Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing. (41:36)

This is the same which our Prophet () has been teaching: When some of the sahaba had an issue as he felt like Satan intervenes between him and his prayer and worship and he makes him feel confound or screw up his recitation while in prayer. The Messenger of Allah told him the name of this specific Shaitan and gave him advice on how to get shot of him:

Allah's Messenger, the Satan intervenes between me and my prayer and my reciting of the Qur'an and he confounds me. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:, That is (the doing of a) Satan (devil) who is known as Khinzab, and when you perceive its effect, seek refuge with Allah from it and spit three times to your left. I did that and Allah dispelled that from me. (See in sahih Muslim)

Therefore some madhhabs allow it to start the recitation while praying with "I seek refuge with Allah from Shaitan".


Saving for retirement without employer sponsored plan

Question: I'm considering moving to a new job that doesn't have any sponsored retirement plans.  I'd like to continue saving on my own though, but it seems that IRAs have a $5,000 contribution limits.  What are some other options to save in addition to an IRA?  I'm not interested in the obvious "put more into your bank savings account," I'm looking for options fairly close to an IRA (trading stocks on etrade also out) to save more.  Also, would contributions to the 401k prior to rolling into an IRA count against the contribution limit to the IRA?
Comment: IRA is a type of account not an investment in itself. A mutual fund is an investment that can be in various kinds of accounts.
Comment: Warning: If you had a job with a 401K this year, it can impact your ability to deduct IRA contributions for all of 2014. It doesn't mater if you participated or not, just that the employer offered you a plan.
Comment: A minor correction: the IRA contribution limit is $5500 for 2014 (was for 2013 too). And as to your last question, no, 401(k) rollovers do not count against your IRA contribution limit.
Comment: You may be able to convince an employer to start a [SIMPLE IRA](http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Plan-Sponsor/SIMPLE-IRA-Plan), as its overhead and paperwork are significantly reduced compared to those of a 401(k).
Comment: That's true, but an IRA is geared toward retirement savings which a mutual fund is not.  I'm looking for ways to geared to save for retirement, not general investment.
Comment: Vanguard will still give you a taxable account that you can use to invest in their mutual funds (or ETFs) suitable to retirement.
Answer:
I'm looking for ways to geared to save for retirement, not general investment.

Many mutual fund companies offer a range of target retirement funds for different retirement dates (usually in increments of 5 years). These are funds of funds, that is, a Target 2040 Fund, say, will be invested in five or six different stock and bond mutual funds offered by the same company. Over the years and as the target date approaches closer, the investment mix will change from extra weight given to stock mutual funds towards extra weight being given to bond mutual funds.
The disadvantage to these funds is that the Target Fund charges its own expense ratio over and above the expense ratios charged by the mutual funds it invests in: you could do the same investments yourself (or pick your own mix and weighting
of various funds) and save the extra expense ratio. However, over the years,
as the Target Fund changes its mix, withdrawing money from the stock mutual funds and investing the proceeds into bond mutual funds, you do not have to pay taxes
on the profits generated by these transactions except insofar as some part
of the profits become distributions from the Target Fund itself. If you were
doing the same transactions outside the Target Fund, you would be liable
for taxes on the profits when you withdrew money from a stock fund and
invested the proceeds into the bond fund.
Answer: Variable Annuities would be one option though there are SEC warnings about them, for an option that is tax-deferred and intended to be used for long-term investing such as retirement. There is a bit of a cost to gain the tax-deferral which may not always make them worthwhile.
Comment: Between the variety of fees, the cost can exceed 3% per year, quite an expense to defer taxes. They say annuities are sold, not bought, this may be why. Readers should also be aware that this is an insurance product, not regulated the same as securities. The disclosure is weak, at best.
Comment: Pardon the shameless plug, but [this answer](http://money.stackexchange.com/a/22053/7590) might be helpful too. I'm a bit of a stickler about variable annuities, so I tried to summarize the SEC information as much as possible.
Answer: You might consider working on getting your new employer to sponsor a 401k, there may be options where you can invest and they aren't required to add anything as a match (which gives you higher limits). If they don't match, they may just be liable for some administration fees.
If you have any side business that you do, you might also be eligible for other "self-employed" options that have higher limits (SEP, Simple - I think they may go up to $15k) although, I'm not sure the nitty gritties of them.


Question regarding font selection

Question: I am searching for many days answers regarding font selection and until this point I have found nothing, not only in our main site but generally. I asked a question in the main site a few days earlier but while the answer was helpful I was confused even more while searching trying to understand it. As this is I believe an elementary question I am not really sure if it is a good fit for the main site so I want your opinion if I should post it there. My question is how to change the font in a document. What should I take care of? Should I take care of its math aspects? What about its sans aspects? Should I check if the font supports all the above? What are the correct code lines to insert the new font? Should I download it and save it somewhere particularly?
Answer: Very nice of you to raise this issue. Unlike the general mantra in SO, in TeX-SX, elementary questions are also valuable for newcomers to TeX. Because these questions help to isolate the beginner confusions or similar problems. You might experience some do your research type weirdness potentially but with some patience it usually goes OK, if you can keep your cool with such users.
Having said that, you have to avoid the duplicate questions which is your part of the deal. A new font question in particular depends completely on the document class (which goes into <code>\documentclass{}</code> the packages you are trying to use (any font packages or are you trying to use a system font such as Verdana, Comic Sans, Ubuntu, Windows fonts and so on) and the compilation chain LuaTeX? XeLaTeX? and most importantly why you want to do this.
Often users ask a question about problem X to solve the problem Y which is called an XY problem. If you instead can describe problem X properly and avoid duplicates then fire your questions as many as you like.
Comment: You are absolutely right and that was one of the reasons I posted in meta as I thought that if there were some questions already, people would point them out. From my search there is no complete question posted but generally I am not pretty sure how to form the question itself so to get useful answers,

Question regarding font selection


How well, if at all, does Oracle NoSQL database integrate with Oracle RDBMS?

Question: I currently have an application which runs on Oracle RDBMS and an area of new functionality which would be better supported by a NoSQL store.  I am wondering if Oracle NoSQL Database may be a good place to store this information and more concretely, can a single query span Oracle NoSQL and Oracle RDBMS.
Comment: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/NOSQL/html/javadoc/oracle/kv/exttab/package-summary.html "This package contains the public API and Utilities for accessing Oracle NoSQL Database data through Oracle Database External Tables." - That's the only thing I can find as far as integration between the two, and doesn't look very "sexy" (EE only too). But I'm not familiar with the product.
Answer: Oracle NoSQL Database integrates well with the Oracle database.  You can run an SQL query in Oracle Database that can reference data in the Oracle database as well as NoSQL Database.
Please see the Oracle NoSQL Database documentation for more details on external tables support.
You can also get an overview of the latest release here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2n1QhIprQ
I'd suggest that you also post your questions relating to Oracle NoSQL Database to the OTN forum: https://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=1388.  We monitor the forums regularly...
Happy Holidays.
Ashok Joshi
Senior Director, Oracle NoSQL Database development
Answer: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/NOSQL/html/GettingStartedGuide/introduction.html
"To make use of Oracle NoSQL Database, code must be written (using Java or C) that runs on the application server....The requests are made using the Oracle NoSQL Database Driver, which is linked into your application as a Java library"
So, I believe the answer is no with the exception of possibly the way Mat pointed out in the comments section


Which book do I buy to get "New World of Darkness Core 2nd edition"?

Question: I've been looking through drivethrurpg.com for quite some time now. I've seen Vampire: The Requiem 2nd edition, The God Machine Chronicle, etc. But it's difficult to determine which book is the definitive New World of Darkness Core 2nd Edition.
Answer: What you're looking for is the Chronicles of Darkness core rulebook, released in advance form in mid-December 2015 to commemorate the rebranding of the nWoD lines. You can acquire it at DriveThruRPG here.
Answer: Currently is the only book out that is solely the new rules without any splat is: World of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle which is just an upgrade / translation guide towards the nwod 2nd edition.
As Nyoze has pointed out the "true" 2nd edition nwod book is currently still unreleased but will come out. So far there has been no info if it will contain exactly the same infos as the god machine chronicles or if some things will get tweaked inside of it.
Additionally EVERY book released so far for the god machine chronicles / 2nd edition nwod have had most parts of the god machine chronicle upgrade rules included in them. If this will stay so AFTER the 2nd edition book has been released is to be seen.
So current status is: 1st edition world of darkness rulebook + god machine chronicles upgrade are the current rulebook. Then soon to follow is the 2nd edition rulebook itself which will replace that.
Answer: It hasn't been released yet
While you can use the updated rules contained within Vampire: The Requiem 2e, and other updated 2e products, the Second Edition Core nWoD rulebook is currently slated for release in the Northern Hemisphere's Summer of 2015.
Check out the publisher's website at The Onyx Path for more information.
Comment: Does this need updating?
Comment: I've changed the answer that is marked as "THE" answer. I'm guessing that Onyx Path was secretly making changes to keep up-to-date with the buyout of White Wolf.


Hitting the clock without moving

Question: In an official blitz game, what happens if a player hits a chess clock without making a move? I believe that making an illegal move in a blitz game is an automatic loss. But does this count as an illegal move because my opponent didn't really make a move?
Answer: You can only make an illegal move by making a move. Pressing the clock without moving is not making a move. So the arbiter can't use that rule to make a decision.
There is FIDE rule 6.13 (chapter 6 is about the clock): "If an irregularity occurs and/or the pieces have to be restored to a previous position, the arbiter shall use his best judgement to determine the times to be shown on the clocks. He shall also, if necessary, adjust the clock's move counter."
So the arbiter can use his best judgement to reinstate the correct clock times. This is of course unfortunate (it's hard to stay concentrated for the players, especially the innocent player), but the arbiter can't just invent rules.
If this happens regularly (the player is doing this on purpose), there is always article 12.8: "Persistent refusal by a player to comply with the Laws of Chess shall be penalised by loss of the game. The arbiter shall decide the score of the opponent."
Comment: The FIDE rules go to great pains to define when a move is "made" and when it is "completed". The entire article 4.6 defines when a move is "made", and once it's made, article 3 is used to decide whether it's legal or not. The rules that say a game is lost when an illegal move was made refer to this precise meaning. Passing is not making a move, obviously because the concept doesn't exist in chess, but specifically because it's not listed in article 4.6. The arbiter can't just make up rules.
Comment: "You can only make an illegal move by making a move" I would have to disagree... Passing is a move, as if to say "in this turn I choose to do nothing, thereby giving the turn to my opponent". In chess, passing is not allowed, so technically I would say that is an illegal move. Of course that puts us in the realm of hair-splitting about the interpretation of words and rules. In short, it is correct that the ultimate resolution depends on the arbiter, but the illegal move rule cannot be discarded.
Comment: Although neither article 3 nor article 4 make any mention of the clock, I agree with your assessment.  Article 6 deals directly with the issue of the clocks, and states, "If an irregularity occurs and/or the pieces have to be restored to a previous position, the arbiter shall use his best judgement to determine the times to be shown on the clocks. He shall also, if necessary, adjust the clock's move counter."  (Article 6.13)
Comment: The circumstance described by OP would be described as an irregularity as a consequence of Article 6.7 which also supports your assertion, "During the game each player, **having made his move on the chessboard**, shall stop his own clock and start his opponent's clock. "
Answer: The rules changed in 2017 to make this an illegal move. Article 7.5 of FIDE Laws of Chess talk about illegal moves, and now Article 7.5.3 mentions this exact case:

7.5.3 If the player presses the clock without making a move, it shall be considered and penalized as if an illegal move.
Answer: Per E.I.01B. Appendices - B.3/c

An illegal move is completed once the opponent's clock has been started. The opponent is entitled to claim a win before he has made his own move. However, if the opponent cannot checkmate the player's king by any possible series of legal moves, then the claimant is entitled to claim a draw before he has made his own move. Once the opponent has made his own move, an illegal move cannot be corrected unless mutually agreed without intervention of an arbiter.
Answer: There have been recent (1/1/2018) changes to FIDE's rules that relate to this question.
Previously, in blitz/rapid a player making an illegal move would instantly lose the game.
However, January 1, 2018 revisions to FIDE Laws of Chess acted "to equalize the rules for classical chess on the one hand, and rapid and blitz on the other, with regard to the penalty for making an illegal move."

Before, in both rapid or blitz an "illegal move" (which includes moving with two hands, or not making a move and pressing the clock) would instantly lose the game in case the arbiter intervened or the opponent stopped the clock. Now, in the first instance it will lead to a time penalty and only if a player does it again, he or she loses—just like in classical chess.

Source for quotes on 1/1/2018 change: Peter Doggers, "New FIDE Laws Of Chess For Blitz, Rapid Still Not Perfect," Chess.com, January 3, 2018.
Answer: You are correct in saying that in blitz, an illegal move loses the game. In this case, an illegal move is made because your opponent did not move. Hence, if you correctly stop the clock and make a claim to the tournament director, you win the game.
I feel that this would have to be intentional though. I'm not sure what would happen if your opponent accidentally brushed the clock or something. I suppose the decision would be left up to the arbiter.

Hitting the clock without moving


Can't use util/delay.h on c++ in Avrstudio v6

Question: I'm just new with microcontrollers and I'm hoping someone could help me understand this. I'm using an AVRStudio 6 and an AVRDragon. Watched some tutorials on basic programming.
Here's the code:
<code>#include <util/delay.h>
int main(void) {
    _delay_ms(30);
}
</code>
What I can't understand is when I made a new avrgcc c project it works well. But as a c++ fan, I made a new project using avrgcc c++ and the code won't work.
The error message is as follows:
<code>2. 'fabs' was not declared in this scope
3. 'ceil' was not declared in this scope
4. 'fabs' was not declared in this scope
5. 'ceil' was no declared in this scope
</code>
I tried those codes  in my avrsudio v6 by avrgcc c++ program and the warning #1 goes away but the other 4 warnings are still there? If I use avrgcc c there are no problems.
What must I do so I could do this with avrgcc c++?
Can anyone help me understands whats going on?
Thanks a lot guys!
Answer: According to this link:
www.avrfreaks.net/comment/683718#comment-683718
I added :
<code>#include <math.h>
</code>
to the delay.h file header, and this erro fixed.
Thanks www.avrfreaks.net


How do I snake this tub drain?

Question: I have a Trip Lever Plunger Style Stopper. I removed the faceplate and there was no plunger attached to it or in the pipe, and it seems like the stopper closed. Why i say this is because when we insert a snake or grabber it just comes up through the overflow/ faceplate. I thought i got it to go past that hole but then it hits something solid and wont keep going. When i insert the snake or hair grabber through the faceplate it his something solid and wont move. I have no access panel. How can I snake this drain?
Comment: The stopper is apparently lodged in the vertical pipe that is the continuation of the overflow, but below where the horizontal drain comes in. If you can't snag it with something and pull it up to reattach a connecting rod or chain, you will need to cut yourself an access to the piping from behind or below.
Comment: To retrieve the disconnected portion of the linkage, you can try using a coat-hanger with a small u-shaped bend on the end. Good luck.
Comment: I dont think it in there lol
Answer: You'll need a different tool to get the plunger and/or linkage - your drain snake would be unlikely to get it. You might have one of these grabber tools somewhere in the house, and it would be worth trying it (down the access plate opening, so it's got a straight shot at the plug.) If that fails, you're probably near the tipping point where calling a plumber might be quicker and cheaper than continued DIY.

How do I snake this tub drain?


"Derivative" and "asset-backed security": Same concept, or related?

Question: Derivative and asset-backed security seem to be similar, as both are based on some other assets. So I wonder if they are the same concept?
Answer: The typical distinction between a derivative and an asset-backed security is that a derivative is not direct ownership in anything, but rather is a contract who's value is derived from another security (typical examples are options and futures), whereas ABS represents a (partial) ownership stake in some real asset (such as credit card loans, mortgages, etc.).
Where this gets confusing is with collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).  Technically, ordinary CDOs are not derivatives.  Their value is not derived from the assets they own, their value is the assets.  The similar-sounding term, CDS (credit default swap), however, is a derivative.  Some banks eventually went so far as to make CDOs of CDSs, which, confusingly enough, are derivatives.
Derivatives and ABS are only related insofar as they are both complex financial products, and both played leading roles in the 2008 crisis.
Comment: > Some banks eventually went so far as to make CDOs of CDSs -- Synthetic CDOs
Answer: Without getting too deep into this, let me offer one distinction.
A Billion Dollars worth of asset backed securities need to have a billion dollars of assets behind then, it's a one for one correlation.
For derivatives, the same observation fails. It's said that there is well over a Quadrillion $$ of derivatives out there. In other words, even though the value of a derivative is based on something else, it's not a fixed ratio. Which is what exacerbated the CDO/CMO issue a few years back.
Answer: Just use english, derivatives are simply anything derived from an something else.
Derive means "Base a concept on a logical extension or modification of another concept."
so in this case, anything that is derived from an actual asset is a derivative.
you can have derivatives of derivatives, and so on.
"Asset Backed Security" was just a distinction created to describe some newly securitized things. But one would hope that all securities are backed some kind of asset.
Answer: Just to put things into perspective, I can create a legal derivative based on the following and many more imaginative conditions:
whether it will rain(or any vagaries of weather) or not in Georgia during the next year
whether Obama will win next year's presidential election
whether US will run a deficit of electricity in the next 10 years
best of all, whether oil prices will cross th $150 mark in the next week
I don't hold a single grain of asset, but I can create a derivative and have to find somebody to buy my option. The search of a buyer is the difficult part, but it isn't that you wouldn't be able to find one.


Landing strip in a besieged town on the eastern front

Question: A rather vague question, but I seem to recall a documentary mentioning the construction of a landing strip in a besieged town. More specifically, located in a town occupied by the Axis powers and surrounded by Soviet troops. Apparently the strip was constructed for the escape of an officer at the costs of thousands of lives. In the end it was never used.
Was such a landing strip ever constructed?
Comment: Welcome to History.SE, Levon! Please take the [tour] and read the [help]. This *is* quite vague. From where do you remember it? What has your research shown you so far? Where have you already searched? Please help us to help you. You may improve your question to better comply with site guidelines with an [edit] and the help of [ask]. Thanks!
Answer: The besieged town in question is most probably Breslau, and the officer in question is most probably Karl Hanke, who was governor (Gauleiter) during the Siege of Breslau.
The English Wikipedia is a bit slim on this matter, however, the German articles, states that after the loss of the last air field, the defending general, Hermann Niehoff, ordered an airstrip to be constructed within the city of 300 by 1000 meters. The German article on the Siege of Breslau goes on, that the airstrip did not make a difference, and it was said, that the Gauleiter's plane was the only one that started from this air strip.
Sorry for the rather slim sources, however, there may be people with a deeper knowledge of the Siege of Breslau, who might be able to provide better sources for this specific episode, i.e. the landing strip being constructed by demolishing builings within the city.
Comment: You might use [these](http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1956_4_4_konrad.pdf) and [other](http://www.tenhumbergreinhard.de/taeter-und-mitlaeufer/kampf-um-breslau.html) and a [newspaper](https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article140546933/Hitlers-Gauleiter-feierte-Partys-bevor-er-floh.html)
Comment: Thank you, that must be it. Still not sure which documentary mentioned it, possibly a netflix offering. Peculiarly, though I used the some of the keywords used in the English entry on Breslau, the article never popped up in Google.
Comment: I heard about this episode, I think, in various documentaries, as it highlights the fanatism and the futility with regard to the defense from the Soviets on the Eastern Front as it was approaching and entering the Reich.


Exporting to foreign country and patent infringement

Question: If a US company has patent on a product in the US, but not a foreign patent, can another US company manufacture a same product in the US but legally export it and sell in foreign country?
Answer: No, that's infringement. See 35 USC 271:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.
(b) Whoever actively induces infringement of a patent shall be liable as an infringer.
(c) Whoever offers to sell or sells within the United States or imports into the United States a component of a patented machine, manufacture, combination or composition, or a material or apparatus for use in practicing a patented process, constituting a material part of the invention, knowing the same to be especially made or especially adapted for use in an infringement of such patent, and not a staple article or commodity of commerce suitable for substantial noninfringing use, shall be liable as a contributory infringer.


What RAID controller for ESXi 4 on Optiplex 330

Question: What HW RAID controller to use with Dell Optiplex 330 running vmware esxi 4? I found e.g Adaptec RAID 2405 is ESXi 4 compatible but I'm not sure whether it will work in PCIe 16x slot as I red sometimes desktop PCIe are "graphic card only". Thanks
Answer: I'm afraid it'll be a futile search. ESXi is not certified to run on desktops. You'll be much better off if you find a used PowerEdge or Proliant server on Craigslist (thanks to the recession, there are plenty of those being sold by companies going out of business).
Answer: I've never heard of Desktop PCI-E slots being "graphics only". We've got some "servers" at work that are built with desktop boards, and we've put Adaptect cards into them with no issues.
You can pick up a cheap server, I've got a Proliant ML 115 G5 (Quad core Opteron at 2.1GHz, 4GB ECC DDR2), which I bought a year ago for £200 total. With a decent controller (like Adaptec), it could be a nice little virtualisation box.
Answer: "I red sometimes desktop PCIe are "graphic card only"."
Yes that has happened to me before.
I have a 3ware 9690SA in a Dell Optiplex 330 right now just to test.  I works but only uses 1 pcie lane.  I have 2, 15k.5 Seagate SAS drives in RAID 0 and it moves about 200MB per second.
Answer: See this list it might help:
http://vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php#Storage


Value of LEGO bulk

Question: I am interested in purchasing some LEGO from someone who is selling a bulk of 50, 000 bricks weighing about 90lbs. This includes about 150 mini figs, the manuals ( about 100 or so) and some baseplate.  The seller is asking for $850 and I am wondering if this sounds like a good price to pay.
Answer: Bulk unsorted LEGO shouldn't cost more than $5-$6 a pound. (Please note that this is for the US.) This DOES NOT include instructions. If the seller wants more, they will have to sort and categorize the elements and minifigs themselves, so buyers can evaluate them better. NEVER allow a seller to include the instructions in the total weight of bulk lots. They are very heavy, worth practically nothing (except for a few expensive sets) and can make you offer more for the lot than it's actually worth.
Comment: Just wanted to amplify the point about instructions: Except for very specific instruction sets they should absolutely NEVER be considered as part of a bulk purchase.
Answer: Nope. Unless they are very valuable parts. I would not pay more than 600. However, it's important to research what figures and sets/parts are in the bins. It may actually be worth that much, but I would definitely research it first. I once bought just under 80 lb of lego for $230 USD. It took many hours to go through, but once all was said and done, I had pulled out almost $400 worth of Harry Potter figures, 100$ of valuable pieces, and still had about 40 lb left over. This is why it's very important to know what you're buying. It could be worth a lot, or it could be someone trying to rip you off.
Comment: What are some examples of mini figs that have a high value?
Comment: Star Wars, Harry Potter, most figures from movie franchises. Essentially most figures from themes that are licensed products tend to me most valuable. Check out BrickLink to research exact value of certain figures.
Answer: That is probably too much, but the value of used LEGO also depends on some things we don't know, like:

What is the condition of the pieces (many/few scratches)?
Is (any of) the previous owner(s) smokers?
What's in the lot? If 80 lbs of it is red 2x4 bricks I wouldn't pay a cent.

(And note that I live in Denmark, not the US, so amounts in $ don't have a precise enough meaning to me, I had to calculate what $850 was before I could say if that was high/low/appropriate).

Value of LEGO bulk


Plastics and Cotton

Question: Plastics melt on heating and Cotton burns.
When do substances burn with flame? Should they always contain volatile compounds for them to create the Flame?
Answer: Your generalisation about plastics is too simple. And volatile components are not required for flames to exist.
Many plastics don't burn at all easily. Bakelite, many epoxy resins or kevlar, for example, neither burn easily or melt. PVC melts but doesn't easily burn. Polyethylene and polystyrene both melt and burn.
Flames are created by gas-phase oxidation reactions (at least in air, even more things will burn in fluorine but you don't see that happening very often as not many labs or kitchens have access to fluorine). But plenty of things containing no volatile components can be made to burn with flames.
Coke or charcoal, for example, are mostly carbon but can be burned and, when burning, will have flames. But those flames are not made by volatilising components of the substance but consist of the burning of partial oxidation products (often carbon monoxide) created by surface reactions on the solid. The purer the carbon the fewer the number of volatile components but once the reaction has started, there is enough energy to keep the solid reacting directly with oxygen to generate gaseous volatiles like CO.
Candles, unlike coal, are made from mixtures of long chain hydrocarbons. These can be volatilised by moderate heat and will then burn in air as gases. This is why candles are easy to light compared to coal and also why they contain a wick which both starts the reaction and acts to wick the liquified hydrocarbons into the hotter zones of the flame where they can be vaporised and burned.
So while flames require volatile components, they can come from partial reactions in the substance and don't have to be present before the fire starts.
Answer: Burning is the result of a redox reaction between some sort of fuel source and oxygen in the air. Since cotton is a loosely packed substance, there is a lot of surface area for oxygen to react with it. In addition, cotton is mostly made up of cellulose, a compound that readily burns at low temperatures. On the other hand, plastics are made up of large hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are fuel sources; however, larger hydrocarbons require more energy to start combustion. Plastic should burn exothermically, but the energy required to start the process is too large for it to be ignited by a flame.

Plastics and Cotton


Is it proper to refer to objects beyond Neptune as "Kuiper Belt Objects?"

Question: It seems to me that nowadays the more proper term is "Trans-Neptunian Object".  Is there any difference between Kuiper Belt Objects and Trans-Neptunian Objects?  If not, is one term preferred over the other?
Answer: Yes there is a difference, Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are a subset of Trans Neptunian Objects (TNOs). Other subsets are Oort-cloud objects (OCOs) and scattered disk objects (SDOs). These are not KBOs but they are TNOs. See for instance this wikipedia page.
Answer: So to refer to objects beyond Neptune you use 'trans-Neptunian objects'. It really sounds simple, there are several sub-sets of trans-Neptunian objects: referring to minor-planets (neither Planets nor comets) that exist in this region of the Solar System.


leaving the rear defroster on constantly

Question: So the front defroster of my vehicle seems to work by blowing air up at the window. The rear defroster seems to work having a bunch of wires that run the length of the window. My question is...  would there be any harm in just leaving the rear defroster on constantly?
Answer: Well, there are some downsides. First, most cars turn it off automatically so the manufacturer doesn't think you should leave it on all the time. The way the defroster works, it's a grid of thin conductive silver ceramic lines that are painted onto the rear window, before being baked on at high heat. In operation it is a high current device that on average heats to roughly 85°F (29°C). Something that draws a lot of current all the time is going to put a strain on your alternator and potentially your lights will dim at low RPMs as the voltage sags from the load. I would not recommend letting it run all the time as that defroster is placing a lot of unneeded load on your electrical system, and the defroster itself. If it's too warm, the unit may wear out a lot faster than it would otherwise. It wasn't designed to be run all the time, hence the auto shutoff, so I wouldn't force it.
Hope that helps!
Comment: The alternator will be spec' to be able to power all the cars electrics permenantly, if it is under strain, then there has been a design fault.  Cars since at least the mid 80s adjust the engine idle speed to compensate for load on the alternator.
Answer: I've seen GMs that burn up/melt the passenger side relay block/trunk fuse panel. Due to the rear defroster being run constantly.
Answer: If you leave it on while the engine is not running, then you will quickly flatten the battery. Other than that, it will do no harm leaving it on.
It will of course cause a small increase in fuel consumption.
Comment: @neubert If the ignition is on, the heater will work, even if the engine is not running.
Comment: I wouldn't imagine the defroster would run when the car was off? Lights do but I think that's the exception rather than the rule. Like I don't think even cigarette lighters work when the car is off?


What role do values have in science according to Popper?

Question: I have read a lot about Popper but I still can not answer.
What is the role of values in Popper's philosophy? What role do they have in science according to Popper?
Comment: Hello and welcome to philosophy.SE! What do you mean by 'values', do you mean ethical values?
Comment: It may be helpful to add some references to specific sections you are having difficulty with.
Comment: @PV22 Was reading a chapter named Popper: Conjecture and refutation and quite didnt understand how he interprets scientific values, but I think I got my answer. Thank you :)
Comment: It is weird that someone who took a hard line against objectivity in values proposes something that is basically a value judgement against non-falsifiable science.
Answer: Popper followed logical positivists (despite arguing with them on other issues) in separating "statements of empirical science from non-empirical statements", the so-called demarcation. Therefore values, being non-empirical, do not enter the science proper, and after Kuhn Popper fiercely resisted all postmodernistic claims to the contrary. But positivists also took the demarcation to imply the fact-value dichotomy, with values being subjective and emotive, expressing individual attitudes and feelings, not anything objective or factual. Since Popper himself advocated for certain political and social values, more or less those of Western liberal democracy, e.g. in The Open Society and Its Enemies, this positivist dismissal of ethics and metaphysics was not suitable for him. He was more circumspect and softened the fact-value dichotomy and its consequences in his theory of three worlds. Here is a brief description from Germino's The Fact-Value Dichotomy as an Intellectual Prison:

"As described by Sir John Eccles, who follows Popper in endorsing  the third-world construction, "World 1" represents  physical  objects and states; it is the "total world of  the materialists." "World 2" consists of states of consciousness and subjective knowledge. "World 3" represents the "whole world of culture," or knowledge in the "objective sense". For both Eccles and Popper there is a reality resulting from the interaction of objectivity and subjectivity which is not explainable by the  fact-value dichotomy. Popper calls the third world the realm of  "epistemology without a knowing subject.
Not surprisingly, Popper attempts to positivitize, as it were, the contents of his third world, calling it the realm of "objective knowledge."  In this way, World 3 can fall mainly on the positive side of the line of demarcation and count as something empirical and objective, even though it perforce contains elements of subjectivity. Thus, even "poetic thoughts and works of art" are subsumed  under World 3, which  comprises  the "world of objective contents
  of thought."

The third world is supposed to be made by humans, but transcend its makers, express subjective and historical developments, but through objective content. It is unclear how well Popper managed to square this circle:

"Popperian man is pictured as "facing" a phenomenal reality external to him upon which he projects his "values" and in interaction with which he creates a "third world" of culture  or "objective  knowledge." Thus, he describes his third world as a  "man-made product... In Objective Knowledge Popper even cites the very Plato he had so mercilessly savaged in his open society book as the philosopher who, for all his "essentialist" errors, might lead us
  back to a language of the reality not accounted for in the language of values. Struggle as he does, however, Popper cannot bring himself to break through and reenact within himself Plato's experience of the reality of human existence in the Metaxy or the "Between".
For all his attempts at revising the inadequacies of the fact-value language, Popper's man remains "facing" the reduced "reality" of the neopositivists. All he has accomplished is to have added a realm of cultural "facts" (in the creation of which his Pelagian-like individuals have had a share through their self-conscious interaction with the physical world and with the realm of "objective" knowledge) to the physical "facts" of the positivists."

The difficulties Popper faced are not unique to him, and have to be dealt with by all philosophers who favor naturalism. Naturalistic picture of the world ostensibly makes ethical values illusory and moralistic explanations redundant. Thus, unless they accept eliminativism about values, they must look for the Metaxy, the middle ground from Plato's Symposium, a place for values that is not supernatural, like Plato's  reified Highest Good.
More recently, McDowell attempted another such Metaxy in his idea of man-dependent, but non-subjective, "second nature" (borrowed from Aristotle), which is somewhat reminiscent of Popper's "third world", but far more elaborate. Still, McDowell's "second nature" faces similar objections and criticisms, see Bransen's On the Incompleteness of McDowell's Moral Realism.
Comment: According to Popper, the world of minds belongs to the second world, and the cumulative world of human intelligence (like library or stackExchange) belongs to the third world. The first world is the brute physical world.
Comment: @AlexanderSKing "Intersubjectivity" still has subjectivity in it, the third world was introduced to escape social psychologism about knowledge as well as individual one. The "objectivity" of the third world was supposed to insulate it (and science in particular) from what we would call cultural relativism. This is a tough path to walk without semantic Platonism a la Frege. Even Husserl, another leading anti-psychologist, was accused of falling into psychologism with his phenomenological essences.
Comment: How is Popper's 3rd world different from intersubjectivity?
Comment: Great reply, Conifold. Of course, a lot of this becomes more muddled if we think that the first-world is also the world of mind.
Answer: Popper explains the role of values in science in "The World of Parmenides" Essay 2 Addendum 2. Popper points out that there are no authoritative sources of knowledge: everyone makes mistakes including scientists. Scientists should look out for their own mistakes, and the mistakes of others. They should should be grateful when mistakes are pointed out and should never cover up mistakes. the alternative to such conduct is to keep making the same mistakes repeatedly, which is not a good idea.
One of the other answers sez stuff about the fact-value dichotomy: the idea that you can't derive moral ideas from facts. But Popper's epistemology sez you can't derive any theory from facts. Rather, all theories are created by proposing solutions to problems guesses and controlling them by criticism. So the fact that you can't derive moral theories from facts is irrelevant to their status since it doesn't distinguish moral knowledge from any other kind of knowledge. See "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch, Chapter 5 for a discussion of this issue.


How to get the time consumption for different Publish Transaction states

Question: Is there a way to capture the time consumption of Publish Transaction  states like rendering,resolving,WaitingForDeployment....
Answer: The easiest way to get a rough idea of these times is to double click on the publish transaction in the publishing queue. That will bring you to a view like this:

As you can see, there is a start and finish time listed for each stage of publishing, down to the second. Often times this is enough to find publishing bottlenecks if they're on the scale of seconds or minutes.
If you require more detail than is provided here you would have to go to the logs Tridion generates, such as the transport or deployer log, depending on the phase you are specifically interested in.
To dig into the publishing time of the rendering phase specifically you could try something like Damian Jewett suggests at Tridion Developer: http://www.tridiondeveloper.com/timing-templates-with-a-stopwatch
Comment: Hi Brine Thanks for the response... can we capture Transaction TCM URI in Customresolver ?
Answer: You can implement a Event System to measure some of the parameters like RenderTime.
Second thing, the ScheduledForPublish, WaitingForPublish, ScheduledForDeployment, WaitingForDeployment, Resolving, Rendering are various states of a Publish Transaction.
So hook up into and handle the state change events ( Use the SaveEventArgs, SetPublishStateEventArgs class in Tridion.ContentManager.Extensibility.Events namespace) to  measure the timings of PUBLISH TRANSACTION States
I Think EventPhases.Processed will be the best phase to get more accurate timings of state changes.
Sample I:
this.EventSystem.Subscribe<PublishTransaction, SaveEventArgs>
(this.RecordStateChangeTimings, EventPhases.Processed);

private void RecordStateChangeTimings(PublishTransaction transaction,
        SaveEventArgs args, EventPhases phases)
 {
  using (StreamWriter writer = File.CreateText(@"C:\PublishStateData.txt"))
   {
     writer.WriteLine("State" + transaction.State);
     writer.WriteLine("StateChangeTime" + transaction.StateChangeDateTime);
     writer.Close();
    }
 }

Below is the TOM.NET API description of the transaction properties used above:
Lastly, you may check the SetPublishStateEventArgs class as well and do something like below in the Event Handler:
Sample II:
private void RecordStateChangeTimings(PublishTransaction transaction,
            SetPublishStateEventArgs args, EventPhases phases)
     {
      using (StreamWriter writer = File.CreateText(@"C:\PublishStateData.txt"))
       {
            foreach (ProcessedItem item in args.ProcessedItems)
              {
                 writer.WriteLine("RenderTime" + item.RenderTime.ToString());
              }
             writer.Close();
       }  }

And the API description:

Comment: Thanks !! but i couldn't go with event system it would effect Tridion Performance
Answer: With a powershell script running against the core service, you can extract the data like this:
import-module Tridion-CoreService
$core = Get-TridionCoreServiceClient

filter PubTransToObjects (){
    $returnValue = new-object -TypeName PSObject
    $transportSummary = ([xml]$_.Information).TransportSummary

    $prepareTransport = (Select-Xml -Xml $transportSummary -XPath "Processing/Step[@type='Prepare transport']").Node
    $transporting = (Select-Xml -Xml $transportSummary -XPath "Processing/Step[@type='Transporting']").Node
    $deploymentPreparation = (Select-Xml -Xml $transportSummary -XPath "Processing/Step[@type='Deployment preparation']").Node
    $deploying = (Select-Xml -Xml $transportSummary -XPath "Processing/Step[@type='Deploying']").Node
    $committing = (Select-Xml -Xml $transportSummary -XPath "Processing/Step[@type='Deployment committing']").Node

    Add-Member -Name TotalTime -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$transportSummary.end - [DateTime]$transportSummary.start)

    Add-Member -Name PrepareTransport -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$prepareTransport.end - [DateTime]$prepareTransport.start)
    Add-Member -Name transporting -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$transporting.end - [DateTime]$transporting.start)
    Add-Member -Name deploymentPreparation -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$deploymentPreparation.end - [DateTime]$deploymentPreparation.start)
    Add-Member -Name deploying -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$deploying.end - [DateTime]$deploying.start)
    Add-Member -Name committing -InputObject $returnValue -MemberType NoteProperty `
                -Value ([DateTime]$committing.end - [DateTime]$committing.start)

    $returnValue

}

$ptFilter = new-object Tridion.ContentManager.CoreService.Client.PublishTransactionsFilterData
$pts = $core.GetSystemWideList($ptFilter) | %{$core.Read($_.Id,$null)}
$pts | PubTransToObjects | Export-Csv PubTransTimes.csv

By opening the resulting csv file in Excel, you can quickly make a pie chart like this, or whatever takes your fancy.
Comment: Just in case you hadn't realised, this is by way of a shameless plug for my forthcoming "Talking to Tridion" session at the Tridion developer summit.


How many aircraft and pilots can a part 135 cover?

Question: If you form an LLC for charter flights, can you hire an unlimited number of pilots to fly under the same part 135 certificate (assuming all are commercial pilots), or does each pilot and/or each aircraft (all aircraft owned by the LLC) need to have their own part 135 certificate?
Answer: There is no restriction on the number, type of aircraft, or pilots for a "Full 135 Operator."
There are 4 levels of 135 operators:

Single-Pilot Operator
Single Pilot-in-Command
Basic 135 Operator
Full 135 Operator *

Source: http://usac.com/faa/InstructionTwo.asp?Product=Full%20135%20Operator
Answer: There are 4 levels of 135 operators:

Single-Pilot Operator
Single Pilot-in-Command
Basic 135 Operator
Full 135 Operator

In #1 and #2, as the name implies, you can only have a single pilot.  As for #3, you can have up to 3 pilots but the requirements on the organization and support staff increase (e.g. you will need a dedicated Director of Maintenance).
Option #4 is fully unrestricted and comes with the greatest amount of responsibility.  You will need a Chief Pilot, training program, manuals, and a host of other requirements.
My advice is if you intend to have multiple pilots, try for #4.  It will give you the most flexibility and in the end, make your 135 easier to sell down the road.  Expect the process to take between 6months and a year to complete.


Where does female ejaculate actually originate from?

Question: It's common knowledge that it's released via the urethra, but where does it originate? If it doesn't come from a part of the clitoris, then why is the clitoral glans called the clitoral glans? How does it travel from the originating spot to the urethra?
Answer: According to this article female ejaculate is produced by the Skene glands.
Comment: That article actually states that the ejaculate is mostly urine...
Comment: @Metamorph I don't understand your comment. Your link does say that in 2 out of 7 women, the ejaculate was identical to the urine sample taken beforehand, and for the other five, it was only slightly different: "they either release plain old urine, or urine that's been diluted by fluids from the female prostate glands." they found small amounts of PSA in addition to urine. Where are you getting "small amounts of urine" from?
Comment: @Marius No it says there are "small amounts of urine" in some samples. And being female, I can tell you ejaculate and urine are vastly different. Nearly every sense a healthy human has can differentiate between ejaculate and urine.
Comment: @YviDe The question asked where it comes from, and a quick google gave me this. Discussing it's composition isn't relevant. I've given an answer where no one else has, so critiquing mine with something I haven't mentioned doesn't make sense.
Comment: I wasn't at all critiquing your answer, I was asking why you answered @Marius 's comment about the article you linked with "No, it says X" when the link you answered with seems to be saying the exact opposite.
Comment: The question asked where it comes from, and a quick google gave me this. Discussing it's composition isn't relevant. I've given an answer where no one else has, so critiquing mine with something I haven't mentioned doesn't make sense.
Comment: @Metamorph Thank-you for your answer. Can you elaborate on the rest of my question? Because, as you mentioned yours is the only answer I've gotten.
Answer: I had written up an answer to a now-deleted post about 3 years ago addressing this very question, so I thought I'd copy my answer from that deleted post here:

The answer is dependent on which fluid (vaginal lubricant or female ejaculate) you are referring to. Since you mention both, I will address both.
Vaginal lubricant
Quoting from wikipedia > vaginal lubrification

Vaginal lubrication is a naturally produced fluid that lubricates a woman's vagina. Vaginal lubrication is always present, but production increases significantly near ovulation and during sexual arousal in anticipation of sexual intercourse. Vaginal dryness is the condition in which this lubrication is insufficient, and sometimes artificial lubricants are used to augment it. Without sufficient lubrication, sexual intercourse can be painful to women. The vaginal lining has no glands, and therefore the vagina must rely on other methods of lubrication. Plasma seepage from vaginal walls due to vascular engorgement is considered to be the chief lubrication source, and the Bartholin's glands, located slightly below and to the left and right of the introitus (vaginal opening), also secrete mucus to augment vaginal-wall secretions. Near ovulation, cervical mucous provides additional lubrication.

Female ejaculate
Salama et al. (2015) from the Journal of Sexual Medicine feel fairly confident that they have good evidence that female ejaculate is actually urine from the bladder.
However, this topic has been under scrutiny for some time. I have seen numerous suggestions (though little hard evidence) that the Skene's glands (which are homologous to the male prostate) are responsible. This belief originated from the early work of Ernst Gräfenberg (yeah, the namesake of the G-spot). However, Salanas et al. (2015) did confirm the presence of at least marginal levels of prostatic secretions (e.g., PSA) in female ejaculate from their study. This at least partially corroborates the involvement of the Skeen's glands in the ejaculatory process.  Bartholin glands (homologous to male Bulbourethral glands) have also been assumed to play a role. Further, Salanas et al. are not the first to propose that the ejaculate originates from the urethra. You can find a relatively simple outline and list of citations on the matter on Wikipedia.
We'll have to see how the scientific community responds to the work of Salama et al. ...


Email and Download pictures issues

Question: I have a HTC Trophy phone with Windows 7.5. I am unable to download my pictures from my phone to my computer. Actually when I connect my phone via USB cable it does not show on my PC at all. My PC is Windows 10.  In addition my Yahoo email is no longer working, giving an error code of 800C0000. I am able to sign into any computer with my Windows Live account, but not on my phone. I have tried my phone service provider who could not help. Does anyone know of any way to correct any or all of these issues? I seriously need some of the pictures for a work project!
Thanks for reading this!
Comment: It is advised to ask your problems as two seperate questions as you have two seperate problems.
Comment: is there a reason you haven't upgraded to 7.8?
Answer: The solution to the Yahoo mail problem can be found here. The solution is,

Enable 2 step verification in yahoo account.
Generate app specific password and in the list of apps select "Other" and clicked on generate.
Enter the 12 digit code in place of password.

Now it will login successfully.

Regarding your problem connecting your phone with Windows 10 PC follow these steps,

Disconnect your phone.
Open device manager.
Locate your phone.
Uninstall the phone driver.

Restart your PC.
Re-connect your phone.
Comment: I tried the 2 step verification before posting my issues. I guess I should have stated that.  I listed the problems in the same post because I feel that somehow they are related....But maybe I didn't mention the biggest issue which may be the root of the others. When I connect my phone via USB to any computer (I have tried 3 now) it does nto recognize my phone. I believe that is why I can't download pictures or update my Windows version. Not sure if or if so how this may affect the email.
Comment: @Wanda You oculd have mentioned it though. Does Windows Recovery tool detect you phone? If not it is probably a hardware fault on datacard or pin.

Email and Download pictures issues


Steps/Documentation on Setting up Passive Deployer as Fail Over for an Active Deployer

Question: At a high level I have been searching to find steps or documentation per setting up a passive deployer as a fail over for an active deployer. Using Tridion 2013 and Tomcat as a deployer, is there any documentation/manual or blogs regarding this (maybe I may have overlooked or not come upon yet), available?
Answer: The installation and setup of the deployer is exactly the same whether it is an active or a passive deployer which you can refer here Deployer Setup
The active/passive setup is done via the NLB. In the NLB you have to setup active/passive (failover) partners in terms of your deployers. So, only one deployer is active at a time while is the other one is a failover partner.
Also, in your publication targets you need to specify the NLB endpoint of the deployers so that the transaction will always go to the active deployer, like:

http://NLB/TridionUpload/httpupload.aspx

This setup will ensure that publish transactions are picked up by only the active deployer.
Also, if you do plan to use Tridion caching on content delivery, you will need to setup NLB for cache channel service as well on port 1099 so that your oData servers can listen in for publish events and cache clearing can happen on the same as well.
Answer: Be aware that the passive deployer must not become active until the previously active deployer has ceased all deployment (or you could get out-of-order deployment commits).
Ideally before making the passive deployer the active one the previously active deployer must be terminated (or disconnected from the network, or otherwise ensured to no longer commit deployments).
Edit:
There are several ways of achieving this:

make the failover action a manual action and explicitly verify the original active deployer is no longer performing deployments before making the switch
use clustering instead of NLB failover and restrict access to the database to the cluster IP address (which only ever one node in the cluster will use at a given time)
Extend the deployer and implement a database-level lock which only one of the deployers can hold. The lock must expire if the deployer loses its connection with the database server (most likely via a timeout mechanism). Deployments should be put "on hold" until the lock can be acquired.

The core of the problem is that NLB failover works fine for stateless applications but deployers are stateful and not explicitly designed with this kind of failover in mind. As such making a truly high available and reliable deployment solution requires much more work than just implementing NLB failover.
Of course you can always "take the risk" and hope for the best; depending on the quality requirements of your platform this is by far the simplest solution (apart from manual failover; if failover occurs very infrequently why automate it to begin with?).
Comment: The NLB configuration ensures that packages only go to the active deployer (which is an easy configuration on the NLB). So, as long as the NLB is setup to have only one node as "green", nothing else needs to be done like removing from network or terminating etc. for the deployer which just became passive because the NLB will route traffic only to the "green" node
Comment: The problem occurs when the NLB sees a node is no longer responding to requests but the node is actually still deploying in the background (just not picking up **new** deployments). You would break the commit order this way (a later publish transaction can commit earlier and be overwritten by an earlier publish transaction that commits later)
Comment: We have been using the configuration that I mentioned in my answer for over 3 years and not even once we had a scenario when the active deployer became passive and was still deploying. The scenario you are describing is rare (since failover is rare unless there are some real network glithces).
Comment: Given you are saying in your answer that it should be taken care of, can you please describe how? Since you haven't specified how to address/stop the passive deployer from continuing the current thread. Taking into consideration that the failover time on an NLB is in seconds/miliseconds, how to address it with any other program utility. It will really benefit the community if we know how to address this scenario


Windows XP - Restore Encryped File on Another computer

Question: I have Windows XP systems joining Windows 2003 SBS domain. These machines contain certain folders that are encrypted using Encrypting File System (EFS).
The question is how to read encrypted files from another computer? I backup the Current User's Personal Certificate that is intended for EFS and restored it to another computer, but still can't open the encrypted file.
Recently, a system experienced corrupted user profile due to hard disk bad sector, and I have no way to recover the encrypted file.
Now I am figuring out how to backup the certificate so that I can restore the encrypted files on any computers.
Your help is much appreciated.
Answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308993


Are there rules for disassembling a slain creature, especially dragon?

Question: I haven't played D&D for a while though recently I have started playing it with my kids. The group is made out of five. So far they have acted with wisdom and they have been lucky which allowed them to slay the Green Dragon in Thundertree.  Are there any rules for disassembling the dragon for the sake of doing things such as selling its meat and making armor from its scales?
Comment: For clarification, "Thundertree" is the name of the city/ruins where a Young Green Dragon dwells in the adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver. The wording on your question probably should account for it, since "Thundertree Green Dragon" might be unclear for someone not used to that specific adventure (like thinking "what creature is this? Is this a homebrew?").
Comment: I would go one step further and either delete the word Thundertree or hide it behind a spoiler tag. Thundertree appears in a published adventure, and would be recognizable by people playing the adventure in which it appears.
Comment: Related: "[Is it possible to create armor from monster skin with that monster's resistances?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/151700)"
Answer: There are no specific rules for disassembling a dragon or other creature to sell its meat or make armor from its scales.
Your mention of Thundertree leads me to guess that you're playing The Lost Mine of Phandelver, which implies a setting of The Forgotten Realms -- although not necessarily, you could forklift LMP into your own world and I am sure many do, and even if you want to remain as close to the default setting as possible, you end up having to make choices about how things work in your game.
I am not aware of any reference in 5E materials suggesting that the sale or consumption of dragon meat is a common, or even rare, thing.
There is official dragon scale mail armor, so it's reasonable such a thing could exist in your world.  Making armor is a skilled activity, so maybe your characters have that skill, or maybe they don't.  Maybe they need to find an armorer.  Maybe any skilled armorer could make it, or maybe there's only one armorer in the entire world who knows how to make dragon scale armor.  Xanathar's Guide to Everything (an official supplement) has optional rules that suggest crafting a very rare magic item would take 25 weeks and 20,000 gold, but it's up to you whether you consider that as reasonable in this case.
There are also numerous references to items made from dragon hide, dragon bone, or dragon scales which implies that there might be a good market for such items.
However, one does wonder how a trade in body parts of sentient creatures is perceived. Might a Dragonborn character take offense to a restaurant selling dragon steak? Might a dragon display the hide and bones of a human in its lair?     "Yep, bagged this one back in '03, trying to sneak in to steal my treasure."
There are a lot of maybe's and might be's because this specific situation is not specifically accounted for in the rules.  However, there is always the basic rule of D&D:

The DM describes the environment.
The players describe what they want to do.
The DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions.

It's perfectly reasonable for the DM to say, "Okay, you've got a dead dragon", and for the players to then say, "Can we butcher it and sell it?"
Then, you as the DM need to decide ...
...what you want to do at that point.  You can deal with it as simply as "Yes, you're able to sell some meat and scales for a 1000 gold", or "No one wants dragon meat, ewww, but the armorer in the nearby town will make you a nifty set of dragonscale armor if he can keep the rest of the scales."  Or whatever you want.
You can make dining on dragon meat to be the height of haute cuisine, or taboo, or anything in between.  You can spend a great deal of time focusing on what to do with the dragon carcass, or you can dispense with it quickly and move on to something else.
Comment: You could mention that Lizardfolk get the Cunning Artisan feature, allowing them to make specific weapons from a slain monster, during a short rest
Comment: In my opinion, this answer is incomplete without referring to the DMG crafting section. (But it's still a good answer) I'd suggest referring to that first, as that's in a core rule book, and then referring to XGtE since that's got a bunch of optional rules (some of which are very good)
Answer: Jack's answer is great and already explains that there are no official rules for that kind of thing made by WotC.  Instead I want to show a way of handling such situations, as I do it with my players usually:
Players will want to take things apart, no matter their age-group.  They have just killed a pack of wolves, or bested a dreadful owlbear and now they want their spoils. Some want to get cuts of meat for the victory meal, others want feathers & claws as decorations for their gear. The party wizard might want to fetch some rare magical ingredients for potions & spells. And the ranger or druid might wish to render the rest of the corpse so as not to waste the life they've taken.
In order to facilitate this, I have them roll Survival and/or Medicine checks then they make to take the carcass apart. I tend to use a scale with steps of 5, to measure their potential success and thus their possible spoils.
E.g. they want to take apart your dragon. They would make a Survival roll to make cuts of meat and take off the skin, and might wish to harvest magical ingredients with an additional Medicine roll:

Survival
0-4: You manage to cut off some great looking pieces of meat,
  enough for more than one feast for you and your companions. Sadly in
  the process you weren't exactly adept. Most of the dragon's skin
  lies around in bits and pieces that might make for a good mug-warmer,
  or saddle cushion - but you will have to find a master-skilled
  armor-smith to make anything more from the remains.
5-14: With a few decisive cuts you cut the meat and skin off the
  bones, it doesn't look pretty, but it's not that easy to practice
  butchering a dragon anyway. You can secure enough edible meat and bits
  to feed everyone at the banquet that will be held in your honour after
  you return.  A skilled armor-smith should be able to craft some
  dragon-leather armor and comfy mittens for you easily.
15+: You dig into the carcass, an hour later you 'emerge' from your
  task with a neatly cut up and cleaned out dragon. You left little to
  no meat on the bones, and managed to keep the skin in one piece - head
  attached.  Imagine what a king might pay to have a dragon rug in their
  throne-room!

Medicine
0-4: You can easily pull out some teeth and claws. But you somehow
  managed to bash in the dragon's skull when trying to get hold of a
  bigger tooth, the delicate eyes, tongue and brains of the dragon are
  ruined for good...
5-14: You fill a whole bag with teeth and claws of the dragon. The
  tongue and venom-gland you removed so adeptly will be highly sought
  after by the local alchemist; it might easily fetch you a small chest
  of gold or some curious potion(s) in return.
15+: The above results, and:
  Going after a hunch you dig into the intestines of the beast. Inside
  its stomach you find a bezoar the size of the barbarian's fist!
Answer: Our group had the same issue.  There is no 5e resource for this that we could find, but we are using the 3.5 version of the Draconomicon as an aid for preparing a dragon for sale of its parts.  Starting on Page 5 of the book, it talks about all the different parts of a dragon's anatomy and includes internal anatomy and major internal organs. The book even includes rules on rearing a dragon.
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already. This is a good start to an answer, but it would be improved by summarizing the relevant information from the book or pointing out where in the book it appears. (Or, if it's not directly stated in a way that answers this question, you should explain how the information given there could be useful to OP's situation.)
Answer: The DM's Guild has a great small supplemental rule book for collecting materials (animal, plant, and mineral), called the Wilderness Survival Guide. It's only about 6 pages and is $5.
The skill check is based on the creature's CR, there is a chart for the time harvesting takes based on size, the amount of material is also based on size, and there is a chart of material values. There is even a breakdown of how to craft things using said materials, and a chart with consequences of failed checks, such as poisoning yourself when trying to harvest poison.
Comment: Please don't copy and past non-free material for others to use. That's copyright violation and something RPG.se should not be assisting. We also don't suggest doing the "wrong thing" and pirating stuff. People can buy the book if they want the rules; put the energy into a good pitch for why it solves the problem enough to be worth buying it, instead.


Is there an extension for Visual Studio that creates a table on the fly from a class?

Question: I want to be able to generate a table from a class object from a short-code. Is there any available extension in Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 that does that?
Comment: What kind of "table" are you thinking about? Can you expand on what features do you need?
Answer: It's more than a simple extension, but the Code First workflow of Entity Framework does this. Here is a tutorial on this topic.
The code contains three sample classes, e.g. Student:
public class Student
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string FirstMidName { get; set; }
    public DateTime EnrollmentDate { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<Enrollment> Enrollments { get; set; }
}

Later on, the tutorial mentions a database initializer:
public class SchoolInitializer : System.Data.Entity.DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<SchoolContext>

which will create the database when you use the application for the first time:

When you ran the Students page and the application tried to access the database, EF discovered that there was no database and created one.

This particular database initializer is most useful when creating a database from scratch, but the are migration options to add columns or tables to existing databases. All in all, the framework is pretty powerful; it supports most things you'll be looking for in a database like foreign keys and indices.


What is the difference between 'stereoscopic depth' and 'crossed/uncrossed disparity'?

Question: What is the difference between stereoscopic depth and crossed/uncrossed disparity, and specifically in terms of their use in the methods to manipulate visual stimuli to investigate depth-perception?
Answer: Short answer
Stereoscopic vision is the perception of depth via disparity. Disparity is the mechanism that the visual system uses to create binocular depth perception.
Background
A dictionary definition of Stereoscopic is the following:

[N]oting or pertaining to three-dimensional vision or any of various processes and devices for giving the illusion of depth from two-dimensional images or reproductions, as of a photograph or motion picture.

So stereoscopic depth perception refers to the ability of perceiving depth in a 2D image.
A more visual-scientific description of stereopsis is the following (Kalloniatis & Luu, 2016):

Stereopsis refers to our ability to appreciate depth, that is the ability to distinguish the relative distance of objects with an apparent physical displacement between the objects. [...] Stereopsis is an important binocular cue to depth perception. Stereopsis cannot occur monocularly and is due to binocular retinal disparity [where] two objects stimulate [...] disparate (non-corresponding) retinal points [...].

Monocular cues include occlusion, lights & shade, among others. Binocular cues, i.e., stereoscopic cues are caused by the slightly offset retinal images on our two eyes due to the distance between them. This is called disparity. Disparity depends on the focal distance, and in a nutshell, uncrossed disparity refers to points in space closer than the focus distance and crossed disparity to points more distant than the focal distance (source: Heeger, New York University).
Hence, long story short, stereoscopic depth is a perception, disparity is the mechanism that the visual system uses to create that perception.
Reference
- Kalloniatis & Luu, Perception of Depth. In: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System, Utah University (2016)


Why does Man ask Why questions?

Question: I am not a particularly educated or intelligent individual. If this question is easily answered, forgive me. As I can think of no answer, I am compelled to ask. I'm afraid this line of questioning ends up in circles but I don't think it is a nonsense question. We have (some debate this) conciousness and independent will. Why? It seems unnecessary as a survival mechanism based apon David Chalmer's assessment of "The Hard Problem of Consciousness". Of'course the immediate question can proceed further based on that to, why do we even care to survive? There is obviously a lot more to that whole line of questioning. I'm trying to cut through quickly dismissed answers. If this sounds like the child's constant why why why? It is. What I don't understand is why the question isn't, "how?".
Comment: [MU!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative)).   I point it out only because more than once I have been comforted by the possibility that it's okay if the question is unasked.
Comment: "Consciousness" (reflection) is linked to the ability to have toy models of the surroundings in one's brain , and "will" to the ability to make decisions to act based on such models, even if they go against instinct. Both seem very handy as survival mechanisms.
Comment: I knew my question wasn't as clear as it should be. In regard to consciousness and will I was trying to reference "The Hard Problem of Consciousness" popularized by David Chalmers. The real thrust of my question is in the reason for the why question. To get close to what I mean let me ask, Why does life seek to survive? Why would nonorganic matter organize itself into organic matter and why would it seek to self replicate and ensure its survival?
Comment: The problem is that the hard problem of consciousness concerns first person experience, and it makes little sense to ask about its third person usefulness for survival. Those two play out on different screens. Just as the color of steel has nothing to do with its usefulness for making guns, it just happens to have it. "Life" does not "seek" anything nor does non-organic matter "organize itself", those are just anthropomorphic figures of speech. Of the same sort as "the sun rises". First, it doesn't, and second, because it and the Earth follow gravitational trajectories.
Comment: Perhaps my verbs are wrong. So consciousness is just something that life happens to have? Why do living things do things to maintain their status as living things? Because that is what living things do I guess. Why does man consider why questions instead of just how questions? Is this also just what Man does? If that is the answer it seems you consider this a meaningless question. If so, so be it.
Comment: Thank you for your answers by the way. I thought this was going to go entirely unnoticed or responded to.
Comment: I like a quote attributed to Hegel (although that is doubtful): "The answer to questions philosophy can not answer is that they should be asked differently". If you think of why questions that were, apparently, answered (why is the sky blue? why does the Earth move? why can't metals be turned into gold? why do organisms evolve?...) they were converted into how questions. Perhaps, when we ask why what we want is a how, but a how general enough to cover a great variety of phenomena, not a special case how that does not give us any insight into other cases.
Comment: See [Aristotle: The Desire to Understand](https://books.google.it/books/about/Aristotle.html?id=hSAGlzPLq7gC&redir_esc=y) : "Aristotle's *Metaphysics begins*: All men by nature desire to know." Human beings have been "created" / have evolved to be curious.
Comment: If we didn't ask 'why' questions, how would we have gotten to deductive logic? This is true, why is it true, because of this trend or that rule. Aligning our behavior with rules is our main goal in childhood, not figuring out the details. Why do we value why questions higher than how questions? Because parents answer them.  Later, we generalize parents to leaders.  Look at our social classes. Who is on top, and who is on the bottom? Which class here depends most upon why reasons -- religious leaders, and which depends most on how reasons -- workers.
Comment: Feynman makes excellent points here, about how asking 'Why?' always has some implied context about what will count as an answer https://youtu.be/36GT2zI8lVA
Answer: As you know humans have (more or less) a quality/habit of seeking truth. And those who have higher intelligence seek higher levels of truth. Seeking truth is one of the main characteristics of humans. For this he needs new pieces of information and so he uses Wh-questions frequently.  To find out the truth about phenomena, happenings etc 'Why-questions' are necessary.
Those who have higher intelligence would not satisfy with a unscientific/simple answers.  Comparatively 'Why-questions' are the difficult ones because, for getting answer to them he is often compelled to put several steps back to discover the truth which is rather difficult. (I mean,) Often, to other Wh-questions he gets answers with less effort; but 'Why-questions' are not so. Actually he asks other Wh-questions also frequently. But it is because of their easiness they seem latent or unnoticed .
Answer: How is applicable to the precise situation that occurred.  Why is applicable to a whole host of hypothetical what-if worlds which, if understood, may make life easier if one of those hypothetical situations arise again.
How a person died in a car accident is one thing.  Why they died is a question which may spawn changes in seatbelt design to save other lives.  Both are indeed important, but they are important in different ways and to different people at different times.
In your question, you seem to suggest that a sense of "its just what living things do" is not really a comforting answer.  However, that suggests that your question starts to rapidly jump from "why do we ask why" to questions regarding the ultimate meaning of life.  That is a topic which has received a great deal of philosophical study, although I do not believe a meaningful consensus has been reached on the topic.
Answer: 'Why' questions are a concomitant of the capacity to make choices. For animals that run primarily on instinct, 'why' questions would be irrelevant. When such an animal sees (say) another animal that it recognizes as a predator or as prey, a set of responses kick in that inform its actions. while many animals are intelligent enough to adjust their behavior mid-stream according to circumstances, the overarching activity is preset. The 'what' and 'how' are givens — hunt or fight or run — so there wouldn't be much point in them asking 'why' they behave that way, even if they had the capacity for it.
Humans aren't bounded by instinct to anything like the same extent. When a human sees (say) a chicken, the human doesn't feel this overwhelming 'prey-food-must-kll-eat' impulse, they way that (say) a cougar might. A human looks at a chicken and thinks: "Well, I could eat this chicken, or I could keep it in a cage and eat its eggs, or I could make a pet of it, or I paint an image of it on my cave wall..." There are lots of different things that humans might do with chickens. Choosing between the various options automatically implies a consideration of different reasons or values; it implies a purely practical question of why this use of a chicken might be better or worse that that use of a chicken.
If you look at a cougar and ask it why it wants to eat a chicken it won't have an answer, because eating things like chickens is just what it does. It has no other use for a chicken than to eat it. That is decidedly not true of humans.
The reason this kind of complex choice process is evolutionarily adaptive is that it allows humans to be generalists rather than specialists. Strong instincts make for great specialists; cougars are apex predators because evolution has hammered out extremely effective hunting instincts in the kind of environment that cougars are accustomed to. The problem with being a specialist, though, is that if the environment changes sufficiently, it's impossible for the creature to adapt. That species goes extinct (they way that tyrannosaurs went extinct) and a new creature with better adapted instincts takes over that creature's role. Humans, however, can shift and change according to circumstances. They are cognitively adaptive instead of biologically adaptive, and that allows them to respond to changes in their environment much more rapidly and effectively than other creatures.
The downside of this fairly practical adaptive mechanism is that it allows us to entertain some fairly 'out-there' options. For instance, one might be dreading an upcoming office meeting and think "Geez, why couldn't I just let some cougar eat me so I don't have to deal with this crap..." There's no shut-off valve for the capacity to make choices, no easy way to fall back on the sweet life of mere instinct. Plenty of people try, of course — sex and drugs and rock and roll; candy is dandy but liquor is quicker — but that is always a deflection of responsibility more than a real retreat to instinct.
It's a mixed bag, I'm afraid. Once we start having choices between various 'whats' and 'hows' we are forced to start asking 'why', but once we start asking 'why' we can't just turn it off when the options become distressing or difficult. We either move forward into it and adapt, or retreat from it and descend into unconscious misery. People can choose to do either, for their own reasons.
Answer: It is interesting to looking at trying to get AIs to learn. Wu & Tegmark's 'AI physicist' is the best example I know. It seems like we can relate 'how' questions to rote learning, to implications of an event or statement, in relation to our body of experience, or integrated knowledge. But 'why' questions do something else, something computers struggle with. I feel the best model is that of 'strange loops', developed by Douglas Hofstadter.
The mathematician Godel proved with his Incompleteness Theorem, that within any reasonably complex system of symbols based on rules or axioms, true statements can be made which aren't provable from those axioms. From mathematics, and computing, that has been our model of human thinking, that it is all kind of 'how?' questions, and everything would just follow logically when we understand the Grand Unified Theory, the answer to all 'why?'s. Incompleteness shows there must be more to how we work. There is a funny broader statement of this taken from the same source as 'pulling yourself up by your bootstraps', which gave us the tech phrase bootstrapping: Munchausen's Trilemma. It says, any chain of explanation reduces to circular logic, infinite, regress, or 'because I said' so - parents of small children will be well familiar with these fall-back positions as every answer gets another 'why?'. The Adventure's Of Baron Munchausen that this references piles paradox on paradox, in funny ways.
I see 'strange loops' as a way to answer the trilemma, and understand how human minds do what they do, without denying the usefulness of logic axioms and so on - to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. What Hofstadter noticed is that 'why?' questions can 'pop us out' of layers of explanation. We set up hierarchies of explanation, a classic example is: atoms, chemistry, biology, sociology, cosmology. And then he noticed we are happy to do what computers and mathematics doesn't like, we like to loop back round - like say the anthropic principle, the idea physics fine tuning of constants might result in some way from being a given if there are minds, so no mind could look out and ask 'why?' if the constants weren't compatible, weren't 'just so' to allow a complex universe. Here are some more examples of strange loops, because I can't really do the idea justice in a concise way. It's crucial to note strange loops can involve recursion, thinking about ourselves, as units in our thoughts, which can really tangle thought-hierarchies in ways maths and computers with no subjectivity cannot, and that can create strange and wonderful feedback loops..
So, in this view minds are not rule followers, and they are not just trying to make a coherent structure reaching between very small and very large with a place for us inbetween. Instead they are constantly weaving a fabric, which changes threads and weaving style, looping back on itself, sometimes the whole cloth becomes just one new thread in a bigger fabric, and sometimes we unweave a section, sometimes we unweave huge chunk look very closely at the threads, and begin again.
I link this model of minds to Dennett's idea that we exist as 'free floating rationales'. Also to Buddhist ideas that awareness is fundamental, and has a universal quality - it is the weaver, not the threads.
When we ask 'why?' we take a moment away from our weaving, we think what field did these threads come from, what will this cloth be for, how do I fit in to that story. And we realise all those questions, all our knowledge and ideas, are more threads, to be rewoven, or unpicked.
Edit to add: I look at all these answers, and think they are all susceptible to, 'Why though?'. FOXP2 is a gene complex all animals with language, and birds that sing, seem to have. All will babble, from birth. Songbirds raised only around humans, learn human tunes. Humans raised by wolves can never learn human language without hearing it, beyond a certain age. So, at the deepest level, we are monkeys who ask 'why?'. 'Why?' is our song, our answers are our shifting shimmering, plummage.

"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
Answer: I think this ultimately boils down to Natural Selection: Simply put, curiosity has proven itself to have survival value.  Combine that with ever-increasing intelligence also having survival value, and eventually yielding the capability to create leisure time, and you end up with creatures that regularly ask 'Why?' about a wide range of things most of which aren't directly tied to immediate survival.
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Why does Man ask Why questions?