Being called Buddhist

Question: I always wondered why do people that practice Buddhist practices, label or opt not to label themselves "Buddhist".
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Should one call oneself a Buddhist?](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/3511/157)
Comment: Uilium, do you think the questions are duplicate (i.e. do the answers to that question answer your question)? Or are they slightly different (e.g. that one is asking whether they should, and this one is asking why they do)? If you don't think they're duplicate, is this one [a "polling" question of the sort that's usually off-topic](http://meta.buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/1572/254) (e.g. are you asking everyone to explain why they do or don't label themselves)?
Comment: @ChrisW Ok, I think I should reword it. Maybe put it on hold  until I can get to it later.
Answer: All labels are conventions & attachment to mental states of non-becoming can make the mind uncomfortable with conventions.
Also, the term 'Buddhist' is a stereotype, loaded with all kinds of worldly connotations, such as believing in the Dalai Lama, reincarnation, statues, etc.
Those people might be more comfortable if asked: "Do you practise the teachings (path) of the Buddha?".

Being called Buddhist


What is the privacy setting of the OneDrive folder for automatic uploads?

Question: If I enable the Automatically upload to OneDrive ** setting in the **pictures+camera settings, what level of privacy to those images get? Who can see them?
Answer: They will have the privacy setting of the OneDrive folder where they are stored there.
Windows Phone creates a folder called "SkyDrive camera roll" "Camera Roll" in OneDrive where automaticaly uploaded photos go.
Depends the language you choose this folder can has another name.

By default the folder is not shared and OneDrive will warn you if you attempt to share it.
Answer: Even if the "Auto upload to OneDrive" is on there is an option to select the privacy setting of uploaded pictures. (I recommend "ME" since you can always change it on a per picture basis later. This will help you avoid embarrassing releases of private or sensitive pictures.)
source


Is there a French equivalent for "long pig"?

Question: In English, long pig is human flesh eaten by cannibals. As I couldn't find a French equivalent for it in any of the dictionaries that I can look up into, I was wondering if anyone knows a good French translation for this imaginative expression.
Comment: This is an interesting question, indoxica.  I have never heard of this expression and neither has my girlfriend, and we are both anglophones.  I really enjoy questions like this, because they are educating in both languages.  It's always interesting to see if an expression or equivalent can be found!
Comment: @Patrick Sebastien Indeed, they are. I do appreciate... your appreciation of my questions.
Answer: There is no French equivalent that I could find.
All there is, is the original Marquesaan (Polynesian) word "puaa ao" which can be translated into English as "long pig that speaks".
You could translate that literally : "Le grand porc / cochon qui parle".
Comment: I would definitely use "porc", as it more readily relates to meat.
Answer: Long Pig is a culinary term that refers to human beings.
The most accurate translation would be "Chair humaine".
You could also use "Bidoche" or "Barbaque" if you want slang words about "Viande" (aka meat).
There are lots of expressions about Viande on cntrl.fr, but nothing about cannibalism.
From wikipedia about Cannibalism:

The friar Diego de Landa reported about Yucatán instances,[67]and
  there have been similar reports by Purchas from Popayán, Colombia, and
  from the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called
  long pig[68].
Comment: _Bidoche_: I like the sound of it. That's why I've just upvoted your answer.
Answer: I have never heard of a similar expression. To convey meaning, my best guess would be to translate it simply by "chair humaine" (literally "human flesh"). If you want to preserve style, I can think of anything better than @Kwaio.


certificate working on IP but not on URL

Question: I asked this question on StackOverflow and ServerFault, but as I receive no answer there I guess it doesn't hurt to ask it here too, since it's Windows Phone Specific...
I have a problem accessing my site (on https) with IEMobile 9 (WP 7.5).
It says it's got problem with the certificate, as if it wasn't valid. Everything works on any other browser or platform I tested (android (several phones and a galaxy tab with stock browser, firefox, opera, dolphin), iOS (iphone and ipad with safari and chrome), an old nokia with symbian, windows 7, linux and mac).
To try to solve this I saved the certificate (.cer) on the server and accessed it from the phone browser. It always complained except when I accessed it through the server IP (192.168.xx.xx). At that point it (said it) installed correctly the certificate. If then I try to access the index.html still using the IP all works fine and it doesn't complain about the certificate. If, though, I try to access the index using the actual URL (blah.myblah.com), it complains again about the certificate, as if it wasn't installed!
It isn't a problem of DNS, cause that's up and serving the right ip, and the phone is correctly setup to use it.
The certificate is signed by geotrust/rapidssl for *.myblah.com.
Answer: What common name (CN) was the certificate issued for? Sounds like it is possible the certificate has been issued for the ip address and not blah.myblah.com


Auto batch-insert track numbers in iTunes?

Question: I recently imported a whole bunch of MP3s that I've already grouped into a single album, but the ID3 tags for track numbers are all blank. How can I tell iTunes to auto-add track numbers in the order they just happen to be in in iTunes? The actual order of the MP3s isn't essential, but I like to keep every MP3 in my library properly labelled.
Answer: iTunes doesn't offer this functionality natively: Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes always comes in handy in these situations. In this case, however, there's no easy solution, because there is no script that does that. You would need a combination of three scripts, which should work and should be fairly easy as soon as you have installed all three of them:

Get Number Song Names by Play Order and run it on the tracks you would like to number. This will add track numbers to the beginning of the track name.
Run Put Track Prefix to Track Numbers on the tracks, which will set the track tags based on the number you've added in step 1.
Use Remove n Characters From Front or Back to remove the track numbers added to the name.

As far as I can tell this is the easiest way to accomplish that. Of course you could also write your own AppleScript which does it in one step. And don't forget to create a backup, just in case.
Answer: A script to increment the track numbers in the order in which they appear is now available at Doug's Apple Scripts. I have tried it and it works famously...
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=incrementnumbertags


How does Windows know which part of memory is "intended to hold data only"?

Question: I'm learning about DEP implementations, now I'm trying to figure out how does the OS know which part of memory is intended to hold data only?
Answer: The memory itself is agnositic.  The operating system defines what each area is used for.  So windows "knows" because it said it was so.
Answer: Any executable file contain only two types of instructions: the data and the code. Typically, data will be the initialized and uninitialized variables within a program while code will be the program instructions processing and manipulating those variables. When the executable file is mapped in memory, the data sections are mapped to stack and heap while the program instructions are mapped to the .text section of the program.
If you think about it, there is no way the program instructions are ever going to change during the execution of the program therefore, the .text section is always mapped as readable and executable. Also, no legitimate program will ever want to execute something from a data section of a program because it contains only initialized and uninitialized variables that is stack and heap are always mapped as non executable (only readable and writeable). That is why whenever DEP detects any executable instruction from either stack or heap, the program is terminated. Executable instructions are only allowed from the .text section of the program.
Answer: In an executable file, the bytes are organized into sections. Traditional names are "text" for a section which is meant to contain code, and "data" for a section which is meant to contain data. There is also "rodata" (read-only data), "bss" (read-write data initialized with zeros)... Thus, the OS knows what access rights to give to each page. The names given here are more from the Unix tradition, but the same concepts apply to the Windows world.
Then the application will allocate further memory chunks for its own usages. By default, the OS gives back data blocks (read and write access are allowed, but not execution, at least if DEP is enabled). The application can then explicitly request a change with VirtualProtect(): interpreters for some programming languages with JIT must do that since, by definition, they dynamically produce executable code and then proceed to execute it right away.
The OS keeps track of the intended access rights for each page, but it does not "guess": it obtains the information from either the file which is to be executed (it is part of the format) or, for dynamic allocation, the application itself is supposed to provide the information.


How to get lens serial number from Exif?

Question: I want to write down model name and serial number of my camera body and camera lens, in case they are lost or stolen.

Where can I find those data? Lightroom provides all data but serial name of lens. Are they missing from EXIF?

How can I copy those data to the clipboard? There's no way to select, and Ctrl+C does not work for it.
Comment: Isn't each respective serial number just printed right on the camera and lens themselves? Also check original packaging if you still have it, or original invoice if you still have it.
Comment: @RomeoNinov well the OP specifically says, "Just in case I lost or they get stolen". It just seems to me that the OP is making a simple task difficult for no reason.
Comment: Not *all* cameras and lenses have the serial numbers etched in. Labels can also become worn down so that they become unreadable. Also, if it can be confirmed that particular equipment saves serial numbers in image metadata, it can be used to track stolen equipment if the new "owner" uploads any images.
Comment: Also, someone might have neglected to record serial numbers of their own equipment (or lost the records), and wants to recover them from existing images after equipment got lost or stolen....
Comment: @osullic, maybe OP want to filter (in LR) by serial number (if have two copies of particular lens)
Comment: You are right, @osullic, the serial numbers are on the lens :)
Answer: Based on my version of LR (6 standalone) this information is not displayed (see below)

From other site when I try XNview (no affiliate with the software) I see in Properties->ExifTool the serial number of my lens.

So for me Adobe do not display all the meta information. My advice is to use other tool(s)
P.S. And one clarification, this is NOT the serial number of my lens (as I can read it on the lens itself). So seems like camera do not include it (on correct way). When I check with other (again Canon camera with Canon lens) I do not see at all lens serial number in LR. But in XNview I see the correct serial number of lens.
Answer: Whether the lens serial number is included in image metadata depends on both the lens and camera. Many Canon cameras and lenses do not communicate the lens serial number. The only reliable way to know whether a particular combination provides the information you desire is to check for it in images.
Many graphical-interface metadata viewers do not show all available tags. Use exiftool instead.
# all metadata
exiftool -a -G image.jpg

# serial number (camera body)
exiftool -a -SerialNumber image.jpg

# internal serial number (camera body)
exiftool -a -InternalSerialNumber image.jpg

# serial number (lens)
exiftool -a -LensSerialNumber image.jpg

# internal serial number (lens)
#    On Mac or Linux, try:
#       exiftool -a -G image.jpg | grep -iE 'lens|serial|internal'
#
#    None of the cameras-lens combinations available to me
#    produced any tags with this info.
#
#    Anyone who can confirm the name of the tag, feel free to
#    edit to include the command with the correct tag name.

Comment: I tried the script provided. I lost my NIKON D5100 camera with 18-55 lenses with two extra lenses 55-300 and 85mm f/3.5. Im using your script to extract out the metadata but havent been able to get the Lens serial numbers. Im running it on Windows. I tried looking at the metadata lightroom and XNviewmp too. Please help as i need to provide the info to the police so they can track it down.
Comment: @ShipraSingh Make sure you replace `image.jpg` in the examples with a filename of one of your images.  If you cannot figure it out, recommend finding someone who can help you in person.  (Try asking at a camera store or photo processing lab.)
Answer: The lens serial number isn't set in any picture I have. Photos from my 450D haven't even got the field, and those from my EOS70D have the field, but set to all zeroes.
Reporting the lens S/N is likely a recent feature, and to see it requires a recent camera and a recent lens while your lens design is from 1992...
To grab the data, there are other tools than LR...
Comment: The reason the "newer" 700D does not record the lens ID is probably because it is not capable of AFMA, and thus does not need to discriminate between two different copies of the same lens model.
Comment: Not exactly (about new lens ad cameras), I get correct number (in XNview) with older camera and older lens. But not with newer
Comment: @RomeoNinov What specific camera and lens?
Comment: @MichaelClark , "new" is 700D with 10-18, "old" is 5D Mark III with 16-35/f4
Answer: Apparently Canon only started including an "internal" lens serial number field in  the EXIF info when they started including the ability for cameras with AFMA (Autofocus Micro Adjustment) to discriminate between two copies of the same lens model.
When using Adobe products (such as Lightroom or ACR), the field is never included in the EXIF info displayed by the application. Canon's own 'Digital Photo Professional' does not display the lens ID number, either. Using other third party applications, such as 'Irfanview', does show the lens ID number included in the EXIF info for cameras with AFMA that can discriminate between two copies of the same lens model.

The screenshot above was taken from an image captured with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II using an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II lens manufactured in 2010. The 5D Mark III I use regularly also includes the internal lens serial number in the EXIF info. My older Canon EOS 7D and Canon EOS 5D Mark II do not include the field, even when the same lenses are used on both sets of cameras. When an older lens model that does not communicate an internal lens ID to the camera is used on one of the newer cameras, the field is reported as '0000000000' (ten consecutive "zeros"). This is even the case with a newly made copy of an older lens design. The EF 135mm f/2 L is a lens model first released in 1996. My current copy was manufactured in September 2016. The Canon EOS 5D Mark III reports the internal 'Lens serial number' as '0000000000'.
This "internal" serial number is a different number from the external serial number printed on the lens barrel or flange mounting ring, even when the internal number that appears to be at least partially in hex format is converted to decimal. It is presumed by many to be a number that is uniquely assigned to only one lens ever made by Canon. At the very least, it is almost certainly a number that is unique for all copies of that particular lens model. Canon probably uses a separate "internal" serial number in order to standardize the format for all of their various lens lines, which can vary significantly in terms of the number of digits included in the external lens serial number. There also seems to be at least some cases where the same external serial numbers have been used for two different lenses in two different model lines.
Please note that the actual date of manufacture of the lens does not seem to affect whether the lens provides an internal serial number or not. It appears to be when that lens model was introduced.

I have an EF 17-40mm f/4 L. The lens was introduced in 2003. My copy was made in May 2012. It does not report a serial number to the camera.
I have an EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS. The lens was introduced in 2005. My copy was made in March 2011. It does provide an lens serial number to the camera.
I have an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II. The lens was introduced in 2010. My copy was made in June 2010. I reports a lens serial number to the camera.
All of my other lenses that are models introduced prior to 2003 do not report an internal serial number, even if my copy of the lens was made as recently as 2016.
The first Canon bodies that offered user accessible AFMA were the EOS 1D Mark III and EOS 1Ds Mark III, both introduced in 2007. As has been the case several other times, Canon started "silently" making half of a system with compatibility for a feature to be introduced in the other half a couple of years later. Canon appears to have started including the "internal" serial number in lenses sometime around 2004-2005 before introducing the camera bodies that could use the information in 2007.¹

¹ Another classic example: Canon bodies introduced from about mid-1993 had the ability to control Canon EF lenses with IS. No one, other than those on the inside at Canon, had a clue the bodies they already owned included this ability until the first IS lens was introduced in 1995 and Canon released a list of existing models that already had compatibility with IS built in. Another example: For several years before the release of the 470EX-AI, Canon bodies as early as the EOS 7D Mark II introduced in late 2014 included the needed firmware to control the new self aiming bounce feature of the flash that was introduced in early 2018. Canon made no public announcement about the ability included in these camera bodies (7DII, 1D X II, 5Ds/5DsR, 5DIV, 6DII, Rebel T6i/750D, Rebel T6s/760D, Rebel T7i/800D, 80D, 77D) until they announced the new 470EX-AI flash in early 2018.
Comment: Do you have a source for "It [the internal lens serial number] is a number that is uniquely assigned to only one lens ever made by Canon."?
Comment: @cmuseum I don't have an authoritative source at my fingertips. I have read in more than one place that such is the case. I've altered the answer to more accurately reflect this. It does seem quite likely that, since Canon seems to have only started programming internal serial numbers into the firmware of their lenses about 15 years ago, and based on the 10 digit length that uses both numbers and letters (for 36 potential characters for each digit -  thus there are 36^10 available numbers), that they have not remotely approached using all of the 3.6 *quadrillion* available combinations.
Comment: Approximately 140 million EF lenses have been sold since 1987. Over the past 4-5 years, Canon has celebrated a 10 million lens milestone each year. At the current production rate of 10M per year, a full set of 10-digit serial numbers with 36-characters available per digit will be exhausted about 365 million years in the future.
Comment: I am not questioning whether or not this field can accomodate enough unqiue numbers. But I don't think Canon actually uses it for globally unique numbers. I'd rather presume that the number is unique per lens type. The examples I have seen all seem to use "three bytes" or less. Three bytes support 16.8M unique numbers. Canon has produced a lot more lenses than that since they started coding this number into their lenses. And I have seen examples of younger lenses with smaller numbers than older lenses. That would at least be unusual for a globally unique number.
Comment: How do cameras control IS without the right firmware?
Comment: They already had the firmware. It was included when they were made beginning in 1993. The lens was already in development at that time. Canon has fairly long development processes. That's how everything just works with each other when it is released, instead of like some camera makers that release new products with what amounts to "beta" level compatibility with their existing system parts.


How to know if it's a mode or scale?

Question: How do I differentiate between modes?
Suppose a person is playing "D Dorian". How do I know that it's "D Dorian" and not "C Major/Ionian" or "E Phrygian" and so on, and in fact "A natural minor" because it has same notes as C major.
Comment: I'm thinking that there's nothing guitar-specific about this question, so "guitar" should be tossed off as a tag.
Comment: I'm surprised the term 'tossed off' is allowed to stay.Maybe it's esoteric in English.
Answer: When you play a C Major scale and have emphasis on a note other than C, such as D, then it is D Dorian.  The player implies that the D note is the root using the notes of the C Major scale.
Another thing is the harmony behind the scale. What chords are being used? That would direct your ear in hearing where the root is. If I play Dmin7 chord and use the C Major scale, I will land on the D note for a completed phrase and that is the sound of Dorian.
Each mode has a particular sound. Play each note in the C scale to its first octave ( D to D ) and you will hear the flavor of the mode. Do that with all notes in C Major Scale.
Comment: So if I play `C major` scale over `G Major` chord than it should be `G Mixolydian`.
Comment: Not exactly - the notes contained in the C maj. scale, rather than the C maj. scale itself, but homing on G.
Answer: Yes, they're using all the same notes, but not necessarily in the right order...
C maj. will be CENTRED around C, D Dorian will be CENTRED around D, E Phrygian will be... you get the picture.
The home (CENTRED) note will be the mode letter. The chords may well be the same, but their function will be different, i.e. in C maj., the G will be the dominant pushing back to C, but in, D Dorian, the same G will be the sub-dominant, a chord to visit, but not say "you're going back to C".
Comment: @mjosh - why would you want to skip practicing and ear training? All that does is rob you of technique and skill. Practice allows you to be able to identify modes and keys quickly and with ease.
Comment: any trick to identify quickly except practice and ear training.
Comment: @jmosh - Without practice and ear training, you're going to be sadly lacking...
Comment: @jjmusicnotes Perhaps the OP was asking for another trick besides the very obvious ones ie. practice and ear training...
Answer: If you look at just a small part of the tune under a magnifying glass, so to speak, then you don't know. A D minor chord is playing, or a G7, and all the notes are from the key of C major. You could be in a II-V-I cadence or whatever.
To know that you are in D Dorian, you have to step back and take a bird's eye view of the tune's structure.
Strong clues about the intended tonality will emerge. For instance, if major sections of the tune keep starting on a D, with a Dm or Dm7 chord, and return to Dm, that suggests that the tonality is D, and so if the notes selected are from C major, then the tune is being composed in D Dorian.
Another clue is if that it is a tune from the jazz and blues tradition, the bluesy alterations heard in the music, such as the addition of a tritone, will be with respect to D.
The music might contain V-I cadences targetting Dm, such as A7 Dm, suggesting the key of D minor related to F major; however, these may show themselves to just be a temporary tension heightening device which confirms the D tonality.
For instance, consider a vamp like Dm G7 | Dm G7 | Dm G7 | A7#9 - | Dm. That would be clearly interpreted as Dorian because of the Dm/G7 interplay. The A7#9 is just a bluesy turnaround.
The basic idea is that we would like the effect of a dominant to target the root note D in a powerful way, and so we just use this A7, without caring that it uses notes from outside of the D Dorian mode.
Note that an A7 dominant is "foreign" to the D minor tonality itself! To obtain the dominant, we have to alter the natural minor scale to have a leading tone. The notes of A7 are found in the harmonic and melodic minor variants of D minor. The same way that D natural minor can get a C# leading tone to support A7, we can temporarily introduce a C# in D Dorian music for the same reason. So the point is that there can be some "distractors" that are off scale, yet the music can be in Dorian.
Answer: Ugh! I used to be initimidated by this modal thing initially. Turned out to be the simplest thing once I got it down. It's all about how you think of it. And it was during this time that I learnt the actual function of chords.
Say, you're playing C-F-G-F-C, a I IV V progression in Cmaj. Now, play anything you want from Am/G-mixo/C-maj scale, yes I know they are all the same thing. But interesting thing to note here is that, no matter what you play or how you play it from those 3 scales above..your ear is smarter than you think it is, it will magically resolve to 'C' note. Meaning, 'C' is your tonal center.
Now, here's the LIGHT BULB moment.
Do that exact same thing, but this time around play G-F-C-F-G progression instead. Voila! play the exact same thing..now again 'Magically' everything will resolve to a 'G'.
And believe me, you don't need a great ear for this. I have an average ear myself.
So what happened the second time around? The chords, you see..essentially set up the 'flavor' of the melody that's about to go on top of it. When you played G-F-C, the flavor was already set up, even if you played a 'C-major scale', it was essentially centered around 'G'(because of the chordal thing). So, it would become wrong to call it a 'C-major' key' right? Duh! So it's a G-something...G-mixolydian. Yes, although it may have the exact same notes as a C major, it's completely different. It's a very warm-majory sound.
This way, each mode has it's own sound or flavor as I'd like to call it.
I think, this stage is brilliant to get you started on modes. Ever since I knew this, a lot of things started making sense to me.
Answer: A "mode" is simply a scale that has been altered in some way. The unaltered natural major scale is playing in Ionian mode. The unaltered natural minor scale is playing in Aeolian mode. The other modes can be constructed by altering the natural minor or major scales.
For example the Phrygian mode can be formed by a natural minor scale with a flattened 2nd.
A good explanation of this is given here: http://www.mandolincafe.com/niles2.html
Answer: Modes are just a very old type of scale. It was just the way in which the pre baroque era Medieval music was made. It is in essence the musical system that predates the current classical inspired system.
If you want to go in depth about how you can see the different modes for what they are you can always just look where the semi tones in the scale / piece is. That is all a scale really is. A set of notes a set amount of whole and semitones from each other.
The eight Gregorian modes (Also known as the church modes) have their semitones between the following places.
Dorian → 2/3 and 6/7
Phrygian → 1/2 and 5/6
Lydian → 4/5 and 7/8
Mixolydian → 3/4 and 6/7
Hypodorian → 2/3 and 5/6
Hypophrygian → 1/2 and 4/5
Hypolydian → 3/4 and 7/8
Hypomixolydian → 2/3 and 5/6
Answer: Modes are differentiated by the interval patterns, or in short by the movement of the notes. The things common to all the modes of a scale are the involved notes. All the modes of a scale will share the same key signature.
Comment: Could we get you to further elaborate on your thoughts> They seem interesting but we don't like short answers on this site.

How to know if it's a mode or scale?


i have 1998 jeep cherokee 4x4 4.0 liter battery not charging

Question: I have 1998 jeep cherokee 4x4 4.0L. I've tested the alternater, battery, starter, (they all tested good) and replaced the pick up coil, but the battery is still not charging. It's backfiring, the dash light goes haywire and the speedometer and rev counter lose their readings. I had to run a hot wire from alternater to battery using a toggle switch to be able to drive and keep charge. I have tried to reset the computer by disconnecting the battery, but still have the same issues. It is also burning at least twice as much fuel since the electrical problems have occurred. any suggestions will be appeciated, thanks.
Answer: Disclaimer: I'm no mechanic, but I have been doing lots of Jeep forum research and have fixed quite a few things on mine.
I have a 2001 Sport and had a similar issue: intermittent dim lights, battery not charging all the time, and getting stuck with a dead battery out of nowhere. (Wife not happy.) I looked for shorts, with chafing in the front door & rear hatch harnesses being common, and replaced the battery (was fine).
The problem is simply corrosion in the battery lugs. Chrysler used an arguably too small gauge for the battery & starter wiring harness and corrosion works it's way inside the cables coming out of the battery lugs. The quick answer is to cut off the old lugs, wirebrush the underlying wires to a good shine (making sure to separate the strands), and then putting on new lugs. Even then it's a good idea to shine them again every 6 months to a year, at least I've had to.
A previous owner had already replaced the lugs on mine and everything looked fine. Once I unbolted the wires from the lugs, I could see the corrosion. A 10 minute wire brushing solved all the weird electrical issues. The longer term fix is to replace the battery and starter harness with a larger gauge. There are a few people selling them online (here's one) and they are generally made from welding cable.
Comment: Great answer! Thanks for your addition and welcome to the site :D PS: Don't worry that you're not a mechanic ... plenty of people who are not who have plenty to share.
Comment: Hah now I see that was asked almost 4 years ago, oh well.
Answer: I had an issue with these symptoms on my Chrysler minivan.  The problem turned out to be a bad battery.  It seemed to be ok, but was making intermittent contact because the negative stud was loose, and eventually broke off in my hand.  Once I put a new battery in, everything went back to normal and the van has been running great since.


Tor browser not working in college (which uses proxy server)

Question: I used the Vidalia bundle but am unable to access internet with the Tor browser.  Please help me configure the settings (I don't exactly know how the Tor browser or Vidalia work, so the more information the better).
Thanks.
Comment: Vidalia is not maintained anymore. Please use the Tor Browser.
Answer: You need to configure your tor browser to use the proxy of your university to access the internet. Therefore, open the Tor Network Settings and select the second field: "This computer needs to use a local proxy to access the Internet".
However: This might compromise your anonymity in the first place, e. g. if you have to login with university credentials. Please inform yourself about risks, problems and pitfalls, this might producde.
Answer: Turn on bridges mode in browser settings. It was designed for this specific scenario.
Here is the link that includes all the requested walkthroughs, screenshots, and other stuff you wanted for the answer from The Tor Project itself.
Comment: Can you explain how to do this, or where to find this setting? Screenshots are often helpful.
Comment: @AndrewLott its explained at length on torproject.org. I'll add a link and be done with it.
Comment: Please give a basic breakdown if you can. Link-only answers aren't appreciated without some explanation.
Answer: After you launch the Tor Browser click on Open Settings. You'll be asked to Connect or Configure. Click "Configure", select "Yes" then "Next" then "Yes" or "No" on if you need to use a local proxy (you probably won't need to). After that just hit "Connect". All the bridge information will be stored in your torrc.


How do I solve this linear partial differential equation?

Question: I haven't learned how to do this yet, but a friend gave me this question to do.  He said it was on an exam he did and it was a fun puzzle.
$xu_x-yu_y=2u$
That's pretty much all he gave me.  Is this even a complete question?
I assume I read it like
$x\frac{\partial u}{\partial x} - y\frac{\partial u}{\partial y} =2u$
and that $u$ is a function of $x$ and $y$.  After that, I'm not even sure what answering this means.
But if I think about it, $x\frac{\partial u}{\partial x}$ looks like an approximation of the function $u$ (when y is constant) at $(x,y)$ if the gradient is that of the function when $x=0$.  Likewise, $y\frac{\partial u}{\partial y}$ is an approximation of $u$ (when $x$ is constant) at $(x,y)$.  I don't know what I'd get subtracting one from the other, but the result somehow gives me twice the height of $u$ at every point.
How do I go about solving this?
I saw someone posted an answer and it's tempting to scroll down and look at it, but I'm refusing to until later.  I'm going to try to figure this out for myself.   :)
Comment: This is a linear PDE also.
Comment: Woops, so it is.  Fixed, thanks :)
Answer: Use the method of Characteristics. Here is the solution
$$ u \left( x,y \right) = x^2F\left( x\,y \right)\,. $$


Did Native Americans sabotage telegraph lines running through their territory?

Question: In the 1800s in the Western US, there were a number of telegraph lines running through territory mostly inhabited by Indians.  Did they ever sabotage the lines?
Comment: I'd encourage adding railroad lines to this question (or ask it as a separate one).
Comment: Great idea!  I'll ask it as a separate question.
Comment: Could you document any research you've already done?
Comment: Also you might ask whether it was strictly sabotage - that is, the point was to stop the telegraph from operating - or whether the lines were simply being 'mined' for their copper - something that is not entirely unknown today :-)
Comment: @jamesqf, for my particular purposes, the reason they might have pulled down the lines isn't important.
Answer: From what I've been able to dig up, the answer appears to be yes, but not as much as you'd think.
It appears the Telegraph companies saw the danger every bit as clearly as you did, and actively took steps to prevent it. They made sure to meet with the chiefs through whose territory they ran lines, hired them to help construct the lines, and generally took pains to treat them with far more respect and deference than white men typically showed Native Americans.

The importance of having a good understanding and keeping on friendly
  terms with the Indians was well understood, and everything was done,
  both then and during the period of the construction of the line, to
  prevent the occurrence of anything that would lead to trouble with
  them. ...
...That this good feeling with the Indians was maintained throughout, was also in a measure due to a general order issued at the start, that any man of the expedition getting into trouble with the Indians, or their squaws, would be immediately dismissed from the service, and this rule was strictly enforced.

Apparently all this effort did pay off.

In connection with our treatment of the Indians during the period of
  this work, it might be well for me to mention that the consideration
  we manifested toward them appeared, in after years, to be fully
  appreciated. This was instanced in 1863, two years after the
  completion of the overland telegraph line, when an Indian war broke
  out on the overland route, ...
During all these troubles, the telegraph line was not
  disturbed, and, if my recollection serves me right, no stage station
  in which a telegraph office was established was ever burned; nor was
  an employee of the Company ever molested or injured by the Indians.
  They seemed to look on the telegraph people as another tribe and
  against which they had no hostility.

However, there are, as you suspected, always exceptions. In fact, if the lines were being actively used against them, it would be stupid not to cut them:

Sweetwater Station, in the South Pass, was attacked by a band of Sioux Indians...The Indians promptly returned the fire, and the fight lasted for
  several days. At the first moment of attack the operator telegraphed
  to the nearest fort for troops to come to the rescue. Shortly after
  having done so, the wires were cut by the Indians in the hope that it
  would cut off communication for relief.

I'd highly suggest reading the entire link above. Fascinating stuff.
Comment: This is correct. The same thing happened with railroads. In both cases the companies would just pay the local Indians protection money, so to speak, to guarantee the integrity of their lines.


Should we change """" to """" in German questions?

Question: The easy quotation marks ("""") are not German. Should German questions and answers be edited to conform to this? I think that they yield a more professional impression.
Comment: Generations of famous German writers produced there works using a simple typewrite and used the symbol ".
Comment: @bernd: Yes, they did, and my guess is that it was due to the lack of fancy quotation marks on their typewriters.
Comment: @Hendrik: I disagree with "with a computer that's not a problem". It **is** a problem. It might be a problem with a solution that's not *terribly* hard, but as long as it's easier to write `"text"` than it is to type `"text"`, it *will* be a problem.
Comment: @Hendrik: My German keyboard is *still* lacking the fancy quotation marks.
Comment: @thei: You did not read between the lines (or, to be more precise, between the one line I wrote). My first comment was only about _typewriters_ missing fancy quotation marks. Computer keyboards miss those, too, but with a _computer_ that's not a problem since you can invent lots of convenient ways to obtain those fancy quotation marks nevertheless. (Yes, all this (and more) was meant between the line(s) - maybe it was a bit too much.)
Comment: @thei: That's interesting, you're using a _typewriter_ to access german.sx? `;-)`
Comment: I personally don't care for quotation marks, but if you want to put some effort into it, thank you. :)
Comment: @Hendrik: This is not what I have written.
Comment: Please note that I'm not suggesting forcing people to use fancy quotation marks, just that it should be OK to edit posts that use the other ones.
Comment: @Joachim: Perhaps I should have written "not a big problem". On this site it's indeed sort of annoying that you don't easily obtain `""`. On the other hand, in many office programs it's indeed not a problem since you have pretty good auto-conversion. Also in TeX (with `[german]{babel}`) it's very easy.
Comment: And does most German have English throughout too?
Comment: @Phira On a German keyboard quotation marks are often available through `AltGr+y` (»), `AltGr+x` («), `AltGr+v` ("), `AltGr+b` (") and `AltGr+n` (").
Answer: Personally I think the focus should be more on the content. But by now I'm aware that most people think the other way which is fine by me.
Two things:

EL&U already automatically converts quotes. Is this active here too? Maybe we can have that solution with German quotes. But then there is the problem with questions asked in English...
I just noticed that the font bug might not be that critical in the long term. The site uses Tahoma only because it's in Beta. EL&U for example uses Georgia which renders the quotes correctly. Until the issue is fixed, some titles might be a bit irritating. I really don't know whether to make heads or tails of the title of this question without copying it into a word processor...
Comment: I think that 1 isn't possible to implement, since the "normal" quotes would have to be used in English texts.
Comment: Questions and answers should only be corrected, if they are fresh. Else they will jump into the front of the list of actual content, only for the reason the quotation marks changed. This shouldn't happen.
Comment: @userunknown Yeah, and while we're at it we should not allow comments to 15 month old questions and answers.
Comment: @musiKk: Why not? Questions and answers, as well as the comments supplementing them, can be found and read by interested visitors years later, at which point it is irrelevant whether a particular comment was added a minute or a decade after the question or answer.
Comment: @O.R.Mapper It was sarcasm (granted, maybe not that obvious). I find the idea just as bad as the one I referenced.
Comment: @musiKk: Oh, ok. In any case, these comments now nicely illustrate why comments should be allowed to arrive much later ;) And I agree with you, I think if anything, a more viable alternative would be making the SE backend a bit more intelligent so it can distinguish between edits that changed the content and edits that just changed the formatting/replaced some symbols (and even that sounds risky, as a replacement of `<` with `>` can be intentional *and* significantly change a text).
Answer: Sorry I don't know how to post images in comments. This is the reply to Hendrik Vogt
That is waht I see on Wie wird das e in "Genus" ausgesprochen?.
And the closing quotation mark is terribly wrong.
Comment: That's definitely something that needs to be fixed! I don't know [how many votes we need](http://meta.german.stackexchange.com/questions/56/font-bug-main-site-font-renders-german-closing-quotation-marks-wrongly) for the SE team to take notice.
Comment: Interesting! I see indeed different quotation marks, and the ones I see are good. I also find the closing quotation mark in your picture terribly wrong, but that's the fault of the font designer. (If you want to post an image in a comment, upload it via the "Ask Question" form, don't submit the question, and then include the link like this: `![](http://www.url-of-image.com/name-of-image.png)`.)
Comment: @Hendrig: I have the same problem as bernd_k. Misterben wrote in a comment to the linked post: "One of my computers doesn't have Tahoma available so falls back to a Helvetica-like font. It's a huge improvement."
Comment: @Tim: Yes, this must be it. Thanks! (Note that I saw your comment only since I was visiting this post anyway - you got a typo in my name.)
Comment: Main post for the font bug: https://meta.german.stackexchange.com/questions/56/font-bug-main-site-font-renders-german-closing-quotation-marks-wrongly
Answer: I see that you just edited a question to give it the fancy German quotation marks. In this case, the quotation marks also were in the title. I think we should strive to have really good titles for the questions, so for this case I strongly support such edits. I wouldn't edit a question just to change quotation marks in the body.
Comment: @bernd: Hmm, I seem to see different things than you do. Can you post a screenshot? But whatever, if this site manages to graduate from beta, then we'll get a new design and different fonts anyway.
Comment: I can't say, that the result in this example looks good. The ending quotation mark has to be inclined like slash and not like a backslash.
Answer: In my opinion we should disregard the german quotes completely. I am german and I don't see the appreciation for them. They don't clarify anything but are only bothering people to ask themselves which one they should use.

Should we change """" to "„“" in German questions?


Group lists in the new Outlook

Question: None of the groups I had previously created in Hotmail are showing up in the new Hotmail Outlook. I have read your suggestions for other people, but when I open People there is no tab on the top that says Groups. Only 'Save as Group'. So I have tried to re-create groups but when I can start a new group, with the same name as an old group it tells me I have a group with that name already. I just can't find it to add contacts to it.
This email is used for a non-profit soccer club, which means I have 20 different groups with 100s of contact. I would hate to loose this information or the ability to add new members to existing groups.
Comment: Could you please link to the other suggestions so that we know which ones you're referring to?
Answer: Please follow these steps to be able see your groups and to add/remove/modify group properties:
1- If you are in Outlook, then click on the down arrow beside the Outlook logo on the top left. Alternatively, go to the People page here and sign in if you aren't already signed in.

2- You should see something along these lines:

Now, your groups and individual contacts are in the same list. Type in the name of the group to filter it.
3- You can tell it is a group because of the logo beside it.

4- Click on the name of the group and then click "Edit". Now, you can modify who is in the group.

Hope this helps :)

Group lists in the new Outlook


Child travelling with different nationality passport than mom

Question: My wife (Polish passport) is planning to travel to the USA (and some European countries) with our son who has dual Polish-British nationality. Would it cause any issues if the young one is travelling on a British passport? It seems especially convenient this way, because Polish citizens still need a visa to get to the USA, which is both expensive and humiliating to obtain. Are they going to experience any issues with American officials?
Comment: @Ankujr: Because of the absurd American visa theatre that's been introduced in the wake of 9/11.
Comment: @AnkurBanerjee Does that make it any less humiliating?
Comment: The absurd theatre of having to apply for visas has always existed for travellers of many nationalities. Man up!
Comment: What's so humiliating about getting a visa?
Comment: @AnkurBanerjee: Have you seen how people are treated at the US embassies? I have seen parents with babies having to leave strollers and bags outside with strangers, since it was completely unthinkable even to park the stroller OUTSIDE the actual embassy (but near the queue)...
Comment: @Relaxed What is humiliating about it ... ?
Answer: Technically there's no issue at all with doing this.
However where she could have a problem is in convincing the immigration officials that she is the child's true parent, and has authority to take him across country lines.  I'd suggest taking a copy of your son's birth certificate showing that she is the child's mother, as well as a letter from you giving permission for her to travel with him. If her name on the passport is different to that on the birth certificate, such as if it changed at marriage, you'll also want proof of that - such as a marriage certificate.
Here's some additional information on children traveling with only one parent.
Don't forget that you will be required to obtain an ESTA for your son to enter the US under the visa waiver program.


Creating a new table on the fly

Question: I am new to Django plotform. I am trying to write a program which basically accepts a post method. The content of incoming data is storename, bookname, bookserial. That part is already implemented and works well. When I post the content such as storename=John's shopping center, bookname=Love is beatiful, bookserial=123. It creates a table and save those things into a table. But, the thing is that I want to create not just only one table for each store. Because, I can have multiple storename and each store should have its own table. When I post the storename on the fly ,it should check storename and then if it's table is created already, the bookname and bookserial should be inserted its table. If not, a new table should be created and then the incoming data is inserted the new table. The new table name should be storename as well.So, as I said, I only need to learn how to create new tables on the fly part. Could you please help me how to do that, any comments and ideas is appreciated....
An example to make it clear,
Table-1=John's shopping center
    bookname=Love is beatiful
    bookserial=123

  Table-2= John's shopping center-2
     bookname=Time is important
     bookserial=456

So, the model is same for each shopping center but each of sopping center is a different table with the name of shopping center.
Comment: Are you sure you really need a new table each time? Do the "store" models differ extremely in schema between each one? Unfortunately you can't create models on the fly.
Comment: Yes, I really need  a new table for each time. Actually, the store model is same for each store but I need them on the different tables.
Answer: In the traditional sense, it is not possible to dynamically create concrete tables on the fly in django. Models have to be registered as part of the application startup, so that the ORM can properly manage all the relations. Consider what would happen if you defined a new model that set up constraints or backrefs to other models. Those other models, being classes, have already been set up and are in memory. They can no longer go through their metaclass step to wire new relations. You could easily break things.
Your options are limited to either a solution involving a few tables that can dynamicaly describe different entities, or to use a nosql backend that does not care about schemas and will let you store anything at any time.
See this question and answer for details: Django dynamic model fields
The only way to have a concrete table on the fly is if you have the django app restart itself completely in response.

Creating a new table on the fly


Gem for surveys with images on RoR

Question: I am a newbie on RoR and I am looking for a GEM that would create surveys and support images. I have tried Surveyor and it seems great for text only surveys (I will definitely use it again for surveys). Ideas?
Answer: Easiest way would be to generate the HTML with that gem, then use the generated HTML and put it in the html.erb and update it with the images.
You can look at the generated HTML with developer tools on your browser.
Otherwise, you will have to write it yourself or add new methods to that gem.

Gem for surveys with images on RoR


Installing a profile inherited from an existing distribution

Question: I would like to build a distribution based on the Standard profile coming with Drupal 7, by inheriting all the features of the parent distro and changing some of them with custom code.
The title of this question sounds very similar to "Is there a way to inherit a Drupal installation profile?". While the referenced post deals with building the code base, ie a .make file, here I am interested in site installation of a distro made of profilename.info, profilename.install and profilename.profile.
There is a solution proposed in [How to Write a Drupal 7 Installation Profile][2], that seems quite simple. So I tried the following code in mydistro.profile:
function mydistro_install() {
  include_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/profiles/standard/standard.install';
  standard_install();
}

If this worked I could add custom features further down in the process.
Then I ran site-install with drush:
drush -d si mydistro -y --db-url=mysql://root:secret@localhost/mydistro_com

The process installs the database with 43 tables (out of 74 that come with the standard profile), and enables the following modules:
user, field_sql_storage, filter, node, field, text
and then throws this error message:
exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table                              [error]
'mydistro_com.block' doesn't exist' in C:\xampp\htdocs\mydistro.com\includes\database\database.inc:2171
Stack trace:
#0 C:\xampp\htdocs\mydistro.com\includes\database\database.inc(2171): PDOStatement->execute(Array)
#1 C:\xampp\htdocs\mydistro.com\includes\database\database.inc(683): DatabaseStatementBase->execute(Array, Array)
#2 C:\xampp\htdocs\mydistro.com\includes\database\mysql\query.inc(36): DatabaseConnection->query('INSERT INTO {bl...', Array, Array)

saying that the block table is missing. All other tables belonging to the modules that are listed as dependencies in standard.info are also missing:
dependencies[] = block
dependencies[] = color
dependencies[] = comment
dependencies[] = contextual
dependencies[] = dashboard
.
.
.

I have tested with Drupal 7.38 on Windows 7, php 5.6.2.
Same test and same result also with minimal profile.
Any idea about what I am doing wrong?
Answer: Are you adding those dependencies to your .info file mydistro.info?
If not, you should. It looks like the install is getting to line 196 in the standard.install file and then trying to enable all those blocks, but the blocks module was never enabled and it doesn't test for that, which is breaking the install. @VanD
Basically you should add the same modules listed as dependencies in the standard profile, also to mydistro.info and re-run the installation.


Should a new guitarist practice on 1 instrument or vary it?

Question: I'm a very new student to the guitar. I'm interested in pretty much the whole spectrum of acoustic. I was wondering, should I learn and practice exclusively on my steel string regular acoustic exclusively or invest in a classical too at this early stage? I'm really interested in both, so should I stick with one for now until I reach a decent level, and then pick up the other or go for both now in the hope that they may compliment each other?
Comment: By my reckoning, this is the 1000th question regarding guitars. Surely note-worthy?
Answer: I'd say start now with both of them. It takes a long time to get good at an instrument and there are people that after they spend so much time on an instrument, they don't want to spend so much time again on another one.
If you practice both of them, it would take you more time to become good, but you'll be good at two types of guitar rather than one.
This is just my opinion, what I did on bass. I started playing electric bass and some months later I started playing double bass.
Answer: Clearly this is in the realm of opinion.
The following differences exist:

The strings, are farther apart on the classical, and closer together
on the steel string. This means that the the finger placement will
have to follow a slightly different accuracy. I do not know how I
negotiate this difference myself, but I do. Probably best to jump in and do both from the start to get used to this (Opinion warning).
The steel string guitar has a radius to the neck (the fret board is not flat but curved).
This makes the steel string more comfortable. (oops kind of an opinion there.)
The steel string
requires more pressure to properly depress the strings to the fret
board. This means that when you play the classical you are probably
over doing it, but perhaps it could help lower your pressure on the
steel string. (Many of us over do it. (Not an opinion in my opinion.))
The position and size of the
guitar are dramatically different. Classical guitarists have a very
specific way that they hold the guitar. I suspect that this is a good
thing (the switching between the two guitars that is). The varying positions are probably better for your back than
any one position. (Tangent: There is something to be learned from the classical position, as it can be better for your hands.) Standing with a steel string may be good for your back. There is a benefit to the classical guitar technique of raising one leg, but it is offset by setting an imbalance to your backs position (only one leg). Switching and playing steel string and raising the other leg with the same stool could help balance this issue. (lots of opinion here, with some basis in fact based on observing physical therapy practices.) Just don't slouch, like my grand mother always told my sister whose back never suffered from her youthful indiscretions.
The sound is different (no deterrent there.)

I vote you go ahead and play both now rather than waiting for some magic day when you graduate from one to the other. I have known too many people that wait for a day that never comes to do something that they want to do based on some small limitation that they perceive as insurmountable.
Comment: I had a classical teacher that was viscerally offended that I played other guitars besides the classical. He thought it would spoil my technique.
Answer: I say choose the instrument you're most comfortable with. Do you like to play classical pieces or is it really about singer/songwriter stuff that you want to play? Personally I really like to listen to the latter but I prefer playing classical/flamenco stuff that is played on a nylon instrument. In addition I occasionally try to write non-classical finger-picking pieces but my head just turns it into some weird baroque thingy that no one can sing to :-). So I suggest using the instrument that suits the music you want to play!
Happy shredding g
Comment: I want to play them both! I have a steel string acoustic. I think I'll invest in the classical too and see how I get on. I would have thought that they may be mutually beneficial as at this stage...thanks for your replies!
Comment: I see, my recommendation would be to take your first steps with the classical guitar. Like one of the other posts stated the neck is wider and it's essentially a little bit harder to play at first because you need to build strength in your fingers. I found that the brain is very good at adapting to the easier to play instrument. However you have to take a closer look at the applied pressure (on both instruments). At first it's hard to find the right balance but it will work out. Just be sure not to overdo practicing too long per session - that's frequently the source of frustration and fatigue
Answer: Hang both of them on the wall.  Really.  Like they do in the music stores.  You will begin to pick one up for one thing, and the other for another thing.  This way your style may lead you to be more proficient on one, or favor one, or both.  Your decision will come from experience, instead of limiting your experience with a decision now.
I have six guitars on the various walls at home. Having them handy makes it easy to play and practice regularly.  I used to have my Martin in a case, as it was the most expensive of my guitars. Not anymore. It hangs on the wall with the rest; I was unintentionally denying myself the joy of playing my favorite guitar because I wanted to protect it.  From what, I wonder now.
Comment: I think he was asking if he should buy one, not that he already had one and is asking how to play and where to put them.


Increase video volume

Question: When watching a video with the built-in media player, the video volume sometimes is quite low, even when set to maximum. Using the same headphones, music is loud enough though. Is there a possibility to increase the volume for video playback? If it's not possible using built-in settings/apps, maybe there is an alternative video app with a volume overdrive setting?
Answer: The volume of audio and video played on your phone depends on the volume of the file itself (see technical details here). For example, you might play a video on YouTube and then a similar video on Vimeo with different maximum volumes.
Having said that, it is not impossible that there may be a problem with your phone speaker. Test this out by transferring a music file from your PC to your phone. Play it on maximum volume- if it seems reasonable, then you know that the phone speakers are not at fault.
Finally, there are no apps on the marketplace that allow you to boost or normalize volume. However, since you are on Windows Phone 8, you might see some improvements in updates that will soon be available.
Comment: The phone speaker is alright, and so are the headphones. As I said, playing music at full volume is quite loud - the problem relates only to video files. What I eventually get from your answer is that there is no built-in solution, and I'll have to edit the files before transferring them to the phone, such as described here: http://superuser.com/questions/13884/how-to-increase-the-volume-for-an-avi-file
Comment: Yup, I think that is your best bet

Increase video volume


Write to the finish, or edit as you go?

Question: Someone asked this question in another forum, and I thought I'd bounce it around in here to see what kind of responses we get. If you are working on writing a new book, is it better to just write all the way through to the end on your first draft, or should you periodically stop and go back to edit? If you edit as you go, will it help reduce the amount of deviation your story takes, or will it lessen the number of changes you end up making on the second draft? Is there a clear advantage to editing as you go?
Comment: Somewhat related (although only on editing typos): [Correct spelling errors while writing or after you've finished?](http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1084/correct-spelling-errors-while-writing-or-after-youve-finished)
Answer: At the risk of trying to answer the unanswerable I will share with you something I have discovered over the course of my various writings.
Writing is a bit like building a bridge from one side of a chasm or other deep precipice to the other. By yourself.
For this reason beginnings are tricky, middles have their ups and downs and ends are hard.
You can plan as much as you like but when you get about halfway out over the precipice the fact remains that all you will have is a long jetty that is halfway to being a bridge. Building the second half of the bridge, in the first instance, is always going to be a matter of compromise rather than perfect design.
Part of the reason for this is down to the fact that until you've got some way into the project you won't know for certain that you started in the right place. The chronology could be out. Characters could react to events, say things or take actions that, in retrospect, don't seem to be quite right.
Many of these matters may appear to be trifles but trifles accumulate into a cruft of creativity killing conceptual gunk. Most times when a writer becomes "stuck" it is exactly this kind of knot that has them in a bind.
The insidious thing is that no one of these little items looks too terribly out of place by itself. It's a cumulative effect. Often there will be one key error or slip from which the others arise.
I have often heard the advice to a mired writer that they should "plug on through". I have done it myself and it is possible. It's the equivalent of doing some long, tedious and only barely productive work on the bridge until suddenly that part is done and the next major step may be taken towards completion.
The only problem with this approach is that the bridge, upon completion, is even more the product of compromise than it would otherwise have been. It also has a tendency to be almost impossible to fundamentally alter because the fruits of the "plug on through" toil tend to make the prospect of serious focus shifts or re-edits seem unpalatable because then the very worst bits will have to be completely redone to nearly the point where it might seem that you were writing a whole new novel from scratch.
So you get editor's block as a replacement for author's block. Not a great trade.
I find when I get mired it's a sign. My instincts are telling me something is wrong. I might not be sharp enough to know exactly what it is, I just know it's there, somewhere, in what's already been written.
The time you get stuck while writing is a time to look at what you've already written and ask some questions.

Does the story start too late (i.e. there are things you haven't explained that need to be explained in scenes that precede the current start point) or too early (i.e. are some of your early chapters strictly speaking unnecessary)?
Do your characters all behave "properly" no one does anything out of character or act in a way that could be interpreted contrary to your intentions?
Are all the events that have occurred so far relevant to your intended storyline? Are there any extraneous events that could be reworked or cut out completely?

The answer to one or two of these will probably clue you in as to what needs to change before progress onwards can be smooth and natural.
I don't personally believe this to be a matter of debate. It's not about "editing" per se, it's about shaping as you go. The dichotomy between adding and subtracting material is a false one.
Inevitably upon first attaining the other side of the chasm your work will necessarily be lopsided. Once you have a whole bridge you can go back, take some of the scaffold off the front and beef up the end. Only with a complete work can you appreciate the whole thing. Just because that is a stage in the process doesn't mean that along the way you won't have cause to switch things around as you go.
Of course one of the things that makes this possible is electronic word processing software, which is still relatively new. My father used to refer to the word processor as "the padder's dream" and many early adopter authors did, in fact, treat it this way.
The real advantage of Word Processors is that they give you an unprecedented amount of control over the whole thing all the way along. Only someone with rocks in their head would fail to develop a nimble and dynamic crafting style to exploit their new advantages.
Comment: You do not have to write novels to write about novels. Almost tl;dr but I build my bridge through your text ;) +1
Comment: I admit, I skimmed parts.  The internet has broken my brain.  But I think one more term that makes this question hard to answer is what it means to 'edit'.  You acknowledge that what you're talking about isn't 'editing per se'; I would say that you're just talking about intelligent writing.  I mean, to write something in which the characters don't 'all behave properly', or to write without considering whether that's happening just seems like careless writing.  For your other two questions, I think they are often hard to answer until the first draft is finished.
Comment: @John: It's a complex question, with a lot of bases to cover. Although I suppose I could have just written "edit as you go, it's better." I think some of the nuance may have been lost ;)
Comment: @Kate sometimes you can't see your characters are doing something that, in retrospect, you realise was "improper". One time a case of writer's block went poof when I talked over a problem with a friend and they pointed out that two characters who were involved in the stock genre fiction romance (tm) were moving too fast in their relationship bearing in mind my stated character history. I slowed the relationship down a little and it all came right. Other outside observers would have seen nothing amiss.
Comment: Several excellent points here. I like the bridge metaphor, and how it illustrates how hard re-editing later is.
Answer: I've been thinking about this site lately, and I think this question is one of the ones that illustrates why the site isn't totally satisfying to me.  Because the answer to this question, as to so many other questions, is:
It depends.  What works for you?
I really don't think that writing, at least fiction writing, is a science.  It's a craft for some, an art for others, but it doesn't have the firm, straightforward rules that would make it a science.
If you find that you do well if you edit as you go, edit as you go. If you find you have better results by spitting everything out in the manner it occurs to you and then refining later, do that.  There are just too many variables to be able to have firm right/wrong answer (a weakness, obviously, for a 'stack' type website).
But, trying to be concrete:  How about a compromise?  I read and revise  the previous day's work before I start on the current day's writing.  It allows me to get back into the style of the project and be clear of where I am, and I catch lots of little problems.  Then when I'm done, I go back over the whole project and make changes as needed.  It works for me.  Does it work for you?
Comment: Agreed. This is entirely individual, and there's really not much to say to this beyond "see what works best for you."
Comment: What there is to say is what effect doing one or the other has had for you, or for other authors you know, and why.
Answer: Just for reference, JRR Tolkien wrote straight through.  Took him forever (yea he was also a procrastinator) but he created... so much more than a masterwork.
So to each his own really.  Depends on your goals.  I'm not published so take it with a grain of salt.
Answer: You are going to have to edit at some point. That editing may mean taking out huge chunks of text, entire plot lines, entire characters. If it's easier for you to do that early on, edit as you go. If you can't determine what needs to be removed until the whole thing is on the page, write it all down first.
As Kate and many of us say: whatever works for you. Writing is a process. Everyone has his/her own.
Answer: As it appears to say a lot. It is for you to decide whether it works for you.
Personally, I am almost unable to edit once completing a draft so I 'edit on-the-go': I write a chapter or two. Then, get them proofread, etc. Then write some more. When I reach the 'end of the beginning', I go back and make sure that the beginning is working out as planned, and that there are no hiccups to trip me up when I'm writing the middle. I repeat this approach when I reach the end of the middle and end of the end.
Answer: The answer to this is why we have chapters. The novel is broken down into more manageable chunks for both writer and reader. You don't have to work on the novel — or read it — as though it is one big chapter.
So my suggestion to you is: write straight through to the end of the chapter, then on a separate day, with fresh eyes, edit and refine the chapter, then move on to writing the next chapter.
This approach solves many giant problems:

you don't interrupt your writing time and flow with stop-and-go editing and second-guessing because you know you are going to edit the complete chapter during a separate editing session
you edit while the writing is fairly fresh in your mind, but with a little distance of a separate day to get perspective
you build each additional chapter on a fairly solid foundation of edited, refined previous chapters — not on the shifting sand of unedited chapters.

Write to the finish, or edit as you go?


What rank was Kirk when he first boarded the Enterprise in Star Trek (2009)?

Question: In the 2009 film Star Trek, we see a young Kirk enter StarFleet Academy.  A few years pass, and he takes the Kobayashi Maru test.  Shortly afterwards, Nero attacks, and he ends up on the Enterprise.  What rank (if any) was he at this point?  Shortly afterwards, Pike promotes him, and through his cunning he manages to get promoted to Captain.  I'd hope he wasn't just a rank-less cadet at the start of this, but the movie never makes it obvious.
Comment: I had always been a little curious about this myself. I was under the impression that he had graduated already, along with the others, and he was going through some additional Officer's training just prior to the attack.
Answer: Kirk was a suspended cadet when the attack happens.

 This was due to his questionable behavior regarding the Kobiyashi Maru test.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/James_T.Kirk(alternate_reality)
Comment: Wait, so he goes from Cadette to Captain in just \*guess\* three days?!
Comment: He was temporary first-officer and when Spock was promoted to captain and became emotionally unstable, Kirk was then promoted to temporary Captain. As far as I understand it, anyone can be captain at any rank, but their pips or "official" rank stays the same until officially promoted (like at end of the first movie). Think of ensign Harry Kim, who was "captain" on the night shift in Star Trek Voyager. However his rank was still ensign.
Comment: @Jared: There's a difference between being called captain and holding the rank of captain. It's customary to refer to whomever is commanding the ship as "captain". I think this was explained in one of the series. This isn't related to rank and isn't a temporary promotion (just as calling an admiral "captain" isn't a temporary demotion). Kirk would have had to receive multiple field promotions to attain the rank of captain.
Answer: When Chekov is trying to lock on to Kirk and Sulu (to beam them up) as they were falling from the black hole device, you can see on the screen that Chekov is using the names Lt, J. Kirk and Lt, H. Sulu. So I assume then that he was holding the rank of Lieutenant.

Obviously this raises another question about how quickly he went from Lieutenant to Captain (an extremely short period of time) but I suppose in wartime they did promote fast through 'battlefield promotions'. Maybe that's what happened to Kirk.
Comment: screenshot of this?
Answer: He was a cadet. Cadet is a rank in and of itself; the various cadet grades are usually not considered outside the cadet hierarchy.
That he was suspended doesn't change his rank (tho' he was apparently seconds away from being an ex-cadet).
We also do not know the canonical cadet grades, but, we presume to use the same system of cadet grades as the USNA at Anapolis does, he's a Cadet 1st Class (4th year cadet), possibly holding the positional grade of Cadet Lieutenant.
A Note on Midshipman
In the US, at least, a Midshipman is a Cadet or officer candidate in a naval officer training program, including the US Naval Academy at Annapolis and NROTC. It is also used for the cadets at the US Merchant Marine Academy. They hold authority just below that of a Chief Warrant Officer (W2), according to Naval manuals (such as Naval Orientation - Military manual for administrative purposes). Historically, there was a rank called "Passed Midshipman," but it was replaced with Ensign in the late 19th C.
Various non-canon sources (especially the various Role-playing games) make an artificial distinction between Midshipman and Cadet, with Cadets being in the 4 year undergraduate program, and Midshipmen being in later training prior to assignment as an Ensign or Lieutenant JG. This distinction was introduced to this author in FASA's Star Trek The Role-Playing Game, and may be based upon prior fanon; the use of Midshipman in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan may have contributed to this.
Such a distinction would make Star Fleet less like the US Navy ranks-wise; A US Navy Midshipman is an academy cadet; upon completion of the undergraduate portion, they are commissioned as ensigns, exactly as USMA West Point cadets are graduated as Second Lieutenants. Post graduation schooling at the USNA does occur; attendees are not cadets nor midshipmen, retaining full commissioned rank, even as some privileges are suspended for persons assigned to take training.
In either case, Kirk was a 4th year, and the mode of address in the film is "Cadet," so by either mode for midshipman, Mr. Kirk was not one. Starfleet either doesn't use "Midshipman" during that era, or reserves it for some other use.
Comment: I find it hard to believe that RAH could have a "profound lack of understanding of the military in general". As a West Point graduate plus 5 years as a naval officer, he would pretty much have lived the military for about 9 years. Unless you're making some kind of insinuation about either naval officers or West Point graduates.
Comment: Cadet ranks are not considered to be military ranks in all services. In Starship Troopers (the novel, not that monstrously stupid movie), the main character goes to the equivalent of OCS and while there, he has no rank. Graduates receive a temporary rank of "third lieutenant" for the purposes of getting them into the chain of command.
Comment: @Donald.McLean Starship Troopers shows a profound lack of understanding of the military in general. One of RAH's fatal flaws. Cadet as a military rank is near universal, tho' its placement in the US military below warrant and above enlisted men is a historical artifact, where in some others, it ranks identically to either incoming enlisted or junior NCO's.
Comment: It is a mistake to think that RAH meant the structure of the Mobile Infantry to mirror the US forces that he served in. He was fully equipped to have done that if he wanted to. I presume that he borrowed liberally from stuff that struck his fancy and may have made up bit outright. He was after all writing a fictional polemic, not a documentary.
Comment: West Pointers seldom go navy... West Point prepares men for the Army, not the Navy. (Still, some Westies do go navy. A few more go USMC. But it leaves them less than fully prepared for the real navy.) So citing him as a Naval officer and West Point grad is, shall we say, less that evidence of credibility. Moreover, Heinlein's own notes about it are that it's intentionally UNrealistic.


Plant anatomy, what are these stem like filaments growing under the flower

Question: The picture below shows what I am talking about. Each flower has one and I am just wondering what they are?
Comment: See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_(botany)
Answer: These are "floral spurs" – they usually contain nectar, and are part of the variety of complex flower shapes that orchids and other flowers, like columbines, have co-evolved with their pollinators.
Essentially, in order for the pollinator to reach the nectar down in the base of the spur, it must move into a position where pollen is deposited onto it; then when it moves to another flower, it can transfer that pollen and the plant is able to reproduce.
Of course, long tongues are good at getting nectar from long-spurred flowers, so there is both species filtering for long-tongued species, and presumably also selective pressure within a species for long-tongued individuals. This, in turn, drives selective pressure on the spurs.
Spurs are a classic example of a "key innovation": they have evolved separately in different types of flowers, and when they evolve, they often lead to rapid speciation (because a small change in spur architecture can constitute a barrier to reproduction). (See, for example, publications of Scott Hodges)
Answer: Looking at this, it looks like a spur. A quite overbreed one, though.


How to incorporate large amounts of data from Ancestry.com

Question: I have found three separate family trees on Ancestry.com that include my ancestor. Each covers branches that the others don't. I would like to incorporate that data into my own database (RootsMagic). Ancestry.com doesn't let you download exports of other people's family trees, only your own. So I made a personal family tree on Ancestry.com and tried to merge the information from the other trees into it. But as far as I can tell, this can only be done one individual at a time and is much more time consuming than I expected. There is no way that I've found to say "Add this person and all his/her ancestors." Surely lots of people have had this situation. What can I do?
Comment: I would say this is a very rare instance of Ancestry actually encouraging good practice! Reviewing the information about each individual one at a time to determine how reliable it is is a much better practice that importing willy-nilly the mistakes accumulated by somebody else.
Comment: Welcome to G&FH SE!  While waiting for an answer, you may want to review this earlier Q&A with a similar question focussed on GEDCOM rather than Ancestry.com: http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/11/how-can-i-import-sections-of-someone-elses-tree
Comment: I would also like to do this, because it more efficient to start with larger tree and all potential information and then start pruning incorrect information rather than research every link one at a time
Answer: Fortunately it is not possible to incorporate large amounts of data from someone else's tree on Ancestry.com without going through it individual by individual.
This slows – but far from eliminates – the rate of:

plagiarism: taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own
perpetuating false information: many public trees on Ancestry are poorly researched

So how can you proceed if you do not wish to manually go through all the information, but you are certain(!) it is correct? All you can do is:

Contact the tree owner and ask if they would provide the tree to you in GEDCOM format. You can then incorporate the GEDCOM into your tree. If they will not do this, it is unlikely they would have wanted you to download the tree wholesale anyway.

However, I strongly advise against this approach. Genealogy is much more fulfilling if you do the work yourself.
Comment: If you take this advice and go slowly through corresponding trees , it can take time, but there are a some big benefits:  a) you end up including only the people that are relevant to you, b) the evidence/facts/citations from those trees is COPIED into your tree, and thus then available to you to scrutinze, reuse, and duplicate offline.
Answer: To complement the previous answer -- sites do exist where people have shared their GEDCOM files for download.  Here are some things to consider if you could download the entire tree. 'Best practice' is to NOT merge their entire tree with yours, but to keep it separate and to use it as a reference because:

Some sites which allow users to upload trees don't have good mechanisms to allow the tree owners to update their tree.  So the same person may have uploaded their tree multiple times (or on multiple sites).  It isn't always obvious which of these trees is the most recent, and without talking to the owner, you can't know if they still agree with what they 'published' previously.
Trees made with the aid of Hints may have errors because a bad identification was suggested by the hint algorithm -- and on a site like Ancestry that generates hints, you don't know whether the tree was made for 'hint bait'. A person may attach a hint without doing any research at all, simply to see what other hints may show up if that speculative hint is 'correct'.  Since Ancestry doesn't have a flag to indicate the tree owner is not sure about a particular source or fact, unless the owner leaves a comment to alert other readers, there is no way to tell which part of the tree may be soundly researched and which parts are speculative, except by guessing that the outermost bits of the tree are likely to be the most 'iffy'.  Now consider that any part of the tree could have been, at one time or another, one of those 'speculative' bits -- or could have been copied from someone else's "hint bait" tree. (2020 Update: since Ancestry has introduced MyTreeTags, users can mark an individual's entire profile with "hypothesis", "unverified" etc., but there is no standard flag for marking a single item on the profile as unverified -- the only thing users can do is leave notes in the event's description.)

Some of the best professional genealogists I know warn people not to trust their work blindly, but to evaluate the work yourself. You can learn far more by examining and evaluating any sources used, and asking why someone might have decided a fact was correct, than you can by simply plugging the raw facts from their tree into your own.
Answer: I disagree with some of Harry Vervet's answer with regard to Ancestry.com I agree is not possible to bring large amounts of data from another's Family Tree to yours. There are basically two ways to bring another's Tree into your Ancestry Tree. #1 merge a Gedcom (ged) file to your Tree. All that does is brings names and dates into your Tree. It is no fun editing for duplicates, wrong dates and misaligned branches. Also you do not get any underlying support from from the merged Tree. #2 The other way is to use an "Ancestry Member Tree" and link what you choose as "Select trees with relevant information". All that does is reference your person to the Tree where you got that information. No supporting detail comes across to your Tree. I don't think incorporating information has anything to do with plagiarism. False information comes over when you choose "relevant information" that is wrong. I agree the only way to get another's Tree directly into Ancestry other than linking with "relevant information" is ask and receive. The idea of merging through Roots Magic is worth consideration, since you can bring all your Tree including support into Roots Magic from Ancestry. Also since you can print your Roots Magic Tree, it may be possible to pre-merge edit the other tree to prevent most problems (you will always have a few errors). So if you can get the Roots Magic download of another's Tree it might be possible to merge and keep support. I think it is worth a try.
Comment: Well aside from the poor formatting which makes your answer quite hard read I think the main issue is one of whether merging in other people's tree like this is actually a good idea in the first place - the existing answers make clear that this is something which needs to be approached with extreme caution.
Comment: It would be nice if those who down voted knew as much about Ancestry as I do. Maybe a comment where I am wrong should be considered with your down vote.


Teaching mathematics to young children

Question: When I was a child, I learned basic mathematics (addition, subtraction) through practice and memorization of basics (6 + 7 = 13).  However, while I was visiting a child (5 yrs. old) over New Year's, I found that she was unable to perform even simple addition (11+7) without the aid of a number line.  Is there any way to prevent these aids from turning into crutches?
Comment: If you were speaking of an eight year old, there would be need for concern, but five is young to be past needing these aids.  Generally, a five year old has only just begun to learn the concept of addition and will likely grow out of the need for it in time and with "joyful" and encouraged practice.
Comment: For what it's worth, I clearly remember memorizing addition tables in first grade, when I was 6, not using my fingers like some of the other kids. I'm pretty sure I could not have added 11 and 7 in my head before that. I got a 5 in BC calculus as a senior in high school, so I was no slouch at math.
Answer: It is my belief that facts are only memorized when there is a motivation to do so, and that by far the best motivation is relevance to something the individual cares about.  Thus memorizing facts on their own is hard, but doing interesting problems which require those facts will lead to natural memorization through repetition.
Therefore I would recommend activities that require math but are not rote practice.  For instance, dice games such as backgammon, yahtzee, and board games require the numbers up to 6 to be repeatedly added.  Under this approach the child should progress from using the number line, to mentally visualizing a number line, to simply memorizing the sums and differences through natural repetition.
As a final comment, I would rather that a child laboriously compute solutions from first principles rather than progress too rapidly to memorization of results without understanding how they were obtained.  In the first case they are much better equipped to handle problems that go beyond what they have previously encountered.
Comment: Wish I could vote for this one more!  So many good kernels, but especially, "I would rather a child laboriously compute solutions from first principles than progress too rapidly. . ."  I'll add that we've started playing cribbage with our six year old to help her with speeding her in figuring facts with numbers that add to 15.
Answer: When I was 3 year old, my dad gave me a calculator and taught me to use it for addition and multiplication. I started playing with it and memorising the results, so at 4 I was already able not to use the calculator. So the calculation aids are not necessarily evil. Sometimes they help. Why don't you just play with the kid, so that the kid asks you question like what is 6 + 7, you answer, say, 15, and the kid corrects you? This way, they memorise the answers joyfully. My 4-year-old daughter is now using a wall calendar as a calculation aid, also it helps her to memorise the order of numbers up to 31. And I am trying not to hide the aid from her but to exploit her curiosity on the calendar. Whatever tool kids use, the goal, as I see it, is to encourage them to do math! Good luck!
Answer: I have never met a child of older age (say, 7 or older) who had learned to use a number line, and who required it to do any sort of addition.  Besides chance meetings with children over the years, for a while I tutored grade-schoolers in math. I've never heard of over-reliance on number lines being an issue, either.  Thus I don't think there is much risk at all of that particular aid turning into a requirement long-term.  Number lines are useful aids in developing number sense, and are not to be feared.  (Calculators may be another matter when used improperly; for instance, promotion of calculator use is an oft-criticized feature of the Everyday Math curriculum.)
Many math curriculums for young children promote heavy use of manipulatives, with a good example being Cuisenaire and similar rods.  Miquon Math is a well-regarded curriculum based heavily on use of such tools, and there is no indication that it leads to dependence on them later on.  Singapore Math is an excellent primary math curriculum that features plenty of work with number lines across multiple years.  Common Core math standards even show a guideline requirement that children must be able to represent addition on a number line-- by second grade.
Taking a step back, I wonder why you are worried over the math learning of a child who's so young, and whom you were merely visiting and presumably see only rarely.  I think that you may not understand the wide variance in learning milestones among young children, based on physical cognitive development, family coaching/stimulation of learning in various areas and attitude towards learning in general, and prior learning environments outside the home.
For example, Waldorf teaching often results in delaying mathematics instruction significantly, and in some developed countries it is not abnormal to start kindergarten until age six or even seven.  Here in the U.S., "redshirting", or holding children back in the hopes of fostering more maturity and perceived academic excellence compared to grade peers, results in many children entering kindergarten at age six.
PBS developmental milestones show that the child you mentioned is not doing badly when generally compared against age peers, and would not be out of place in a room with six-year-old children.  At such ages, it is not unusual for simple math to be counting-based for many children, where a number line makes a lot more sense, and is certainly better suited as an aid than counting on fingers. (Elimination of counting on fingers is one of the potential benefits of using other aids such as rods, but it's not the end of the world when a kindergartner does teens arithmetic in this way, especially as many kindergartners cannot.)
In summary, there is no significant chance that any child will over-rely on number lines to do basic math as they get older, and there are significant benefits to using them in developing number sense.  The particular five-year-old you visited is doing just fine.
Answer: There are loads of tools which act as aids to memorisation, but that is exactly what they are - aids to memorisation

Wall charts of multiplication tables are an excellent way to get kids to memorise the times tables up to 12, but to help instil in them memorisation, we got ours to learn the 13 times table using the same concepts, but without any chart in front of them
Number lines are good, but you need to encourage the child to work through in their head what a number line is doing
Making a game, as Dima says, is a great idea - maths needs to be exciting. My eldest two love Numberphile videos, which make various number concepts very interesting.

Teaching mathematics to young children


Conditional independence of components of an $n$-dimensional Hawkes process

Question: Let's say we are given a $n$-dimensional Hawkes point process. To be more precise, let $N = (N_1,\dots,N_n)$ be a point process and $\mathcal{H}_t=\sigma\{N_1(s),\dots,N_n(s):0\leq s\leq t\}$ be the history of the process up to time $t$. Let $\lambda_i(t) = \nu_i+\sum_{k=1}^n \int_0^t g_{ik}(t-s) \, dN^k_s$ be the $\mathcal{H}_t$-conditional intensity of the $i$-th process, in a sense that
$$E(N^i_{t+h}-N^i_t \mid \mathcal{H}_t)=E\left(\int_t^{t+h} \lambda_i (s) \, ds \mid \mathcal{H}_t\right),$$
where $\{g_{ij}(t)\}_{i,j\in\{1,\dots,n\}}$ is the matrix of interaction kernels, which are assumed to be bounded, integrable functions.
Now, say that we have, for every function in the interaction matrix - $g_{ij}(t)=I_{[d,+\infty)}(t)f_{ij}(t)$ for some bounded, integrable function $f_{ij}(t)$, where $d$ is a positive number.
Then, I can show that $\lambda_i(t+d)$ is $\mathcal{H}_t$-measurable, $\forall t\geq 0$. Furthermore, $\int_t^{t+d}\lambda_i(s) \, ds$ is $\mathcal{H}_t$-measurable.
What I would like to be true is that the increments $N^i_{t+d}-N^i_t$ and $N^j_{t+d}-N^j_t$ are conditionally independent given $\mathcal{H}_t$ for every $i$ and $j$.
Can one prove this from these assumptions? Is there a counter-example?
Help is much appreciated.
Answer: Yes, because, as you point out, under these assumptions $\lambda_i(t)$ only depends on the history of the process up to time $t-d$.  So, conditioned on ${\cal H}_t$, each $N_u^i$ behaves as an inhomogeneous Poisson process for $u$ between $t$ and $ t+d$, with rate dependent only on the history up to time $t$.
Comment: Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're talking about only works if $\lambda_{i}(t)$ is deterministic (or $\mathcal{H}_{0}$-measurable). Then, by Watanabe's characterization theorem, it's a doubly stochastic Poisson process. There is no such assumption here.


Please change the commandline tag to command-line

Question: There are 15 questions tagged command-line and 33 tagged commandline. I think command-line is clearer, but the two tags should be rolled up either way.
Comment: Information got lost in Rich B's edit; should have kept "SU" in the title somewhere. I'll fix by tagging. (Not awfully important now, but just saying.)
Answer: Merged commandline into command-line
Merged cmd into command-line
Answer: In favour of command-line only because it's less of a jumarble of the words when reading.
Feeling is that tags that are multiple words should just include the hyphen (-) instead of jammingthemallintoonewordfor the sake of it.
There's also cmd to consider, and from the looks of things, deal with the command line anyway.
Answer: Yeah, I agree about going with command-line. (It's the better option for a couple of reasons, one small one being consistency between SU and SO: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/command-line.)


Can you tile on finished plaster wall in a shower?

Question: My house was built in 1925, it has plaster walls. The area around the bathtub/shower is only tiled halfway up the wall. We recently hired someone to finish the tiling up to the showerhead, and he placed the tiles directly on the wall. I'd assumed he would cut out the wall and put in cement board or something. It appeared that he did no waterproofing before adhering the tiles. Is this ok? Is it ok to install tile directly on plaster walls in a shower? He also cut a hole into the wall to build a box for shampoo and whatnot, and he did this with wood. I am worried about having moisture problems as a result of this. I hired this tiler in a hurry, and did not do much research. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
Answer: I have repaired tile jobs that were over 20 years old that the tile was applied directly to regular sheetrock and plaster walls. This was back in the 80's. It used to be very common to put tile up on whatever the wall was and seal the the tile. More recently I have seen some contractors still put tile up with out a backer board to save $ for the owner especially for flipping a property. Is it the best way? NO. Will it work? Yes. Maybe several decades if well sealed. All the frame work around showers and tubs I have installed has been wood, again if sealed it will last for quite a while if there is a slight angle to prevent water from pooling on the ledge or box. You should have received a quote prior to the start of work that you agreed to (the law in my state) it should define the scope of work and materials. For what it is worth if cement backer is not included the contractor may be matching the existing tile job.
Comment: +1 - my experience has been the same. There are far more houses out there, just like that, than not. Keep it sealed, and properly caulked, and it'll be fine. Let it go - and you'll have water where you don't want it, either way.
Answer: no plaster is NOT waterproof I've seen problems with it exposed to water, see:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-waterproof-plaster
not nearly as bad as wood though.
also the recess should have been waterproofed.
trouble mostly proves where water consistently contacts or pools.
I've needed to fix bad damage where waterproofing was left off of shower walls. but damage is typically much worse on horizontal surfaces with poor waterproofing construction.
though it's reasonable to believe you won't have problems at all as this work seems to have been done at an elevated level.
but absolutely keep water out of that recess.
Answer: In this case, problematic areas are in the corners.
In an old construction, or wooden construction, walls can move ever so slightly relative to each other. Tile grout is not flexible, and a crack can form in the joint in the corner, which lets water through. Joints on flat surfaces are much safer.
So you should check your corners every few months, just look at them up close and run a fingernail along the joint to check for cracks. The bottom of the recess for the shampoo bottle is a potential problem area too.
It's a pity the guy didn't waterproof, it isn't that expensive or time consuming...


Bash error suppresion

Question: I'm using PHP script from cli, the script calls exec() few times. There are some minor errors sometimes, which are handled by php script. I'm suppressing the errors by appending 2>/dev/null to the end of each command... Is there any way to achieve that without adding the forementioned?
Answer: If you use proc_open instead of exec, you should get more control over the file descriptors.

Bash error suppresion