Does a shield count as wearing metal armor for Shocking Grasp?

Question: If an enemy is not wearing metal armor but is wielding a metal shield, do you get advantage on the attack roll for Shocking Grasp?
Answer: While a shield can be indeed made of metal, you are wielding it, not wearing it.
In the equipment chapter (p. 144) the PHB refers to a wearer of armor, but says you wield a shield.
"Rules Answers: March 2016" from Wizards of the Coast points out that "various various game features distinguish between the armor you wear and a shield you wield." It provides the Monk needing to forego wielding shields and wearing armor, whilst the Barbarian only foregoes wearing armor. This is probably another such case.
So you will not count as wearing armor made of metal.
Comment: Semantics for the win...
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/76857/discussion-on-answer-by-thyzer-does-a-shield-count-as-wearing-metal-armor-for-sh).
Answer: No, you would not get advantage on Shocking Grasp for attacking a target whose only metallic armor is a shield.
There are a few sections in the book we can look to for clarity on this. One of the most useful ones is actually in the Druid section. In the armor proficiencies section, it notes druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal. For the purposes of your question, we can take the following from that:
"Using a shield" is not considered wearing armor (hence the two separate clauses there), therefore Shocking Grasp's advantage clause doesn't apply.
OR
As there's only one type of shield in the book, we can conclude that there's no (or little) functional difference between a metallic or non-metallic shield, and therefore there's no reason to have a metal one over a wooden one/to unnecessarily 'punish' someone using a metal shield by granting advantage on the Shocking Grasp against them.
Comment: That there is no distinction between a metal shield and a wooden shield is the most compelling argument for shield not granting advantage to *shocking grasp*. +1
Comment: This seems like a better answer, taken from a less ambiguous source, even if it amounts to the same TLDR as the other answer.
Answer: Yes, you would Advantage. A shield is considered part of your armor and is subject to the rules accordingly.
PHB pg.144, emphasis mine:

Armor Class (AC). Armor protects its wearer from
  attacks. The armor (and shield) you wear determines
  your base Armor Class.

In fact, all of page 144 details that shields are considered armor, rather thoroughly actually. The header is Armor and Shields, and the section under Armor Proficiency details all the disadvantages of trying to use either an armor or shields without proficiency. More specifically, it makes a statement about both, and applies the rule broadly to encompass all armor and shields without separation.
So if the character has hide armor, and a metal shield, they count as wearing metal armor unless they stow their shield.
Comment: **"...but various game features distinguish between the armor you wear and a shield you wield. Take a look at the monk's Unarmored Defense feature and compare it to the barbarian's version to see what I mean."** - this very strongly confirms that if a spell or effect differentiates between the two, it will specifically say so. Which means the baseline is that there is no differentiation, otherwise there wouldn't be a need to be specific in special cases. Shocking grasp makes no such distinction.
Comment: And incidentally: "So by ruling it this way, you would punish your players for style points." - No, they would be punishing themselves for choosing a style which has a negative consequence. Example: if a rogue wants to wear Padded leather instead of leather or studded leather for style, then they suffer the consequences of disadvantage when trying to sneak. Or if a monk wants to use a halberd as his quarterstaff for "style," that player would lose a lot of monk abilities that are associated with monk weapons.
Comment: A shields material is irrelevant to gain its bonus. A wooden shield is as good as a metal shield - mechanically it makes no difference. So by ruling it this way, you would punish your players for style points.
Also none of the other answers suggests that a shield is no armor. The keypoint is whether "using/wielding" a shield counts as "wearing" armor. The answer of CTWind and [this SageAdvice](http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-march-2016) support my point in saying that the Armor you wear is distinguished by a shield you wield.
Answer: unlike full body armor, there may not be any direct contact of metal to the body, handles of the shield would be wrapped in leather, and the inside padded, to dampen blows... so i would think there would be very little chance.
Comment: This is a pretty interesting answer. If you can add some citations about how real-life shields were made during that time and back up your answer with facts, this will greatly improve it!
Comment: @r10y making a touch attack against a weapon is a good way to lose a finger. Also, metal armor doesn't directly connect to the body for the most part, you wear cloth and leather padding underneath it.
Comment: Welcome to the Stack! Please take the time to review some questions with high quality answers. You'll find the format here is very different from usual sites in that we usually require citations and sources which provide foundation for a good answer. Once you've familiarized yourself, I'm sure you'll recognize that opinion based answers, as well as answers that mirror previous answers already posted, are largely disregarded around here.
Comment: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/96/77/bb/9677bbbdf5f2e9600b5b2d292e851c32.jpg is a good illustration og how shields may have been constructed.
Comment: for sure... i think i was just making the point on wielded instruments in general.
Answer: Yes, a shield will conduct electricity to the person wielding it as well as armor does to the person wearing it. The spirit of the rule is to allow the spell caster to gain advantage by attempting to shock someone through their metal defenses.
Different materials of shields are available for a reason, and they have different properties. A wooden shield may be vulnerable to fire; a metal shield should be vulnerable to electricity attacks.
Comment: @Thyzer Metal conducts electricity and wood burns. I don't need a source for that, these facts are well understood and I don't believe you are contesting them. I expected this answer to be contested but I'm disappointed that my down-voters have no counter-arguments.
Comment: What are your sources for the properties of different shield materials?


How much being a touch-typist can help learning the piano faster?

Question: I'm a touch-typist, and I want to learn piano. Does my touch-typing help me learn it faster? I have a good amount of control over my left hand, and my palms are curved as if I hold an small orange. My pinkies (little fingers) are staying on keyboard, and all of my fingers are not getting far in the air while I'm typing. Do these attributes help me learn piano faster?
Comment: Good article on the topic: https://pianobubble.com/do-pianists-make-good-typists/
Answer: As far as I can see, your only benefit will be already having learned the basics of technique (that is, if you type properly, with relaxed fingers, wrists held high, etc).  The finger independence that you'll have learned is certainly important, but I don't think that it will help you in any significant way for the following reasons:

Computer keyboards have an entirely different feel from piano keyboards, all the way from the layout to the movement of the key (short, easy throw versus a piano's long throw).
Computer keyboards are not touch-sensitive, while piano keyboards are.
The most important (or at least the trickiest) movements in respect to playing the piano are cross-overs, where you tuck your thumb under your other fingers to continue a line.  This is entirely untrained by computer keyboards.
Piano music generally requires you to use your hands for independent means (Usually one for melody and one for accompaniment).  The issue is that typing does not train the ability to read two lines at the same time; it trains the ability to read one line and split it amongst your hands accordingly. (Cue arguments and flames :P)
And building off of the last point; For beginners, the biggest issue is reading musical notation, which obviously is completely untrained.

None of this means that learning to play the piano will be any harder for you; I just don't think that it will be any easier by virtue of being able to touch-type.
Comment: Wrists held high? While I'm aware this applies to piano, wrists should rest on a surface while typing (ergonomic keyboards like the MS 4000 have pads for that). This is different from the piano.
Comment: Unless your computer keyboard is laid out like a piano keyboard, not much, honestly. But it might help a very small (probably imperceptible) amount when it comes to getting your fingers used to pressing downward (even if only one at a time). In short, the only gains you've made for sure are knowledge of how your fingers work, if you weren't already aware. But I will add one thing to this excellent response: Reading std notation is not necessary to learn how to play piano or any other instrument; I highly recommend it, of course, but it's not necessary.
Comment: Touch typing hasn't helped me keep my hands relaxed either. My violin students have had stiff hands for the first few months, and having started proper piano lessons just last month, my teacher tells me that my hands are stiff too, particularly my wrist. I think tension comes more from learning something new, not from any kind of transferable technique.
Comment: I do wonder whether it might be more true the other way round (piano -> touch typing)
Comment: @Benjol Apparently, yes: https://pianobubble.com/do-pianists-make-good-typists/
Answer: The physical act of playing piano (or any instrument) is probably only 20% of the process, if that.
Music is an ear/brain thing, not a finger thing. It is not weightlifting or drag racing where more/faster always equals better.
It is a multi-disciplinary skill that involves broad aspects of thinking, anticipation, repetition and listening, not just how fast or independently your fingers can move. If that was all it took, then every 75 year old grandmother that has been knitting for 40 years could play like Chopin.
Can having finger dexterity assist during the beginning phases of learning any instrument? It probably can't hurt.
Will it in anyway translate into an increased ability to be a better piano playing musician? No.
Answer: While theoretically it's probably better than nothing, I don't think it will matter.  Maybe if you were used to a typewriter, because you have to develop your muscles more for that.  There are certainly superficial similarities but major things like playing smoothly, heavily repeated patterns, moving up and down the keyboard, chord positions etc. won't be informed by your typing.
Answer: I've personally actually found it to be a detriment, the same with having previously been a percussionist. You're used to using your hands in concert; when typing, your hands are working together in order to create the words, code or whatever you're typing.
Once you move to piano, all of a sudden you need your hands to do dramatically different things. Your hands are so used to moving together and working together that when you're trying to do melody in one hand and harmony in another, it's easy for what you're doing with one hand to bleed over into the other. It can make playing syncopated pieces or anything with a good deal of hand independence a real chore.
Now, touch typing will help with your hand-eye coordination, which means you'll probably not have to look down as much sooner than others. But for the most part, I've found the large amount of typing, drumming (not the kit variety. That would've probably helped!) and driving I've done to actually make hand independence that much harder.
Answer: A "classic" touch typist keeps fingers on a "standard position" (ASDF for the left hand and JKL: for the right), and reaches all keys from there without moving the whole hand.
As a result, on a piano, he can easily use the existing expertise on seven adjacent white keys for the left hand and same number for the right hand (one key aside is not a problem). Touch typist is also trained to reach all black keys in between (that would be the second upper row in the typewriter).
A touch typist is perfectly trained to press the two keys at once if required (can apply left and right SHIFT as needed), but not three or more.
A classic touch typist is also skilled in driving the hammer action mechanism, similar to the piano mechanism. He will strike X much "louder" that dot (.).
So

7 white keys for the left hand, 7 for the right (2 fixed positions).
No more than 2 keys at once.
Some skills with dynamics.

Probably it is possible to play many simple beginner songs this way.
Answer: I think it helps, definitely. I just returned to piano playing after more than 25 years - quit when i was 13 or so, had classical lessons for about 6 years by then, up to a decent standard for a 13 year old.
I've been super surprised how much it's come back, after just a week I'm almost playing fur elise again. And I'm sure typing in my job helps. It's given me finger strength, flexibility and co-ordination. It didn't occur to me, I was just pleased I was playing again, then I was at work and just typing away, and i looked down and suddenly realised what I was doing - finger exercises! I've been doing finger exercises every day for years. If i was in a different trade and didn't use my fingers to type, I'm sure i would be wayyyyyy rustier. It doesn't help you read music, but i'm sure it helps with dexterity and co-ordination.
Answer: A piano keyboard is straight, not typing position.  Your description rather reminds me of a bandonion rather than a piano: your hands stay in the same general position, and the arrangement of notes is largely arbitrary and has to be learned by heart.  As a result, you don't fall victim to the temptation of excessive "key rollover" legato.
If you take a look at videos of virtuoso bandonion players, "typewriting" immediately comes to mind.
Piano is quite more dynamic in where you move hands and how you arrange scales (the absence of a rest position is quite a difference).
An in-between thing are diatonic and chromatic button accordions: you don't have a rest position there, the hand position more or less corresponds to pitch, arrangement is less linear (with chromatic, actually quite two-dimensional).  Again, changing the overall hand position when doing scales and melodies involves practiced contortions that are absent in the fixed hand position of typewriting or bandonion (and likely also concertina) play.
I am pointing out some analogies rather than giving a recommendation: even with a larger visual similarity, good bandonion playing will take a good touch typist likely much longer than learning any piano-like instrument.
Answer: wow, i am definately shocked at how under-estimated speed-typing is, perhaps most of the commenters are actually just pianists and not speed-typers, if you're a speed typist or really know about it, then you must know that speed-typing gives a great ability to control and coordinate all your ten fingers naturally to the point where it's so fast and yet coordinated that you can't even track what each single finger is typing. It's that ability to type streams of words each word made of numerous different characters in a fraction of a second. An ability cannot be possible without almost perfecting the art of ligh-speed multi-tasking of fingers accordingly with your brain.
Coordination and Multitasking however is the only advantage that you would aquire from speed-typing. As for the rest of piano techniques and abilities, that you have to start from scratch.
Comment: I don't think being able to move your fingers fast affects you when your first learning.  You're still going to be playing one hand at a time and very slowly.
Answer: Go for it! The Piano is linear and the keys repeat which makes it easier to learn than being able to type. Take breaks, rest and repeat. It took about a week to learn a couple of intermediate songs on the piano. I'm contributing this to being able to type on a computer keyboard. The "key" differences that I've noticed would be that my hands would get muscle soreness from stretching between octaves. The first few times I would tire quickly and would delay the learning process. I bought my first piano a month ago and practiced about 4-7 hours a day for a week.
Answer: When a piano student is making heavy weather of acquiring basic dexterity, I sometimes compare it to typing - a skill that ANYONE can learn.  Or, now, to playing a computer game!   Other in helping to overcome an 'But it's TOO HARD!' blockage, I don't see a lot of relevance.  But your typing skills won't hurt your piano playing.  Let's not be unhelpful enough to suggest reasons why they vanishingly vaguely possibly might conflict.
Answer: The experience you have isolating your fingers and exhibiting control over them will help in some way. I know people are writing a million reasons as to why it won't help, but honestly, it's simply logic.
Keyboard: isolation of finger movement
Piano: Isolation of finger movement
Keyboard: ability to remember placements without looking
Piano: Ability to remember placements without looking
Keyboard: required to increase agility over time
Piano: Ability to increase agility over time.
Perhaps your advantage may not bit a whole lot, but the advantage will be there in some way (even if only slightly).
Comment: I thoroughly disagree. 1. Your fingers are already mostly independent and typing does not normally involve planting multiple fingers and releasing/moving them at different points, which is a major part of piano. 2. They layouts are completely different, knowing one doesn't help the other. 3. Typing doesn't require much "agility", certainly nothing near what piano does.  Do you play?  I don't think you can just assume it will benefit due to superficial similarities.


NFA with exponential number of states when determinized

Question: How can I build an example of a regular language where the minimal DFA has $2^n$ states and the minimal NFA has $n$ states? Obviously the DFA's state-set should contain all subsets of the the NFA's state-set, but I don't know how to start. Any suggestions to put me on the right track?
Comment: Note that the [Wikipedia article on DFA minimisation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFA_minimization#cite_note-4) references suitable examples (although you have to figure out the small NFA yourself).
Comment: See also http://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/6063/how-to-prove-that-dfas-from-nfas-can-have-exponential-number-of-states which has an explicit construction for a slightly weaker bound.
Answer: The standard example is the language $L$ of all words over an alphabet $A$ of size $n$ that don't contain all the different letters. There is an NFA accepting $L$ with $n+1$ states (or $n$ states if you allow multiple starting states): first guess a letter $a$ which is missing, then go (with an $\epsilon$-move) to an accepting state with self-loops for all letters other than $A$.
Any DFA for $L$ requires at least $2^n$ states. This can be seen using the Myhill-Nerode theorem. Let $S_1,S_2$ be two different subsets of $A$, and $w(S_1),w(S_2)$ words which contain all and only the letters in $S_1,S_2$, respectively. Without loss of generality, suppose $a \in S_1 \setminus S_2$, and let $w = w(A-a)$. Then $w(S_1)w \notin L$ while $w(S_2)w \in L$.
Answer: This is a late answer, but apparently nobody gave the optimal solution.
Take $A = \{a, b\}$, $Q_n = \{0, 1, \ldots, n-1\}$ et ${\cal A}_n =
(Q_n, A, E_n, \{0\}, \{0\})$, with
$$
  E_n = \{(i, a, i+1) \mid 0 \leqslant i \leqslant n-2\} \cup \{(n-1, a, 0)\} \cup
    \{(i, b, i) \mid 1 \leqslant i \leqslant n-1\} \cup \{(i, b, 0) \mid 1 \leqslant i \leqslant n-1\}
$$
This NFA on a two-letter alphabet has $n$ states, only one initial and one final states and its equivalent minimal DFA has $2^n$ states.
Comment: Very clever! The language accepted by this automaton is $(a^n + aW_{n-1}b)^*$, where $W_{n-1}$ consists of all words containing the letter $a$ at most $n-1$ times.
Comment: @yuval-filmus This example is not mine. I wanted to give a reference, but at the moment I don't remember where I saw it.
Comment: @EmilJeřábek $\{0\}\cdot b = \emptyset$.
Comment: Sorry, you are right; I didn't notice that $(0,b,0)$ was missing.
Answer: this is an exercise in the book "Finite Automata" by Mark V. Lawson
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, page 68:
Let $n \geq 1$. Show that the language $(0+1)^\ast 1(0+1)^{n−1}$ can be recognised by
a non-deterministic automaton with $n+1$ states. Show that any deterministic
automaton that recognises this language must have at least $2^n$ states.
This example shows that an exponential increase in the number of states
in passing from a non-deterministic automaton to a corresponding determin-
istic automaton is sometimes unavoidable.
Answer: I'm going to guess that you mean that the optimal DFA has $2^n$ states. Maybe this doesn't get you $2^n$ states, but it's $\Omega(2^n)$.
From "Communication Complexity" by Kushilevitz and Nisan in exercise 12.6:
"For some constant [non-negative integer] $c$, consider the (finite) language $L_c = \{ww\mid w \in \{0,1\}^c\}$."
and the book continues on asking you to prove that you can find a co-NFA recognizing $L_c$ that uses $O(c)$ states and also that you cannot do better than $\Omega(2^c)$ states for a DFA.
Comment: Also, the proof of the second part "requires" communication complexity, so this might not be suitable for your purposes.
Comment: Thanks for the answer! What do you mean by co-NFA?
Comment: Basically, switch "accepting" with "rejecting" in the definition of an NFA. That is, if none of the possible paths lead to a rejecting state, you accept, otherwise you reject.
Comment: In fact, the $2^c$ lower bound follows quite easily from Myhill-Nerode. (In fact, you can get something like $(c+1)2^c$.) But my co-NFA uses $\Theta(c^2)$ states.
Comment: Finite languages are somewhat boring in this regard. See also [here](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/4962/1546).


Middleclick leads to page back in Firefox

Question: when I middleclick, on a link, it opens it in a new tab, which is the wanted behavior. But sometimes, I miss the link by a few dots which leads in firefox going a page back.
In Windows that behavior does not occur. How can I change this, so nothing happens, when middleclicking anywhere except of links?
Answer: Hm, it seems that you changed a setting.
According to the default setup a middleclick in some area should not go backwards in history.
Sometimes I accidentally paste an url with a middle click somewhere in a page... Could that explain the behaviour you see?
Comment: Ah you are right. Its not going back to the last page, its going to the link in the cache. A workaround I found is to go to about:config and set middlemouse.contentLoadURL to false.
Answer: I'm using the UX nightly(i think i recall encountering it with ubuntu's own firefox too) and this behaviour appears to be default, though i'm not sure quite why, googling i found a post blaming it on middlemouse.contentLoadURL being set true by default on linux, which i personally think is a bit stupid to begin with, but the puzzling thing is that, while it's suggested to be interactions between clipboard.autocopy and middlemouse.contentLoadURL, it occurs with urls which were never selected or manually copied, which seems to go against the latter's stated function. Even more odd is that, having toggled middlemouse.contentloadurl to false and back again the behaviour has disappeared, which makes this situation look very buggy indeed.
This was mainly a problem for me as my over-excitable trackpad sends middle click events at random from time to time and mozilla's the only browser than navigates away from the current page when these occur. This behaviour is neither predictable nor expected for 95% of typical ubuntu users, or 99.9% of ubuntu's target market.
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/887873
Comment: It's difficult to tell what you are suggesting as an answer here.


How would I translate the two morphemes 基腐 together?

Question: I am trying to translate this in the context of 基腐头条, I understand the meaning - the 基 is referring to gay (men) and 腐 is a shortened version of 腐女, 'rotten girls' or 'females interested in gay culture.' It is just hard to find a succinct translation that provides all of this cultural context... Suggestions?
Comment: Just one thing I am sure: although 腐 is often referred to 腐女, it doesn't have to be, because there're also 腐男—not gay (at least they claim so), but "males interested in gay culture".
Answer: I don't believe an established, succinct English translation exists yet. I would try to translate as 'BL & Fandom' or 'BL & Fans'.
For 基, I would prefer to use words like Boy Love/Yaoi over gay/homosexual to convey the romantic and fantasized view of male homosexual in 腐 culture. I also couldn't find any better translation for 腐女 than BL fans. Hence 基腐 can be shorted to 'BL & Fans'.
Comment: My understanding of 基 here is not as BL, but rather as referring to gay men (like 面基: meet your gay [friends]). And in the context of this particular  基腐头条 news service (on WeChat), they don't discuss BL per se, they are discussing contemporary 'gay' news from China and abroad. Hence my difficulty translating.
Comment: @TylerGleason Hmmm that sounds like a very ambiguous usage if not completely inaccurate, at least to me. But if that's the case, wpt's answer is worth considering.
Comment: @TylerGleason the problem is, even those friends we (native speakers) shall meet are not gay (more even, it's not confined to "men"!), we can also use 面基 for some joking effect. That new word has never got a rigorous definition. It seems young people would use 基 very unconsciously, so in fact 基 doesn't necessarily mean "gay"—the word 基友 is definitely not "gay friend"!
Comment: @Stan broadly speaking, I totally get the usage of 基 to mean a (male) friend. But in this context, it is referring to gay males. I was just using 面基to clarify that point - a poor example perhaps.
Answer: The thing that came to my mind was fangays. Maybe its my gaming background, but it could be appropriately slang.
Answer: There is an article in Wikipedia called fag-hag that has a number of phrases you might consider. Apologies if this reference is offensive; sounds quite insulting to me too, but that's what the Wikipedia article is titled.


How would I use Arduino microcontroller separately?

Question: I'm learning Arduino. I use Arduino Uno board with ATMEGA328-PU. I tried basic codes like LED blink, control of DC motor etc. Arduino board is used only when we program microcontroller, right? I mean, when we finish programming it, we can use microcontroller separately? If it can be used separately, we must have some "external" circuit as replacement for Arduino board, which allow us to use microcontroller in specific application. What type of circuit is used? I'm new in this field so don't blame me because of amateur questions.
Answer: Assuming you are going to upload the program into the ATmega328 on the Arduino, then take the ATmega328 out of the socket, and use it in your circuit, then a simple answer is to search for "minimal Arduino circuit"
An example returned by that search is "From Arduino to a Microcontroller on a Breadboard".
It lists:

a 16 MHz crystal,
a 10k resistor, and
two 18 to 22 picofarad (ceramic) capacitors

That is enough to run the chip at the same speed as the Arduino, and the code used on the Arduino to initialise its clock will work unchanged.
This should run okay directly from a battery supply of about 4.5V or 4.8V, or a good 5V power supply.
A better circuit, which runs at the same 16MHz speed as the Arduino is 'Shrimp It'. That shows a similar minimal circuit and a better 'protected' circuit which has a more reliable approach for its power supply. This is all you need to run off a 4.5V (e.g. 3 1.5V) battery power supply.
However, if you don't care about running at 16MHz, you could ditch the crystal and capacitors, and use the internal 8MHz oscillator, that will need the code to be slightly different. For example, the 8MHz clock is 1/2 the speed of the Arduino's standard 16MHz, so code like delay() will take 2ms instead of 1ms.
Further, the RESET button can be set up so it doesn't need the 10k pullup.
So, with some software changes (search the web for details), an ATmega328 could be used with no external components.
Alternatively, you might want to use a better power supply, for example a voltage regulator with the circuit of the protected 'Shrimp It', and be able to load the program onto the ATmega while on its board.
There are products which bundle that 'standard' set of parts (voltage regulator, plugs and sockets and protected 'Shrimp It' running exactly like an Arduino at 16MHz) with a very compact PCB. They are able to plug directly into a breadboard, and so can be used with veroboard/stripboard (or a PCB) to make the rest of the circuit.
One is a kit called 'Boarduino'from adafruit. That web site gives some details to sow how to do this yourself. It is a convenient-to-use version of the 'Shrimp It', on a compact PCB.
An alternative kit is the "Really Bare Bones Board (RBBB) kit". However it is available as the PCB only, which is the "Really Bare Bones board (RBBB)", though the same supplier as the RRRB kit.
Neither Boarduino nor RRRB has on-board USB upload circuit. However, you can use your Arduino to do that, for example "Using an Arduino as an AVR ISP (In-System Programmer)". Or you could buy a USB to UART cable.
Comment: Without some capacitor(s) between Vcc an GND the ATMega can sometimes behaving erratic.
Answer: Look at the schematics and see which bits you don't need. Leave those out and what's left is what your require. You then would need to design a circuit board for these parts.

Now, who should we blame for your amateur questions? ;^)
Comment: Your English isn't too bad! For one or two projects the ready-made Arduino boards are good value because everything is tested. Building your own circuits is good fun but is expensive and difficult if using surface mount components. If you are going to make, maybe, 20 + of the same device then making your own board might be a good idea. I don't think you are ready for that yet.
Comment: Thanks a lot for answer! I mean I don't have experience with this so understand me :) English is not my first language and language barrier makes difficulties often :) Best regards
Comment: If you want to buy a cheap almost bare minimum Atmega breadboard, consider a chinese clone of Arduino pro mini. Difficult to fabricate one cheaper yourself.
Answer: There are two approaches to this.  One is to simply use the Arduino Uno board in your final product!  However, if you're making a large number of boards, it may be more cost efficient to develop a custom board with only the features you need.  It may be nothing more than a few GPIO pins and a power regulator!
Another thing which can be important in these final products, no matter what board you are using, is that you can permanently burn your program into memory so that it always starts up when power is applied.
Answer:
Arduino board is used only when we program microcontroller, right?

Not necessarily. The Arduino board is useful not only for programming, but because it provides required peripheral circuitry such as power regulation, USB-serial interface, convenient headers, and a crystal.
However, it is perfectly fine to use the Arduino board to program your ATmega328 and then take it out and use it in another circuit.

If it can be used separately, we must have some "external" circuit as replacement for Arduino board, which allow us to use microcontroller in specific application. What type of circuit is used?

All the ATmega328 really needs is a stable power supply. If you're alright running it at 8MHz, you don't need an crystal. If you don't need in-circuit programming, you don't need an ISP connection or any USB-serial stuff.
For more powerful microcontrollers, you might require clock generation circuitry, multiple power rails, debug/programming connections, etc.
Answer: See this page on how to put an ATMega329 chip on a breadboard and have it run. I think this will explain things: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone


sum of torsion of an elliptic curve

Question: It is clear from the isomorphism between elliptic curves over $\mathbb{C}$ and complex tori that the sum of the $m$-torsion points is the identity in the group law of the elliptic curve. How generally does this hold, and how can one see it (not using the Lefschetz principle, please)?
Comment: Possibly helpful: If you have an abelian group of odd order, then the product of all the elements is the identity.
Answer: It's not true if $m$ is not prime to the characteristic of the field (e.g. take an ordinary elliptic curve in characteristic 2; it will have exactly one non-trivial 2-torsion point).
We also need the field to be algebraically closed, although you may have been assuming that anyway (e.g. take an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{R}$ whose real points have only one connected component - then there's a uniqut non-trivial two-torsion point).
Once we make these two assumptions on the ground field, the torsion is isomorphic to $(\mathbb{Z}/m)^2$ as an abelian group, and this is a property of that group.
Answer: This more-or-less follows from abstract group theory:
Let $P$ = sum of all points of order $m$.  Then $P$ is itself a point of order $m$.  Now, let $k$ be any integer co-prime to $m$ and note that multiplication by $k$ is a permutation of $E[m]$.  So $[k]P$ = sum of all points in $E[m] = P$.  So $[k-1]P = 0$.  Since $[m]P = 0$ too, then if $gcd( k-1, m ) = 1$ then it follows that $P = 0$.
The case $m = 2$ escapes this proof since $k$ is odd and $gcd( k-1, m ) = 2$.
Comment: It really helps to format your answers using MathJax (see FAQ). I updated your answer as an example. Regards
Comment: I think you mean to exclude the case $k\equiv 1\pmod m$, otherwise your argument fails. And, in the case $m=2$, your argument can never work, as you have pointed out.

sum of torsion of an elliptic curve


Garam masala paste for butter chicken

Question: I am trying to make butter chicken and most recipes call for adding garam masala powder to the mix.
I could not find the powder and only found garam masala paste instead.
Can i use the paste instead of the powder?
If yes, does 1 tblsp powder equate to 1 tblsp of the paste?
Thank you!
Comment: Much appreciated!
Answer: Garam masala powder is a spice blend, other than some anti-caking agents it's almost pure spices. Pastes are spices mixed with oil and maybe water and other ingredients like garlic, chili, pepper, tamarind, and others so they aren't an exact equivalent. Taking garam masala paste in particular if you look at patak's product the spices are only 23% of the total weight, the rest is water, oil, garlic powder and tamarind paste. You would need to add 4 tbsps of paste to get the same amount of spice as 1tbsp of garam masala powder, plus you will be getting extra flavors like garlic and tamarind in the mix.

Garam masala paste for butter chicken


How can I speed up a game of Axis and Allies?

Question: I find Axis and Allies takes a long time to play.  Does anyone have any house rules that would shorten the game?  I actually own A&A Europe, but general answers are welcome.
Answer: This is an excellent question!
For a board game I love but never play now since me and my friends, all working, can never get the 50 hours needed to finish it :) (ok, it's more like 8 hours no kiddin') if we don't simplify the rules and/or shorten the terms.
We have successfully used gentlemen's agreeements, as follows:
Shortened victory conditions (classic, revised, 1942, anniversary edition and 1940s):

We use the shortest victory conditions, always. It still takes many hours
Capital conditions: If a capital falls; the game is over even if it can be retaken. In practice that is a game winner anyways. I am sure there can be exceptions, but not if you play aware of that condition. It affects mostly the crucial Russia/Germany stalemate.

This helps a lot since you may reach a point at which Germany has good chance of taking Moscow in two rounds, or die so you can simply resolve only the moves and battles that affect that and call it a game.
Japanese stalemate settlement (classic, revised, 1942, anniversary edition and 1940s):

Our housee rule is: If japan has been wiped out from the mainland and has lost its fleet while there are at least scattered Allied ships in the Pacific, give all VP cities to the Allies and check if game is over.  Taking Tokyo is a 6 round affair at this point, that takes hours.

Europe and Pacific 1940:

For Germany: if USSR is advancing while the Atlantic has protected Allied transports unloading troops in Europe for two rounds or more, we call it a game. (Even if Italy is huge, because it failed to counter the previous.)
For Japan: If Japan land troops are both in Caucasus and eastern Russia (3-4 territories) while Japan holds the biggest Pacific fleet, we call it a game as well.

If you are new or almost new to the game:

I think turn time limit helps a lot. Agree on one, just make sure Germany and Japan have a bit higher limit than the allies
If you will play often, play at least 3 games of limited rounds (for instance, 3). Discuss who would win and why. For games like 1942 or Revised this helps a lot because you will better understand what can be achieved at that round and will have an idea about how long your games will take.

And the golden house-rule: Accept the dice, be a gentleman.
Agree on these kinds of conditions when the game starts and accept that the game is over at any of these points.
I am serious on this, because most games finish with a bitter taste of no conclusion with statements like "but I could still attack here and win that and..." which mostly leads to hours of playing to reach the same apparant result.
Not surprisingly there are these A&A chess and "Low luck" (tripleA videogame) housee rules that to me are based on this bitterness. The game is not designed for that, thus making the game somewhat scripted after a while.
Answer: There is a variant of Axis and Allies referred to as Axis and Allies Chess. I've not tried it myself, but this variation uses no dice, which I presume would greatly speed up the game.
Alternatively, you could consider playing it online - then you don't have to spend all that time setting up, moving pieces, counting out IPCs, and so forth. But I guess that kind of defeats the social aspect of the game, unless you all bring your laptops over and play whilst visiting together. :-)
Answer: Axis and Allies when played with many players (one player per nation, usually this means five) can be a long game with a lot of down time between turns.
A house rule we have used when we have a player for each nation is to rearrange the turn order so that allies move together (all the Axis, then all the allies).  Yes, this does affect the game, some balancing changes need to be made, and I wouldn't recommend this for tournament play, purists, or the super competitive.  It does remove a lot of downtime.
The way it works:
All the Axis move together, then all the Allies move together, repeat.
After all team players have finished combat movement, then combat takes place.  Nations may attack the same territory, but must attack one at a time (the defenders defends together as normal).  The attacking players may choose which order they fight in and each must fight at least one round before retreating, but they still must attack independently.  Note this makes it impossible to clear speedbumps/skirmishers for a teammate's blitz.
Some balancing changes to consider:
When we play this way we usually have widely different skill levels in the game so fine balance doesn't matter as much as having fun.  We do make some changes to help nations where losing the initiative would cripple.  For example, you may choose to give the USSR a non-combat move and full production phase before the first Axis move.  You may also give the UK a bid or non-combat move in the Pacific.
We have played this way a few times and it has gone well.  If you enjoy it please upvote and comment.
Answer: There is a simple victory condition: Whichever side has the most IPCs after the game is "mature." You might agree that it is required for one side to have an IPC preponderance of X points, so that the game is not decided by one or two points. O
The "mature" precondition exists when both sides have more or less continuous fronts in every major theater. Then, it is impossible to win by "penetration," and the game/war is decided by the preponderance of resources. In such situations, it's not worth playing out the game.
Or you can decide to call it a game after a certain period of time or after so many rounds.
Answer: here is a new game
Everyone moves all at once. Yes, everyone.
You find a map with the sea spaces with numbers
Everyone writes down EVERY move.
Then all at once, everyone moves their pieces. You can get some pretty surprising strategy out of it
Like if you move a sub into sea space 111 and don't say attack on your written down move. And a ship happens to move in there as well. Well, both of you share the same sea space no attacking.
super fast game, but interesting turn out. Sometimes you forget to give "orders" and you forget an attack or a move. But that's high command for ya.
Comment: And a typical written move goes like this
Comment: 2 tanks 2 inf attack russia to west russia,
Comment: This becomes a completely different game with these rules and I am not sure how they would speed it up as people will spend more time thinking about what other players can do since it all happens at once.


Recommended photography magazines

Question: What are some internationally available magazines on photography that you would recommend to a photographer who's mastered the basics and is interested in widening his horizons, in terms of inspiration and technique?
Personally, I'm looking for something that does not focus on post-production or aquiring expensive gear.
Comment: Good question... we've had lists of podcasts and books but not yet of magazines.  I'm going to flag this for community wiki, folks should probably post one response per answer.
Comment: "...not focus on ... expensive gear" - Excellent!  :)
Answer: The canonical answer would be "any photography magazine that doesn't have the word 'digital' in its title". That said, I have found the British magazines "Digital SLR User" and "Digital SLR photography" to be rather good. Either one, not both; they are rather similar.
Answer: I agree w/Staale, and to add to that, avoid any magazine that devotes an inordinate amount of space to gear reviews and advertising... well maybe keep one gear one around cuz they're fun to read :)  But for mags that I actually derive inspiration:

photo technique: great photography, great tutorials and very informative in both inspiration and actual technique
Aperture: More of an 'inspiration' entry, its all photographs and artist's discussion on what they're doing and why
B&W: Similar to Aperture but focusing solely on B&W
Answer: I quite enjoy Nature Photographer and Outdoor Photography Canada. The former for it's all-about-nature approach, and the latter for being all-about-Canada. Both do some equipment reviews and the like, but place more emphasis on techniques and photography expeditions. I jump on these whenever there is a new issue.
I also like Shutterbug for it's broader focus. Reviews and news feature more heavily here - as do the ads...
Answer: The two magazines I renew my subscription on are Outdoor Photographer and American Photo. Both have some very nice articles and interviews, with occasional technical discussions and gear reviews.
Answer: UK magazine Practical Photography is a close fit to your criteria: the articles focus on in-camera technique and they have a sister magazine dedicated to digital techniques which ensures a good separation of content.
Comment: The identically named US publication however is just a bunch of thinly disguised advertorials for camera and lens manufacturers.
Answer: I have enjoyed Photography Monthly.
(More than the magazine, I like their podcast).
Answer: I subscribe to the British Journal of Photography.
It is more about the business, politics and experience of practising photography professionally than about technique, but I find it useful to understand what's going on in the wider photographic world, to be inspired and to understand where professionals are coming from.
(I realise this one isn't a good answer to your question, but I hope it adds a different slant which may be of interest to some).
Comment: The BJP is usually interesting and to the point. The 'interview' about the Pentak K-01 is a great example of how to cut through manufacturer's BS... http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2143551/pentax-unveils-compact-01-mirrorless-camera
Answer: i love reading Better Photography,,
I can say that this is the best Photography Magazine based in India..
It gives tips on improving the skills and also showcase the work of the readers and also the expert's assignment on different projects.
Answer: Recently i purchased several magazines which i will like to recommend
Super basic (Intro)
1) Getting Started in Ditigal SLR Photography (Improve your phot skills and take better pictures) by MAGBOOK - UK magazine - ard 4-5 pound
2) The Essential guide to Portraits (Improve your photo skills & take your best ever images) - by MAGBOOK - UK magazine - ard 4-5 pound
Monthly Issue
3) Practical Photograph - www.photoanswers.co.uk - 4 pounds
4) Photoplus (Canon edition) also 4 pound - but i will strongly recommend this as it comes with a DVD *5hr !!! (not sure if it is a monthly bonus DVD intact)
any other magazines that i have magazines that i have missed out or ones that you enjoy reading?
cheers!

Recommended photography magazines


Stack exchange app for Windows Phone

Question: Is there an app for the Stack Exchange network for Windows Phone? I haven't seen any in the store, but browsing the site in edge it says, "read this post in our app". If there is no app for WP, couldn't SE recognize the client and suppress this message?
Answer: There's no official Stack Exchange app for Windows Phone that I'm aware of.
However, fellow WPSE user RareNCool was earlier this year developing an unofficial app. Last I checked, it was in closed beta. See this meta post for more info and instructions on how to get into the beta.
Answer: Not to my knowledge.
The reason it keeps suggesting an app is due to the way Edge is coded. It's coded to request the android version of web pages. The page detects a request from an android device, and includes the code to advertise their app and open the Play store link.

Stack exchange app for Windows Phone


What will I see in oscilloscope when attempting to analyze Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals?

Question: I would like to know what will show up if I put bluetooth or wifi carrier signal (2.4GHz family) in a say 50MHz oscilloscope? Am I going to see something like a rectangular block? And the only information I will get is the amplitude?
Comment: possible duplicate of [What does it mean when they say 50MHz oscilloscope with 250MS/s sample rate?](http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/77635/what-does-it-mean-when-they-say-50mhz-oscilloscope-with-250ms-s-sample-rate)
Comment: Duplicate to a much deeper level than the question title suggests, actually.
Answer: Nothing. That is, you'll just see a flat line, as if there's no signal. It's too high frequency to see.
The input stage on a 50 MHz scope is not configured to pass a 2.4 GHz signal. It'll be filtered out, and you'll be left looking at the (probably nonexistent) low-frequency components of the signal.
Answer: If it's a good scope, you'll see nothing at all, just a flat line representing DC..
Ironically if it's an inferior scope with incompetently designed input amplifiers and the signal strength is high enough, you may see a step in the flat line when the poorly filtered RF carrier is demodulated by nonlinearities in the amplifier, but that will only tell you the presence of carrier and nothing else.
And if the carrier is continuous, you won't see the steps, so you'll never know it's there.
This is the same phenomenon as AM radios and landline telephones picking up a distinctive "dud - dududud - dududud" noise from a GSM phone on the same table.
Comment: In case people wonder that last bit is talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw
Answer: The signal you have described is what you would see in on a spectrum analyzer, which is used for RF signals like the ones you are asking about. (You are then viewing relative power across a frequency band and not the signal itself -- it is important that you realize the difference, I think.) None of the signals in that band are continuous -- they are not dedicated simplex channels. What you will see on a spectrum analyzer is transient power spikes when devices transmit. As those bands are for low powered public use, they are not designed for continuous output because the band would become useless quite quickly and the devices would consume enormous amounts of power in an attempt to communicate in all of the cacophony.
There are inexpensive spectrum analyzers available to use for this type of signal analysis, but oscilloscopes are useless for nearly all RF work. Once you have demodulated the RF signal and extracted an Intermediate Frequency, you can use a storage scope to view the intelligence, or IF, depending on the signal.
A good signal to work up your bench skills is something like USB -- because you can easily create a setup to capture and analyze that stream. RS-232 is even better because the framing is very apparent and the data rate is relatively low.


Deploying XML resources to JBoss using Twiddle

Question: We are moving to JBoss 5.1.0 with autodeployment disabled. Therefore, we need to use twiddle to do our deployments.
The only place I have got stuck is deploying .xml files. These files are independent of our .war/.ear files and contain things such as Log4J configuration. As an example, we have a file called myapp_log4j.xml which, if deployed by hand, would be deployed in conf. It would then be read using:
InputStream in = LoggerFactory.class.getResourceAsStream("/myapp_log4j.xml");

This works fine if the .xml file is placed in the conf folder directly.
I have tried the following but it doesn't work:
twiddle.sh invoke "jboss.system:service=MainDeployer" deploy /tmp/deployfiles/myapp_log4j.xml

What command should I use to make this file available using twiddle?
Answer: ./twiddle.sh -u userid -p password -s localhost invoke "jboss.system:service=MainDeployer" deploy /tmp/sample/mtours.war  <-- location of the application


Using Express Migration Tool to migrate WFFM data

Question: I dont seems to be able to find any documentation on this:
I am upgrading from 7.2 to 8.2 using the Express Migration Tool. I am including WFFM in the upgrade. To upgrade WFFM analytics data I need to make 82 use SQL for storing data, as opposed to Mongo.
What are the implications of this?
Mostly worried about the following:

Can I switch back to Mongo after the Upgrade?
Will I lose my data then?
Will I need to rebuild the reporting database?

Walkthrough: Rebuilding the reporting database
Answer: The Express Migration Tool 2.0 migrates Web Forms For Marketers 2.4 items and data.


Application of calculus in computer science

Question: Where are derivatives and integrals used in the field of Computer Science? What are their applications?
Comment: I am not sure if this is a suitable question for cstheory, the scope of this site is *research-level* questions in *theoretical* computer science, please see the [FAQ].
Comment: For one thing, anytime you "choose an epsilon to be optimized later".
Comment: Whenever a "Turing machine" is used to control/process/simulate something "physical" (robotics, CAD/CAM, image processing, computational chemistry, ...)
Comment: I also have mixed feelings, even though I answered !
Comment: I just feel like the question should got moved, no downvoted! Its a perfectly legitimate question for, say, stackoverflow. Isn't it?
Answer: This depends on what you mean by "applying calculus to computer science."  In your comment to Quaternary's answer, you make a distinction between "direct" and "indirect" application, but it's not clear to me exactly what distinction you're making.  Following are some areas of computer science where calculus/analysis is applicable.

Scientific computing.  Computer algebra systems that compute integrals and derivatives directly, either symbolically or numerically, are the most blatant examples here, but in addition, any software that simulates a physical system that is based on continuous differential equations (e.g., computational fluid dynamics) necessarily involves computing derivatives and integrals.
Design and analysis of algorithms.  The behavior of a combinatorial algorithm on very large instances is often most easily analyzed using calculus.  This is especially true for randomized algorithms; modern probability theory is heavily analytic.  In the other direction, sometimes one can design an algorithm for a discrete problem by considering a continuous analogue, using calculus to solve the continuous problem, and then discretizing to obtain an algorithm for the original problem.  The simplest example of this might be finding an approximate root of a polynomial equation; using calculus, one can formulate Newton's method, and then discretize it.
Asymptotic enumeration.  Sometimes the only way to get a handle on an enumeration problem is to form a generating function and use analytic methods to estimate its asymptotic behavior.  See the book Analytic Combinatorics by Flajolet and Sedgewick.
Answer: The Flajolet-Sedgewick book on analytic combinatorics demonstrates how to analyze running times of algorithms by looking at the poles of a related complex function.
Answer: There are a bunch of approximation algorithms with approximation ratio that is not a rational number. Such a number is often arrived as as the optimum of some continuous function, or as a limit. The most notorious of them is probably (1-1/e)  , which can be arrived at in a surprising number of ways.
The Goemans-Williamson max cut algorithm (http://people.orie.cornell.edu/~dpw/maxcut.ps) also has an approximation ratio that is the optimum of some function.
Factor revealing LP's model worst case instances of a given size. As instance size goes to infinity the optimal LP solution sometimes approaches some continuous function. A toy example of this would be Section 4 in http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0612052v1.pdf (I'm sure there are others, this one I'm familiar with because I'm a coauthor on the paper).
Answer: In stochastic simulation, we are often interested in estimating the expected value of a random variable. The expected value of a continuous random variable is an integral over the real numbers. To estimate this quantity, we use the Monte Carlo method which consists of generating instances of this random variable from pseudorandom uniform variables. From these uniform variables, we can generate random variables from a given distribution by inverting the cumulative distribution function which is defined itself as an integral.
Answer: Oh hell yes!

Lagrange Multipliers (Entropy example)
Relation between crossing numbers of complete and complete bipartite graphs
Simpler version of Stirling's approximation
It is impossible to write computer game without calculus.  Many computer games use calculus.

It is used but I don't think it is used enough.
Comment: Tetris needs calculus?!


How can I determine what hosting provider hosts a site?

Question: Is there a service that will identify where a site is hosted (presumably by IP)?
Answer: A good place to start is whois:
ARIN IP Address whois lookup: this allows you to see who "owns" (ie. who is the registered operator for) a given IP address block.
Internic whois lookup: this looks up the registered operator of a given domain name, along with their DNS servers (which may be operated by their hosting provider, but which could also easily be hosted elsewhere).
That will get you started. For more detailed information, use the traceroute command (or "tracert" on Windows) to see the path between your point on the network, and theirs.
Comment: The nameserver data from whois seems to be a better indicator of the hosting provider than the domain owner/operator.
Comment: Absolutely, but again, you should definitely take it with a large grain of salt: just because the website is hosted with a particular provider, doesn't mean the DNS is hosted by them as well.

I'd typically defer to the ARIN lookup data if you're primarily interested in the (web/application) hosting provider, as well as the traceroute information.
Answer: Can't believe no one mentioned Netcraft
"What's that site running?" Top left hand corner.
Comment: works really nice +1 thx
Comment: Can't find this option anymore.
Answer: This will also depend on whether the domain is owned and registered by the hosting provider or not. The best clue normally is the DNS records, however I used to roll my own DNS for a while using zone edit for example, and non of the domain queries would show who is hosting the domain.
However it should give you fairly accurate information as to who owns the domain.
Answer: You can use this website: http://www.quarkbase.com it will give you what you need plus many other info.
Comment: Quarkbase seems to be down.
Answer: You can use our service Who is Hosting this Site?
Some points to keep in mind ...

If a website is hosted on a server farm (data center), then Who is
Hosting this? will likely be showing the name of the data center and
the web hosting company hosting this website.
When your site is using services like CloudFlare, it is difficult to
find out the actual hosting provider.    Accuracy level is 99%.
Benefits: Free utility, display who is the hosting provider, domain
ownership and who is records.


Stopping WYGWAM from assigning dimensions to images

Question: Is it possible to stop WYGWAM from putting dimensions on images as inline styles. We want the images to be responsive.
Thanks for any advice.
Answer: You need to create a custom config file for CKEditor that redefines how HTML is generated for images. Create a JavaScript file called something like 'ckeditor_config.js' and then set Wygwam to use it. You can do this by adding an advanced setting to your Wygwam editor configuration. Add the 'customConfig' setting and enter the path to the JavaScript file you just created. It will look like:
/javascripts/ckeditor_config.js
Enter the following code into the config file. The code is from the CKEDITOR - prevent adding image dimensions as a css style question on Stackoverflow. I've modified it slightly, so that the dimensions aren't added as attributes on the image.
CKEDITOR.on('instanceReady', function (ev) {
ev.editor.dataProcessor.htmlFilter.addRules(
    {
        elements:
        {
            $: function (element) {
                // Remove width and height style rules from images
                if (element.name == 'img') {
                    var style = element.attributes.style;

                    if (style) {
                        // Get the width from the style.
                        var match = /(?:^|\s)width\s*:\s*(\d+)px/i.exec(style),
                            width = match && match[1];

                        // Get the height from the style.
                        match = /(?:^|\s)height\s*:\s*(\d+)px/i.exec(style);
                        var height = match && match[1];

                        if (width) {
                            element.attributes.style = element.attributes.style.replace(/(?:^|\s)width\s*:\s*(\d+)px;?/i, '');
                        }

                        if (height) {
                            element.attributes.style = element.attributes.style.replace(/(?:^|\s)height\s*:\s*(\d+)px;?/i, '');
                        }
                    }
                }

                if (!element.attributes.style)
                    delete element.attributes.style;

                return element;
            }
        }
    });
});

Comment: This is briliant. Adding this removed all tags in early entries - didn't even need to open and resave old entries. Thank you.
Answer: Following on from Aelvan's answer here is the code I use to automatically resize images in Wygwam fields and remove the dimensions. It also stops them adding stupidly large images. It requires CE Image, but why wouldn't you have that installed anyway?
{exp:ce_img:bulk max="300" crop="no" allow_scale_larger="no" add_dims="no" attributes='style="float: right; margin-left:2%;"'}
{wygwam_field name}
{/exp:ce_img:bulk}

Comment: Great suggestion. :)
Answer: For responsive websites, I generally have had better luck defining separate fields for images. It gives you better control than letting people include images and other media directly in WYSIWYG fields, especially with RWD.
Back to your question, I believe it can be done relatively easily at the CK Editor level, not in Wygwam. Here is a post on stackexchange you can inspire yourself from. Basically you have to use CK Editor's Data Processor and HTML Parser filters. Just a bit of Javascript to write. Not really complicated.
EDIT: Seeing what Dylan posted, you could also just remove the style attribute altogether, if all you need is a bare img tag.
    CKEDITOR.on('instanceReady', function (ev) {
ev.editor.dataProcessor.htmlFilter.addRules(
    {
        elements:
        {
            $: function (element) {
                // Remove style attribute from images
                if (element.name == 'img') {
                    delete element.attributes.style;
                }

                return element;
            }
        }
    });
});

Answer: I don't think it's possible to do in WYGWAM itself. But you can use the CE Image bulk tag and/or EZ Image Resize to fix this in your templates. And you have the added benefit of being able to set a maximum width/height to save filesize.
Comment: This isn't what he meant. What he means is that Wygwam adds `style="width: 80px; height: 40px;"` to images.
Comment: Yes, I know. And the CE Image bulk tag removes that. And adding add_dims="no" to it also removes the width and height attributes if necessary.
Answer: As long as your uploaded image isn't too big then you can set the height and width to 100%. Seems to work well for me!
Answer: There is a rather ugly UX issue with completely removing the style property.
The user gets confused since the dimensions are there to set and since it's a WYIWYG editor rightfully expects some correlation between his editing and the final layout, yet we take that away.
Even worse we prevent the user from setting image sizes completely.
A common issue with users is that they have no concept of image preparation. So they are not going to use Photoshop or some other tool to properly size, crop, color correct, etc their images.
They go into Wygwam like they go into Word and start messing things up.
So the proper solution is one where we obey the sizes they set as long as they don't exceed the parent element's sizes - in other words they stay in control but we prevent the layout from falling apart when - only when - their size exceeds the parent element's size.
this inline code:
style="width:530px; heigt:320px;"

should become like this:
style="max-width:530px; max-height:320px; width:100%; height:auto;"

instead of the complete removal of the whole style attribute.
I run a function after the page load that replaces the inline style attribute.
function replaceStyle() {
var imageStyle = $(this).attr('style');
imageStyle = imageStyle.replace('width', 'max-width');
imageStyle = imageStyle.replace('height', 'max-height');
imageStyle = imageStyle + ' width:100%; height:auto;';
$(this).removeAttr('style').attr('style', imageStyle);
}

$('img').each(replaceStyle);

but obviously it'd be better to implement this idea in a CKEditor custom_config.js, or better yet if CKEditor would use this idea by default but that's beyond my Javascript skills.


How to release the lock on a gdb?

Question: I have problems to release my gdb in ArcGIS10. My tool works with an local gdb, but I failed to release it after the process.
In Ag9.3 I can release it simply by Marshal.ReleaseComObject(workspace), but this doesn't work in AG10. Also releasing all FeatureCursors doesn't help. Only closing the whole application "deletes" the lock.
Does anyone know how to release my gdb and "delete" the lock without closing the application?
Comment: From http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/6230/cannot-get-rid-of-lock-on-file-geodatabase-and-feature-class-created-in-python-s, it appears you may have run into a bug. If none of the answers below apply, I'd follow up with Esri tech support.
Comment: Search this site for "file geodatabase lock", some of those might help.
Comment: Of course I searched the site before. But unfortunenatly none of the suggestions helped me out. I tried the Compact-GP, but this didn't unlock the gdb. It also doesn't seemed to be an orphaned lock, cause I cannot edit the gdb in ArcCatalog before I close my Application. But which object do I have to release for unlocking my gdb in addition to releasing the workspace?
Comment: http://gis.stackexchange.com/search?q=file+geodatabase+lock
Answer: I had a quick look and found information on the locking scenario you seem to be having. In ArcObjects 10 there is a SetWriteLock and FreeWriteLock option.
have a look at the forum link specifically the sample from Lance Shipman from Esri
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/36881-the-performance-fgdb-api-amp-arcobjects
Have Fun, CDB
Comment: SetWriteLock and FreeWriteLock are not in ArcObjects but in the FileGeodatabase API (Separate of arcobjects). This library can write/release locks but only the ones that were created with this library. The filename pattern is different (does not include computer name, etc.).
Answer: Getting to this condition is easy - all you need is one object that is holding a reference to something that needs the workspace to stay alive. Like a custom object that holds a Feature for example.
Once you are sure you hold no such references, try calling GC.collect() to force the garbage collector into a quasi-deterministic cleanup mode
Answer: If you are using cursors in your application make sure to use the ComReleaser to manage the lifetime of the cursors and destroy them when you are done with them. Otherwise they can lock your DBMS. I might be wrong but I don't thing calling ReleaseComObject on the workspace alone removes the reference to the cursors. Take a look at this ESRI blog post...
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/geodatabase/archive/2008/12/18/Using-the-ComReleaser-to-manage-the-lifetime-of-cursors-in-.NET.aspx
Answer: Found Idea from
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//003n0000007w000000
"These .lock files are removed whenever you run the geoprocessing Compact tool"
<code>string[] lockfiles = Directory.GetFiles(project.Path, "*.lock",   SearchOption.AllDirectories);

if(lockfiles.Length > 0)
{
int lockCt = 0;
while (lockCt < lockfiles.Length)
{
 string inFGDB = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(lockfiles[lockCt]);

 ESRI.ArcGIS.DataManagementTools.Compact compactProcess = new   ESRI.ArcGIS.DataManagementTools.Compact();

 compactProcess.in_workspace = inFGDB;

 geoprocessor.Execute(compactProcess ,null);

  lockCt++;
}
}
</code>

How to release the lock on a gdb?


When you are winning, is it ethical to not go for a checkmate right away?

Question: If you are leading a game, is it ethical to capture your opponent's pieces one by one or go straight for checkmate?
Comment: That's silly, @J... The chess-playing mouse has the option of resigning, after all.
Comment: Have you ever seen a cat torture a mouse?  Just for fun?  Like, the hunt is over, the mouse is screwed, but the cat just keeps toying with it - tossing it back up in the air, making it scurry, then jumping on it again... just for its own amusement.  Ask yourself if you're doing that to you opponent.  If you are, you're being a jerk.  If you're not, then don't worry about it.  You generally need to seriously outclass your opponent for this opportunity to present itself.
Comment: Ignoring the ethical aspect, there is an important tactical aspect: If you are _certain_ you force a checkmate you usually should, because the longer the game goes on the more opportunities there are for you to make a mistake and lose your advantage.
Comment: @TonyK Well, for the whole thing to work the mouse has to be unaware of the fact that they're being toyed with - that it's not just a genuine, desperate contest for survival.  Like I said, you generally need to seriously outclass your opponent for this opportunity to present itself.  OP is describing a situation where the aggressor takes a circuitous route to victory (in poor taste?) in order to flex that they can pick off their opponent's pieces at will, exploiting mistake after mistake and deliberately drawing out the game into an embarrassment of progressive attrition for the loser.
Comment: @J if you read the answers the most common cited example is players in time trouble choosing the brute force approach to avoid having to think.
Comment: @Taemyr Indeed, but OP's question is specifically asking where the ethical line is drawn - when it stops being a tactic and it starts being unsportsmanlike.  That line is drawn when you're not playing a tactic at the limit of your skills any longer, but are instead deliberately gas-lighting your opponent, etc, I think.
Comment: @ack [Are humans the only animals that kill for pleasure or no purpose?](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/15860/34961).  See also [Surplus killing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_killing).  In cats it's done to train hunting skills.  Calling it "fun" is arguably a debatable anthropomorphism, but, in any case, it's satisfying an instinctive desire that isn't about getting food.
Comment: Similar: https://chess.stackexchange.com/q/21955/8063 (my question)
Comment: @J... My parents told me they saw a cat they had doing that exactly. Toying with the very mouse that couldn't get away by letting it run and blocking its path.
Comment: @J... Animals don't kill for fun or amusement - humans do.
Answer: There is no rule or law that says that you have to try and checkmate in as few moves as possible and so there is no ethical requirement either.
In fact, if there are just a few pieces left on the board and you are very short of time it makes a lot of sense to take all the opponent's pieces as quickly as possible and only then worry about how you are going to checkmate.
Otherwise if you run out of time while your opponent still has some material left then you are going to lose on time. If your flag falls after you have taken all their pieces then you still get a draw.
Comment: Similarly if I'm in serious time trouble I'm never going to try to find a shorter mate with one queen if I can just easily push a pawn down the board and then do a thoughtless mate with two queens.
Comment: In that situation I would even promote to rook, as I found mating with rook and queen even simpler and safer.
Answer: It depends.
The USCF Code of Ethics states that the following is unethical:

Deliberately failing to play at one's best in a game, in any manner inconsistent with the principles of good sportsmanship, honesty, or fair play.

I would take this to mean that if you have a mate in 1 and you see it but purposely don't play it, you're being unethical. However, I would not take this to mean that you cannot take your opponent's pieces if this is a legitimate attempt to win (or prevent losing on time.)
Comment: That's a bit dodging the question, isn't it? Because the code doesn't say failing to play at ones best is *always* unethical -- it says it's unethical if it is inconsistent with the principles of good sportsmanship. But this qualification is exactly what the OP is asking about!
Comment: That's about throwing the match, not toying with your opponent.
Comment: @Peter-ReinstateMonica The ethical rules say what they say. All I can do is quote them and give my opinion. People here are using terms like "toying with" or "torturing" to describe the behavior in question. I think that if someone is "deliberately failing to play at one's best in a game" to "toy with" or "torture" their opponent, what they are doing is "inconsistent with the principles of good sportsmanship".
Answer: If a football game was lopsided at halftime, wouldn't it be ethical to call the game?
Since chess has a resigning option, I don't consider any move as unethical.  I consider an opponent who doesn't resign in a hopeless position as someone who deserves to be tortured, and it allows me to practice technique.  So promote to all knights and practice the unusual mate.
Comment: Be careful with the 50 move rule though
Comment: My opponent promoting to knights would make me feel it was the correct decision not to resign and play for a slip-up.
Comment: @jf328 And accidental stalemate
Comment: Why would someone call a football game at halftime? At least give the losing team some more playing experience.
Comment: What's typically frowned upon is *running up the score* with your first teamers.
Comment: Does *association football* have such a rule?  Professional American football sure doesn't, though high school (and probably other) leagues usually do.
Answer: It depends on level of play and seriousness. If this game is a tournament game but lower rated, I would be happy if my opponent was playing around. This would allow more stalemating chances.
If I seriously didn't want to endure it, I could always resign. If this was a grandmaster game or just a high rated game that was taken seriously, it may be seen as disrespectful and unsportsmanlike to do so.
Just like how there are no real rules against offering a draw, it could be seen as rude to offer a draw when you're clearly losing.
Of course if you're playing a casual game, you can do whatever you want. When I play with my friends I would often give up all my pieces and underpromote some pawns to do fun checkmates like 3 knights and whatnot.
Comment: @OscarBravo There is a huge difference between realizing your advantage in a way that prevents counterplay and simply toying with your opponent in a won position. The shortest mating sequence might involve piece sacrifices, and refraining from going that route because of the danger of miscalculation isn't poor sportsmanship.
Comment: "When I play with my friends I would often give up all my pieces and underpromote some pawns to do fun checkmates like 3 knights and whatnot." -- and your friends still play with you?
Comment: @JohnColeman: I know this situation from my youth days. If your friends no longer play with you (remember, *they* started the "insult" by not resigning), they never were your friends in the first place. This falls under the same rules as "flyting" during banter blitz: promote to ten knights with an evil grin on your face and in the next game you are bestest buddies again.
Comment: If I gain the upper hand, I prefer to capture and exchange as many pieces as possible, even if there's a possibility of checkmate sooner. This is so I can clear the board and get down to a simpler end-game. If there are lots of pieces still in play, I'm always worried I miss something and make a mistake.
Comment: @JohnColeman: I was losing a game, so I sacrificed my last piece to ensure the game ended in KBB vs K. My opponent said I should resign. I said he couldn't win. He couldn't.
Comment: @HaukeReddmann Obviously it depends on context. In most chess contexts, toying with a defeated opponent would be considered poor sportsmanship, though the same could be said about not resigning.
Comment: @JohnColeman My friends and I are very close and competitive. We've been playing chess together both competitively and casually for 3-4 years now and have been playing nearly every day at lunch while we ate in room 114 for all of highschool. Even when our supervisor had a meeting or something we'd play chess online on our phones. So I'd know if they hated it when I do that, I let them do it to me. Because when they do stalemate or mess up, I can rub it in their face. I don't do this to just about anyone. So I should have clarified
Comment: @HaukeReddmann Exactly, like I told John Coleman, I've been playing chess with my friends from freshmen year to senior year on the same team and also everyday at lunch or even in class. If your friends suddenly stop playing with you because you "toyed" with them then they were just looking for an excuse not to play with you. If they hated it that much they'd resign, or at least tell you they don't like it. Not everything is so serious...
Answer: Why would you choose to not choose to checkmate right away? You are wasting both your time and your opponent's time by not doing so. Tournaments take place in short periods of time, so using that time to keep up your ability to play is important. Unless there is a time constraint, and you are trying to ensure that you will not lose by running out of time, you should checkmate in as few moves as possible.
Comment: Indeed, the reasoning why is the key behind it. That being said, I don't think OP is talking about a mate-in-1 situation. I believe OP means something more like bringing pieces into attack mode and gunning for a win. But such maneuvers can of course be risky, especially in short time scenarios!
Comment: _"Why would you choose to not choose to checkmate right away?"_ → You may be winning, and you may be _fairly_ sure that a checkmate in X is possible if you play your moves perfectly. You can try and go for it; but you also have the option to capture a couple more pieces, simplify the position, and then be _absolutely_ sure that a checkmate in X is possible and go for it. There's nothing unethical in that.
Answer: It doesn't hurt to ask your opponent if they'd like to resign or keep playing. I beat a number of better players when they got well ahead and made mistakes, and I lost many games the same way.
Also, weak players don't get to really study desperate endgames if they're always resigning. One of my chess partners used to consistently draw me into a stalemate when I was well ahead, instead of resigning. If he'd just resigned, or if I'd just wiped him out, I would have never grokked that option.
Answer: Your opponent has the option to resign.
Personally I feel it depends on the motive.  If you deliberately ignoring simple forced mates it seems a bit rude but if you are simply trading pieces to go for a longer/less aggressive and far more certain win that is fine (probably a good idea too).


Why are the corner pieces referred to as "rooks" in English?

Question: Various sources like those quoted in Wikipedia say that it's a mistake, or old-fashioned, to refer to rooks as "castles".  Why is this, though?  Other languages generally refer to these pieces as "towers" and when the king exchanges places with them, we call it "castling" rather than "rooking".  The pieces look like castles.  The term "rook", on the other hand, seems to come from Persian/Arabic and have a very obscure etymology.  So why is this word preferred?
Comment: It is interesting, in comparison, that most other Western languages don't use specialized terminology for the rook and just name it by their language's word for a tower (e.g., German "Turm", French "tour").
Comment: possible duplicate of [Is there an origin or story of where the pieces that make a chess game got their name from?](http://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/2492/is-there-an-origin-or-story-of-where-the-pieces-that-make-a-chess-game-got-their)
Comment: @TonyEnnis That still doesn't really explain why *rook* in particular retains the Persian roots in English where it doesn't in most other languages.
Comment: It's just the name of the piece.
Answer: Some say:
There will probably other theories about the origin of the name "rook" for this chess piece; however here is the one I believe is best.
IN the origins of the game itself, the game was called Chaturanga and it was not exactly the same as modern chess. The piece we call a rook was considered to be a chariot rather than a castle, probably because of the speed with which it moves. The Sanskrit word for chariot was "ratha". In Arabic it is still referred to as a chariot with the name "rukhkh." When the game spread to Europe, the word "rukhkh" sounded like the Italian word "rocco", which meant "tower." Since the two words sounded alike, the Italian word was used but the meaning changed from chariot to tower.
The piece is still thought of as a tower in European translations. Various European countries use their language's word for "tower" rather than their words for "chariot". In Middle English the concept of tower eventually turned into castle since most castles had towers.
Contributors are welcome to add to this answer any other theories about the name; however they should honor the rule against deleting other answers unless they are obviously wrong. Contributors are also reminded of the rules regarding minor edits.
Other explanations (the ones i believe to be true):
The rook was already known in "Chaturanga", but there, this figure was a carriage and was called "rukh". The war carriages have been a part of the old Indian army until the 5th century. At the time the game came to Arabia the name did not change but the portrayal was simplified. In Europe the English name "rook" remind us to the descent.
But how has the figure changed from a war carriage to a rook?
By the year 1527 Vida, bishop of Albay, published a poem about a chess game between "Apollo" and "Mercury". The rooks were fortifications on the back of an elephant. The European chess players took over the description. Finally they left out the elephant for the normal use.

Notes, I told you what others have said, what you're going to read now is my theory
I am from an Arabic country, Lebanon, and we don't call the bishop "Al Fil", like some website say, at least in my country we don't, maybe some other arabic country did, not us, and we still play Chaturanga (but i don't). We call it Chatarange, it's a French name, since France was the mandate for Lebanon long time ago.
Anyway lets talk about the pieces which is interesting

king = king
queen = queen
knight = horse
rook = castle, yes we call it castle, and it makes sense to castle for
us, we don't rook :)
Bishop = minister, and also makes sense, the Arabs who
played Chess were Muslims you know :) Why European call it Bishop? I
can think of 3 reasons:

Because the bishops were so powerful and involved in political life. Because Christian armies relied on them during the wars, they were the one who blessed a war (Remember the crusaders and the Pop?). And lastly, because they contributed so much to the game (Ruy Lopez, was created by a Spanish priest who later became a bishop!)

Oh so you think I forgot about Pawns? Wrong! Pawns = Some call them soldiers, and some call them stones or rocks!

Now my theory:
It is possible that by translating, a castle, became a rook, after all a castle, is built using rocks. Why didn't the European remove the term "pawn"?
By definition a Pawn is the condition of being held as a pledge against the payment of a loan. All the poor and the farmers were "Pawns".
Remember that Chess was introduced to Europe in mid centuries and only the wealthy played it, so the term pawn has a very significant meaning, the weakest on the board in a Feudal society, that would fight for the king in the hope of being promoted! So they left the name as is for that piece.
Small Edit To My Initial Answer
You might be wondering: Why the hell would Arabs call "Pawns" as "Rocks" in the first place?
That's because, Arabs play a board game called Tables, the game as we play it today, was created in Turkey, (I don't give a damn about what Wikipedia has to say about the history of the game) and the Turks have invaded the Arabic world for a long time, so that's how we got it.
The game is played by stones or rocks, rounded pieces, now they are made from plastic, but not back then. The Tables game is far more popular than Chess or whatever you call it in the Arabic world today.
The way you play the game is by pushing the pieces to the other end of the board, and you win (I'm not going to go over the rules, but that's the idea)
There's also Checkers, which originated in Iraq some believe, and is still more popular than Chess nowadays in the Arabic world.  And the pieces move very similar to Pawns and again were made from rocks. So why creating a "Pawn" shaped piece, when you can use rocks and start playing?
Sources

The history of the chess pieces
Chess Piece history: Rook
Why is a rook called a rook?
Comment: By the way, in Chaturanga and Shatranj, the queen is called minister (and has less powers).
Answer: First of all, the origin of this game was India. chess should have WAR TROOPS in the battle field. what makes the logic of using a chariot as troop? It could be an Elephant that elephants were used for wars.
when this game spread to the world, people uaed their own terminologies to represent these troops according to thier custom of battle environents and imaginations.
the chess federation developed and fixed some rules and common names for the troops.
mostly animals and soldiers were involved in war. not the chariot (i dont think that people accept the chariot as troop?). it was like a leg of an elephant, for a better shape of a troop to stand on a board (look at the toes of an elephant. this upside down looked like a Tower /casle in some countries. and they named as such.
rook is not a war troop.
elehant is a troop to kill enemies.
can you imagine when the chess special moves were introduced? and what could be the time of this game invented?
the base name of rook was an elephant, not a tower or castle.
i m not against the arguements here. just to remind the logic of the art of cereberal war.
rook is elephant
king is king
queen is queen (in ancient days,  queens too warred in india)
Comment: Actually, chariots were certainly used in ancient warfare.
Comment: Welcome to [chess.se]! Your arguments are a little hard to follow, please have a look at the [tour] and the Help Center article [answer].


WIll I be able to upgrade the developer preview to the full version?

Question: WIll I be able to upgrade the ubuntu touch developer preview to the full version? I installed the developer version and was curious if when released , would i be able to upgrade to the full version on my nexus 7, thank you
Comment: Related (but probably shouldn't be closed as a duplicate): [I installed an alpha or beta, am I up to date with the final release if I keep upgrading?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/5675/i-installed-an-alpha-or-beta-am-i-up-to-date-with-the-final-release-if-i-keep-u)
Answer: There are and will be frequent updates of the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview. See here: The latest as I write this is from March 23, that's the same day. So time by time more functions will be added and the developer will get a better and more complete basis system in order to test their applications and to test the whole system.
This is an imminent prerequisite for the application developer therfore it would not make sense for canonical to continue working on the system somewhere behind closed doors and finally come out with a final release.
So at the end the Developer Preview will be the final release or at least very similar to that.


Does the sentence "Aren't they pretty!" mean "They are pretty."?

Question: Does the sentence "Aren't they pretty!" mean "They are pretty."?
Comment: The exclamative (negative) form aks for a confirmation of the other person so that this one gives the opposite opinion: *aren't they pretty!* — *Yes, they are.* — If the answer is negative, then the other person confirms what has been said before by the original speaker. (In this case: *no, there aren't.*)
Answer: With the exclamation mark, it does mean that the speaker thinks "they are pretty" and expresses it out.
If it were written with a question mark ("Aren't they pretty?") it would be a question, still suggesting the same thought, but perhaps looking for confirmation from the listener.
Note, however, that in some cases the negative question is a request for confirmation of a negative belief - which has the opposite meaning. For example, "aren't you coming?" may suggest that I suspect you are not coming.
You can find a longer discussion here.
Comment: It may be helpful for the last example to consider "Aren't you coming" as expanding to "Are you not coming?". Similarly, "Aren't they pretty" expands out to be "Are they not pretty?" or perhaps "They are pretty, are they not?". Sometimes with negative questions like this, the asker is challenging the group with "this is my opinion, does anyone disagree?" looking for confirmation that their opinion is shared, and sometimes this will be asked rhetorically with no reply expected (this is the form that is often followed my an exclamation mark when written).


Is it possible to use a single image sensor to capture a stereoscopic image?

Question: I was wondering if there is a way of splitting  a digital image sensor's surface in two and using it to capture a stereo version of an image, maybe using some clever optical system with mirrors (like a periscope... actually, two of them) or something. I want to reproduce that information as 3D on a screen.
Comment: It's not clear what you are asking.
Do you want to modify a camera? Or do you ask if theoretically something like that could be produced?
Comment: More like theoretically... if the idea is good enogh, I'd like to try it. I'm just courious if something like actually capturing 2 different angle images with the same sensor is possible.
Answer: There are numerous products available which do this exact thing.  They are adapters which often fit over an existing lens to produce 2 images on the sensor.
A quick search on 3d lens will give you the most hits though it isn't something I'd consider an obvious search term.
Products I'm aware of include ranges from Loreo and Kula 3d.  There is/was a 3d lens made by Canon but that was for video and I couldn't find a current page on their website (will update if I locate it).
Also you might be interested in the Samsung NX300 and 45mm 3d lens which uses a novel internal LCD to black out half the lens across 2 exposures to provide separate images to the sensor.


How much of the Amagi Brilliant Park light novel was adapted into the anime?

Question: Can you tell me how much the Amagi Brilliant Park anime adapted from the light novels, particularly in terms of which volumes?
Comment: I'm not entirely sure, but I can tell you that KyoAni fairly extensively restructured and reworked the content of the light novels, as they tend to do with their light novel adaptations. The time limit for the park was significantly shorter in the LNs (two weeks, if I'm remembering right).
Comment: He's given three months in the anime. Having never read the original light novel, I don't know how that compares to the time limit it gives, though
Comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/2rddl9/amagi_brilliant_park_does_the_ln_continue_on/ From this discussion, What I gather is that the main plot was that of the first novel, but some of the character development was pulled from subsequent novels, none of which were very plot heavy. Not posting as a answer since I haven't seen/read either
Answer: The anime tells roughly the story of the first volume by expanding the deadline from two weeks to three months and by borrowing events from later novels. All of volume 2 was animated (hiring new staff and exploring Rubrum's cave), and the Kanie-body-suit incident was borrowed from volume 3.
NanoDesu Translations was DCMA'd and thus unfortunately was unable to translate the entirety of volume 3, so I'm afraid I don't have any more detailed novel-to-anime comparisons other than the fact that volume 3 did contain some story that the anime did not.
Answer: If we refer to bakaupdates, the anime covers the first volume but differs after that by taking elements of various volumes. https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=119404


Enumeration of labeled connected bipartite graphs given partite sets

Question: What would be the closed-form expression defining number of all possible labelled connected bipartite graphs given $\mid X \mid = m,  \mid Y \mid = n - m $?
Answer: The number of connected labeled bipartite graphs with bipartition $(X,Y)$ where $|X|=m$ and $|Y|=n$ is the coefficient of $x^my^n/m!\,n!$ in
$$\log\biggl(\sum_{m,n=0}^\infty 2^{mn} \frac{x^m}{m!}\frac{y^n}{n!}\biggr).$$
They are sequence A123260 in the OEIS.
Answer: Found the answer in Labeled Bipartite Blocks by F. Harary and R. W. Robinson (http://cms.math.ca/cjm/v31/cjm1979v31.0060-0068.pdf , page 63, formula 11):
$$C(m, n) = 2^{nm} - \sum{* \binom{n - 1}{a - 1} \binom{m}{b} 2^{(n - a)(m - b)} C(a, b) }.$$
The asterisk on the summation indicates conditions $1 \leq a \leq n$, $0 \leq b \leq m$, and either $a < n$ or $b < m$. The initial conditions are $R(0, 1) = 1$ and $R(0, n) = 0$ for $n \ne 1$, and it is obvious that $R(m, n) = R(n, m)$.


Was Sybill Trelawney named after "the" Sybil?

Question: When she gave actual prophecies, Sybill Trelawney had a completely different "persona," not remembering what she said afterwards. Was she named after "the" Sybil (the one known for multiple personality disorder)?
Comment: I have apparently upvoted, but I'd actually like to downvote this question for its seeming ignorance of the meaning of the word "sibyl". After seeing the title, I was very surprised to find that by "*the* Sybil" you mean a character in a book from the 1970s, when looking up "sybil" in a dictionary would give you the much more natural answer here.
Comment: Why the downvotes on this?
Comment: @Randal'Thor It honestly never occurred to me to even look there - it's kind of unusual for names to appear in the dictionary, so I don't think that the fact that I didn't think of that represents a lack of research effort on my part in this case.
Answer: JKR has stated this:

Sybill's first name is a homonym of 'Sibyl', which was a female clairvoyant in ancient times. My American editor wanted me to use 'Sibyl', but I preferred my version, because while it keeps the reference to the august clairvoyants of old, it is really no more than a variant the [sic] unfashionable female name 'Sybil'. Professor Trelawney, I felt, did not really qualify as a 'Sibyl'.
(Pottermore)

Going to the Wikipedia page for 'Sibyl', we see this:

The sibyls were women that the ancient Greeks believed were oracles. The earliest sibyls, according to legend, prophesied at holy sites. Their prophecies were influenced by divine inspiration from a deity; originally at Delphi and Pessinos, the deities were chthonic deities. In Late Antiquity, various writers attested to the existence of sibyls in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor.

So - no, she wasn't named after Sybil Dorsett; she was named after the sibyls of legend.


Will a better lens help with high speed skateboarding shots?

Question: I am shooting downhill skateboarding ranging from 30-60 mph. I'm trying to find a good lens to capture focused sharp stills of the skaters with blurred backgrounds. I have a Nikon D3200. I only have the kit lens and am not getting good results — not a surprise. I was thinking of trying the Nikkor 35mm F/1.8 due to the high speed F/1.8. Thoughts?
Comment: If you could post a link to an image with the EXIF data intact, such as on DropBox then we could likely provide much more reliable recommendations. If you don't do that, at a minimum please provide the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO setting that you used to shoot the image that was not "good results". Generally speaking, if all that you have is a kit lens, the 35mm f/1.8 will be a great second choice as it offers a much wider aperture and likely better image quality.
Comment: I don't think he wants more *bokeh*, I think he wants to know how to do a panning shot.
Comment: I decided to go with a nikkor 50-200 f/4-5.6 af-s vr telephoto and am gonna practice my panning shots thanks for the advice everyone
Comment: right now i have the iso set to 6400 shutter to 1/200 and f stop F/5.6
Comment: It does sound like a faster lens is the answer then. However, if you're at f/5.6, I suspect you're zoomed to 50mm or so, at which point you might want to consider a 50mm prime rather then 35mm.
Answer: Normally the wider aperture of a faster lens allows you to use shorter shutter speeds to 'freeze' motion. But when you are trying to do panning shots to show the skateboarders moving through their surroundings you need to use longer shutter speeds than what you would use to freeze the entire scene.
From a hardware perspective what would probably be most helpful is a lens with a Vibration Reduction panning mode. This allows the VR to steady the lens in terms of, for instance, vertical motion as you pan the camera horizontally. Several Nikon lenses, particularly those in the telephoto range, have this feature.
As is the case with most good photos, the largest factor in a good panning shot is the skill and experience of the photographer. It takes a lot of practice to learn what works and what doesn't. It is a lot like trying to learn to hit a curve ball, you can discuss the theory all you want but you don't really find out who can learn to do it and who can't until you get on the baseball diamond.
Two primary factors that will increase your chances of getting a good pan are focal length and shooting position. First, you need to place yourself in a position so that your subject is the same distance from you as they move from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, etc. The best way to accomplish this is to shoot from a position that is 90° with respect to the direction your subject is traveling. Second, you need to use the longest focal length lens you can that will allow you to compose the shot you want. This allows you to move further back from the subject. The greater shooting distance allows the lens to compress the differences in distance between the arc of your camera's point of focus as you pan and the line that your subject is moving.
For more on panning technique, see What equipment and settings do I use for panning shots of moving objects?