image processing

Question: How is image processing done?
I want to compare two images and identify the differences between them. How do I identify difference between two taken pixels of different images?
Comment: how different are the images?  are they structurally similar (e.g. same image, different compressors), different angles of the same subject, or completely different?
Comment: What language, platform?   Are you using a number-crunching tool like Matlab or IDL?
Comment: You can try this link for some pointers http://stackoverflow.com/q/23931/5195
Comment: yes @misha, different lighting, focus, scale/resolution, etc...
Comment: Is there any more information you can provide about your image set?  Generally, the more assumptions you can make about the images you're comparing, the easier the task becomes.  For example, if you know you're working with faces only, the problem can be reduced to comparing the visible facial features.  If you know you're dealing with cars, it can be reduced to comparing things like number of wheels, aspect ratio, etc.  With zero assumptions, it's an image understanding problem -- a natural task for humans, but quite difficult for a computer to solve.
Comment: Your first question is too general. Your second question is not clear. Can you elaborate what you mean by "identify difference between two taken pixels of different images".
Comment: possible duplicate of [Computing the difference between images](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/613146/computing-the-difference-between-images)
Comment: Typical question "many-books-needed-question-plus-open-ended".
Answer: The particulars depend on which language you are using, but generally it works something like this:
Each image is treated programmatically as a two dimensional array.  So to find the difference in values at the same pixel (call it x,y) for two different images you would do something like this:
diff = image1[x][y] - image2[x][y]
There are some implementations details you have to wary of (e.g. the difference will be signed), but this is the basic idea.
If you mention what language you're working with, I can offer some advice about how to open an image so that it can be treated like an array.
Comment: thankxxxxxxxxxxxxx.I got the point. I suppose to use java.
Comment: "the difference will be signed" : Be careful about underflow when doing subtraction
Answer: Don't simply add the differences from Answer 1, or positive and negative differences will cancel out! You need to sum the squares of the differences, or their absolute values.
You could also consider multiplying the pairs of pixels and dividing by their sum (correlation).
All three of these methods are now technically correct but they will still be far from practically useful. Don't be surprised to find smaller difference between two totally unrelated images than, say, two images of the same object with a slightly different illumination.
Answer: "How is image processing done?"
Ans: Depends on what processing you want to do. There are hundreds of operations you could do in image processing, each one may have an entirely different approach, the only thing in common being reading and storing the pixel data.
"I want to compare two images and identify the differences between them. How do I identify difference between two taken pixels of different images?"
Before even asking you about the type of images - I would like to ask what you mean by "identify difference between two taken pixels"? Do you just want to know if the two images are different? Do you want to know which pixels are different? Do you want to know if pixels at a given location are different?
Answer: try processing.js you can do some really fun stuff with that.
http://processingjs.org/
Answer: Random selecting pixels and check the size of the image.  if they are the same, you could possible assume they are identical.
Comment: If the OP just wanted to know if the images are different, he could use `diff`. If quick comparisions were needed: checking size + md5 would be much better. The OP wants to `identify` the difference.
Answer: Here's an image processing example that I did a couple weeks ago.
http://keshavsaharia.com/2011/03/17/theres-waldo-2/
It's built in Mathematica, and takes a Where's Waldo puzzle and uses fairly simple image processing techniques to find Waldo.
Image processing is a pretty simple concept. It is almost entirely based around taking individual pixels and applying transformations to the image as a whole based on numeric properties of the pixel values in relation to other pixel values or to a given threshold value.
Mathematica is a fantastic tool for image processing, as is Matlab and Python (if you're looking for a python solution, check out PIL). Image processing libraries are available for pretty much every programming language - C++ has EasyBMP, Java has a wide variety of image tools, and every language has its own set of unique methodologies. Choose the language based on your application.
Answer: If you need just a simple comparison of two images on the pixel basis, there is nothing as simple as count sum of differences between each pixels of two images. This approach is not very versatile and for example different illumination can significantly affect results.
What is to say, image comparison is still open research problem and it is related to the image-mining  task.
If you need some more advanced image comparison, you can try Rapidminer with IMMI extension which includes several advanced methods for image comparison.
Answer: Image processing is a massive field so I don't think any single answer on here will teach you everything there is to know about image processing. There are many great sources and lectures scattered all over the internet that you can learn tons of information from. If you want a good book for signal processing (signal is representative of almost any datatype: light, sound, image, etc, etc...) which covers a huge number of signal processing techniques check out Signals and Systems.
But otherwise if you just want to learn basic processes that can be applied to images check out the processing language (like jaboston said) and its tutorials/learning books as its essentially designed for visual artists and makes image processing a much less laborious (syntactically) task than other languages: http://processing.org/ .
And erich has the right of it- use the euclidean distance to work out the difference between two pixels.
Comment: Do not post links to pirate ebook sites. I've replaced your link with one to Amazon, where people can go to actually buy this book.
Comment: Apologies, I thought I had linked to a site that sold it I have a hardcopy of this book, and don't recommend piracy
Answer: Image similarity is not an easy task and is still open research problem. Pixel per pixel comparison usually does not give good results and at the same time it is quite time consuming.
One of the approach is to use Rapidminer (open-source tool). Radpiminer (widely used data mining platform, http://rapid-i.com) with IMMI plugin (IMage MIning extension, http://splab.cz/immi) implements similar methods and can do some non-trivial similarity measurements.

image processing


Switching fields in a postdoc after PhD, is that possible in psychology?

Question: I'm currently doing a PhD in neuropsychology, however 6 months down the line I have fell out of it. I realised I'd like to do research in a field such as health psychology or clinical psychology. Would it be possible for me to get picked for a postdoc position in one of those areas coming from a neuropsychology background? (Considering that I don't want to be in a postdoc that has something to do with neuropsychology in any way, but more like developing a behavioural change intervention or researching about mental health without digging into the biological aspects of it) , or should I just switch to a different PhD?
Comment: You are only 6 months into your PhD and already don't like it? It might be worth considering how much time you have left to go in that PhD before you worry about what you will do as a post doc.
Comment: I agree with Bryan. Also, you sometimes can find post docs that combine your field with another field. This will be much more realistic than totally switching subfields for a postdoc. But since you don't want to do your current field at all, it seems you would not be happy with these options...
Answer: I'm not going to answer your question. Rather, I want to note that this is one of three questions you posed -- the two others being found here and here, all posted within the space of a few hours -- that paint quite a picture of dissatisfaction with your current situation. It's this overall state on which I want to comment.
It's common for PhD students in the early stages of their candidature to have doubts about many number of things. The questions you pose are among those issues -- satisfaction with their project, supervisory concerns, unclear targets, future prospects following graduation, waning interest in the original topic. You're not the first to experience these uncertainties and you won't be the last. To be honest, though, I'm not sure that a group of anonymous, well-intentioned individuals on a forum such as this can do anything more than say one of two things: (1) buck up and get on with it, or (2) quit while you're ahead. Importantly, I'm not sure what you want to achieve here.
The only way to resolve these issues is to discuss these with people who can help you reach a decision. My first response would be for you to discuss these issues with your supervisor, but it seems that you have some issues you need to resolve in that arena. I suggest that you seek support from your university's graduate school, your department's academic adviser, more senior post-docs or PhD students or your peers. Your partner, your friends, your parents and siblings can also offer valuable advice tailored to you.
Once you have received their counsel, then all that remains is to act.
Your greatest enemy here is time.
I wish you the best of luck, but more than that, I wish that you attain the degree of clarity you need to act.
Answer: In a post-doc, you're a hired gun.  You're getting hired to do a job.  If you're qualified to do that job, you're not really switching fields -- you're extending your research interests.  If you're not qualified to do the job, you probably won't get that post-doc.
Answer: I strongly disagree that it is a bad idea to switch fields, as I switched from mathematical modelling of cardiac electrophysiology to genetics of bowel diseases and this has worked out very well. Although this question was about biomedical science, not psychology, I'd like to refer you to it anyway, as in the accepted answer, I discuss the pros and cons of switching to a different field after your PhD. Switching fields within biomedical sciences between PhD and postdoc?
Your question is not a duplicate of this one, but my answer applies to this one too.


How to bootstrap managerial experience?

Question: Most engineering manager positions require X years of managerial experience in the job description. That means as an individual contributor I can never qualify. But this experience has to come from somewhere. How can I bootstrap the managerial experience? Is internal promotion to some lead position the only possible way if I don't start my own business?
Answer: You can get X years of "management experience" without ever being a manager.  If you look at management as a series of disciplines (building a team, coaching people, building a schedule, etc.) then you are building a management pedigree.  Some recommendations:

Find a mentor (someone in a management position) to help coach you on the basic skills and help you identify opportunities to grow into those specific skills
Ask your current manager (try not to make that person your mentor...) for opportunities to take on more responsibility and demonstrate your ability to be successful.
Keep a list of what you have tried and what you have learned
Read.  Lots.  There are many good management books out there and as a lead SW engineer, you are in a good position to understand and innovate some of the theory/concepts in books and put them into practice (also, you are in a good position to evaluate what theories aren't all that helpful...)

I'm sure others will have some other good ideas, but this is what has helped me and advice I give to tech leads looking to make the transition.
good luck and have fun!
Comment: Thanks Al! Could you please recommend some books?
Comment: I can recommend lots... if I had to pick one to get someone started it would be this collection from IEEE: http://www.amazon.com/Software-Engineering-Project-Management-2nd/dp/0818680008/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306288682&sr=8-1  It is a great collection of articles on a variety of topics.  If you want a more complete list DM me on Twitter (I'm easy to find :-) and I can email you a spreadsheet I maintain...
Answer: Mostly it does come as you guess from internal promotion. You have coded a lot and after years of practice you were asked to take the ownership of the code, mentor juniors perhaps on occasion even be a contact for the customers of the company. Then you discover the years you are doing now count more towards managerial experience than to building up purely technical skills.
There is always an option for somebody experienced be invited to try himself out in a new role in a new company. There are open-minded employers who do give people a chance.
The other option is to try freelancing then join forces with other people to bootstrap a small company and offer your services as a team. There you'll get as much experience as you want.
Just keep an eye open. If you're genuinely interested there is a good chance you will get there sooner or later.
Answer: I don't think there's a specific formula. Sometimes, the opportunity will present itself. For example, if you see a job posting within your company for an engineering manager, consider applying for the job and making your case. If your manager can attest to your organizational skills, you might just land it.
Answer: Most engineers will find that, as their responsibilities and experience increases, they are taking on more and more of a management role. Often this will happen without an official title or job description change - when applying to a new job, you might have to get a reference from your previous manager to help prove you have the relevant experience.
Beyond that, just as it is true with any other kind of work experience, this is something you can seek out on your own. You can either spend your free time attempting to directly get the right kind of experience, through freelancing and other types of short term work, or you can spend your free time learning management skills and techniques, and then look for opportunities to exercise them in your current work position.
When I say "other types of short term work", all of the standard options apply. You can volunteer in a management position somewhere in your community, join your condo board, find part time or contract work, or contribute to open-source projects.
Answer: At least in the companies I have been, senior roles - even the Individual contributor ones grow towards working across teams / influencing a lot of people etc.
They don't have the requirements around people management/release management though - but the experience of dealing with people is almost always a necessity. So you could grow into one of these IC roles and the other company might consider this. You should talk to the recruiters once you get there.
Answer: Internal promotion is - IMO - the easy way.  It's easier to be a manager within an organization that you understand somewhat.  Coming into a new company and a new role would be significantly harder, since you would understand very little about the culture.  When I see companies that require X years of management, I think that's what they are saying.  Particularly in the X = 2-4 years.  If they are saying X >= 8, then I think they are also looking for someone seriously seasoned, who isn't going to be startled by much and who will have a very broad manager skill set.
There's other ways to build managerial skills however - volunteer work.  I learned a whole lot about management in a volunteer recreational organization before I ever had the opportunity to step up in my companies.  While organizing people for a fun (but intellectual) activity was not the same as getting a herd of engineers to create a product, it gave me at least a few tricks to employ as we got started, and it gave me the confidence to try more things and further grow.
I'd say that if you are looking to apply for jobs that look for 2-4 years of management, and you don't have the opportunity at work to lead a small team - then look for medium to large size projects in non-work organizations.

How to bootstrap managerial experience?


Can I influence the activity source contact with the membership API Create action?

Question: In my project I am using a scheduled job to get street recruitment data from a csv file and create a new membership with the API if required. When the membership is created, an activitiy is also automatically created using the logged in user as the activity source contact. Does anyone know if I can influence this activity source contact with the API?
My workaround is changing the activity once it is generated with the post hook. Works, but is a bit hackish :-)
Comment: ErikH, interesting question, can you add the activities tag to it?
Comment: I added the tag.
Answer: At this point, no, at least as long as you aren't using the API as the member him/herself.  The relevant line is https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/blob/4.6/CRM/Activity/BAO/Activity.php#L1886:
// create activity with target contacts
$session = CRM_Core_Session::singleton();
$id = $session->get('userID');
if ($id) {
  $activityParams['source_contact_id'] = $id;
  $activityParams['target_contact_id'][] = $activity->contact_id;
}

Basically, CRM_Member_BAO_Membership::create calls CRM_Activity_BAO_Activity::addActivity, and the code above just forces the source contact to be whoever's logged-in.
Ironically, just a few lines above, the activity source contact is set to be the ID set in the contact_id property of the activity object passed to the function from the membership, but this overrides it.
Comment: Thanks @Andrew, and ironically indeed :-) I'll just go with my workaround.


What can I do with my credits?

Question: So far I've been earning a healthy wage in Alliance credits, but I'm not sure what I can do with them. All my time is spent on the battlefield on missions or kicking back in the Normandy, so there's not much opportunity for shopping, or am I missing something?
Answer: Many of the stores are on the Citadel. Search every floor for panels which are often stores. Most of them are in Presidium Commons, and there's a Medi-gel upgrade store in Huerta Memorial Hospital.
Once you activate the store for the first time, it will show up in the Procurement Interface so you can buy them any time from the Normandy Armory (at 10% markup). That's on the bottom floor. Armor is a major money-sink, most armor sets cost 50,000 credits. Specre Procurements has crazy expensive guns for you, the "best" pistol, sniper and shotgun are there for ~200,000 credits.
You can also upgrade all of your weapons multiple times, which will eat up a fair amount of credits. There's a weapons bench where you can upgrade your guns in the Armory as well.
Comment: Come to think of it, are there any stores NOT on the citadel?
Comment: Weapon upgrades (**not mods**, just the upgraded version of each weapon) can only be purchased aboard the Normandy AFAIK.
Comment: True, I didn't really consider that a store though
Answer: What cannot be done with credits?
They increase your effectiveness in battle if spent on the right thing, e.g. gun upgrades.
You can also buy fish and flowers and all that junk, i see no use in them so far but they can be bought :)
Comment: There was no use for the fish in ME2 either, but I was still disappointed when they died.

What can I do with my credits?


How do I encourage co-workers to recycle?

Question: Our facility is very large and we have recycle bins in all break rooms and eating areas.  There are separate bins for plastic, aluminum, and trash. Current waste analysis shows that approximately 57% of items are placed in the proper bins.  Our goal is 70%.  What sort of incentive or program would have a long-lasting and permanent effect?  I believe that this would require a change in the company culture itself.  My current thought is to ask management for 2 hours off the day before Christmas holidays if the recycling goals are met.  I am uncertain if they would accommodate this and I am fishing for more ideas.
Comment: @notmyrealname beat them with recyclables until they concede.
Comment: @JimG. I don't know about carbon emissions, but in terms of cost/benefit, recycling aluminum is usually the only thing worthwhile - paper and other materials (often? sometimes?) cost more to recycle than to make anew.
Comment: I highly suggest you dont do the extra break reward the way you are planning to. Otherwise some people will 100% do everything right, and the handful who dont and keep you at 57% will ruin it for everyone. Punishing those who do it right wont help
Comment: What about people who think recycling is wrong?
Comment: @MeredithPoor: Not *all* municipalities can do that in their facilities. Also, if the recyclables go into the *waste* bin, it doesn't matter how sophisticated the sorting plant is, since they won't get anything to sort.
Comment: who's doing "waste analysis"?  sounds like the worst job ever.
Comment: Very often what happens behind the scenes is the sorting equipment can separate it all anyway.  The bigger the city you're in, the more likely this is true.  Before bothering, find out from the recycling company whether it matters.  Where I live at least, we dump all our recyclables in one bin, and they sort it out.
Comment: @MichaelGrubey being beaten with recycle-able material seems like it would drive me to recycle LESS, as then there would be fewer things to use against you as weapons.
Comment: @notmyrealname: Great point. Many people believe that recycling paper actually causes more carbon emissions than it saves.
Comment: You would be surprised how much companies can save by reducing electrical costs, reducing the amount of packaging their products are in, and reducing the amount of waste their facilities generate.  There are far worse jobs than sorting garbage that facilities has had to do in the past.
Answer: When we started recycling more aggressively at my workplace a few years ago, we found that (a) most people want to do the right thing and (b) people don't want to have to work at it.  The recycling bins in the kitchen and by exits are a fine start, but what made the difference for us was giving everybody a recycling bin alongside his personal trash bin.  (We don't have to separate materials, though, and it sounds like you do.)
To figure out where to place which recycling bins, start by looking at what is getting tossed into the trash where.  Are people mostly tossing paper at their desks and next to the printer?  Put paper bins there.  Are people tossing drink cans in meeting rooms?  Put aluminum bins there.  Analyze your current user behaviors and go from there.
For any new program that asks people to change their behavior, you'll likely get better results if you react to the current behavior.  Tweaking which bin an employee tosses something in is easier than getting that person to walk to a different part of the office to drop it into a bin there.
As for shared rewards, the challenge there is always the tragedy of the commons and the resentment it can produce when some people are dilligent, some are slackers, and everybody gets the same outcome.
Comment: What's interesting is that approaching the user interface design of software is much the same: "Analyze your current user behaviors and go from there.".
Answer: Make recycling:

Easy. I am indifferent about recycling. But if you make it easy for me, I will recycle. If you make it hard or difficult to know how to recycle, I (and most people) won't. Making me walk across the room? Bad.  Putting something at my desk? Good.
Obvious. This is close to the above, but so often I see all these cryptic things which seem like they should be some sort of recycling but I can't figure it out. People design systems/receptacles/signs which "make perfect sense!" but are indecipherable to the majority. Then a few people make mistakes and it's game over as containers get filled with the wrong things.
Standard. Don't mix/match colors, container sizes, etc. Make all containers for recycling the same. It drives me NUTS when I have a trash can with a little recycle container and they are both blue. Which should I use? Blue normally means recycle, which is which? Make sure you at the very least have a standard system across your entire company, and combine with #2.
Combined. Try to combine things which make sense. This is also related to the first point, but if I have a lunch and have to split it into 5 bins, not going to happen. But if there is a "recycle" vs a "trash" bin, easier. Maybe this means you have a recyclable bin containing plastic/aluminum containers and everything else is trash. I don't know, but no one wants to play sorting games when they really just want to throw things away.
Answer: Does the company realize any savings from recycling? Lower costs, or a rebate from the city?
If there is a savings from better recycling then add it to an employee fund that pays for snacks, or a pizza party.
One way to change the behavior is to make it harder to do the wrong thing. Office trashcans should be very small, give them a paper bag to put paper in. Put the recycling containers where the "trash" is made, and in the offices.
The biggest problem where I have worked is that a small percentage of people are stubborn; they go out of their way to put trash into the recycling container. To minimize the impact the recycling had to be collected everyday.
Answer: Have competitions. Put departments up against each other.  Maybe the monthly winner will get lunch brought in for them.  Keep a point standing or keep the standings by pound and display it for everyone to see.  The incentive can be whatever you think will get them to do it.  Some good ones would be money, food, or time off.
Comment: I see this causing trouble, only rewarding the best people sends the message to the rest 'it doesnt matter what you do'
Comment: My firm takes the floor which won this competition to a good football match.
Answer: Executive Summary
Incentives are nasty little things that have a habit of mucking things up in the long run. As Dan Ariely pointed out in Predictably Irrational, "money, as it turns out, is the most expensive way to motivate people. Social norms are not only cheaper, but often more effective as well."
If you base the program on rewards, people will be upset if the rewards are removed. Currently 57% of the people in the office are doing the right thing for free. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The question is, "What is the difference between the 57% who are doing it, and the 43% who aren't?"
Listen to your Users
As Monica points out:

For any new program that asks people to change their behavior, you'll
likely get better results if you react to the current behavior.
Tweaking which bin an employee tosses something in is easier than
getting that person to walk to a different part of the office to drop
it into a bin there.

Figure out what the difference is between the 43% and the 57%. Or even if it's that some people recycle sometimes, and don't others. Figure out what the barriers are from the user side. Rather than paying someone a dime for jumping through the hoop, eliminating the hoop means you can keep your dime.
Strengthen Existing Social Norms
If you are going to use incentives, use them to reward the good eggs. If a certain team or department has been really good about recycling, then get them a cake or a pizza or something at random, with a nice note on top saying, "Thanks for recycling! Your friends in facilities"
Have your staff carry around pens engraved with, "Thanks for recycling, keep up the good work! Your friends in facilities" and when they see someone sorting their recycling, have them hand them out (sparingly and randomly, not on any set basis).
The point is that you are saying to people, "Recycling is the proper thing to do, and we appreciate it" rather than giving incentives that say, "C'mon guys, PLEASE recycle -- we'll give you candy!" Care should be taken to make sure that the former doesn't turn in to the latter. That's why any rewards should be sparing, random, but visible -- lets people know that it's important, but not something they should expect a reward for.
Make the Problem More Obvious
Right now there likely isn't much in the way of obvious consequences for not sorting the recycling. It doesn't get done properly in the office, so the facilities management folks have to do extra work to sort it out afterward. This is all behind the scenes, so an individual employee doesn't feel that his/her actions are having a negative effect.
Instead, trying showing that there is an issue. Create a bin next to the recycles and waste that says, "Unsorted Rubbish" or whatever you'd like to call it. You can put a nice explanation below saying something like:

If people put their waste in the recycling bin, or vice versa, it causes lots of extra work for the facilities people. If you can't be bothered to sort yourself, please dump it here to make the job of sorting your refuse easier.

The point is to call attention that the rubbish does get sorted, and that the actions of individuals does impact someone. While it's harder to make a comment to someone if they are dumping unsorted rubbish in to the recycling or waste portions, it is quite a different thing when you are intentionally dumping in the "this causes extra work for someone" bin, and makes it easier for the 57% to enforce a norm held by over half the office.
In addition to creating the extra bin, if the stats don't improve, you can do the sorting of the unsorted bin during work hours, once a week, to show people that real people are really doing this work (and that dumping in the "unsorted" bin has consequences).
Answer: In my experience, I've had a lot of well-meaning coworkers who want to recycle, but don't understand what should go where, so they throw out things that could have been recycled. Recycling guidelines might even be different between the city where your employees live and where they work (this is definitely true for San Francisco, which has unique recycling/composting guidelines).
Make sure all containers have very clear signs that detail how to recycle different items. Make sure to include pictures of commonly found items in the office (for example, the milk cartons in your fridge, plastic forks, paper plates, etc.).
You might even want to have a lunch session or email chain where people can ask questions about tricky-to-recycle items.
Answer: 1 - Make it easy
Get bins in more places
Get signage that is as clear as possible - pictures of what goes where
Change where possible to not needing to sort - even if it's at the desks that you can just toss recycling vs. trash, and the shared areas have the different types of bins - make it easy and less thought-inducing.
Also - conference rooms.
2 - Share Progress
If you're 57% of the way, share that!  Near all trash bins, have a sign saying "help us get from 57% to 70% - put your recycling here - with a path to the nearest recyling bin
3 - Watch for Trouble
Where does the bad mix come in?  That's where you need to make it easier.
Be aware it might not be only putting a bin in the right place, but keeping the bin empty.  Or making the bin intake be capable of handling everything the bin should contain - for example, many paper recycling bins are limited to small piles of paper.  What if I'm cleaning out a binder?  I may give up and just dump it in the trash if it'll take serious work to put it paper by paper into the bin.
4 - Look for intake that can be simplified
For example, what does your cafeteria or local snack area provide for displosable utentils?  Are they recyclable?  Is it clear?  What about other snack containers?
Some of the best recycling setups are the ones with labeled pictures showing EXACTLY what I'm likely to be carrying.  I can't tell you if I'm carrying number 9 plastic, but I can tell you I'm carrying a red solo cup.
To say nothing of the idea that low-trash food systems result in less trash.  Stuff like individual utensil distribution vs. packaged setups of knife/fork/spoon can simply save on how much stuff you have to toss.
Answer: Offer a reward to the office group that creates the least amount of trash and the most recyclables. Making office recycling like a game, at least to begin with, may get those who might not have otherwise been interested involved. Everyone likes a challenge and offering an incentive just ups the ante. Gift cards, movie tickets, or even just a candy bar make great rewards. The incentive doesn't have to be outrageous in order for employees to be interested.
Answer: I would look to see if the company is willing to make a charitable donation based on the recycling percentage. Make sure you give plenty of feedback on the progress along with information on the charity that will benefit. Employees could submit suggestions for a particular organization.
Some sort of celebration could also be in order. Maybe invite representatives of the chartitable organization to explain the work they do and cause they help.
I just don't think the company is going to offer so much of a reward that everyone is going to change their ways based on what will be a modest prize for themselves.
Answer: Make sure it's clear and consistent what goes in which bin. Where I work we have a ton of bins for various garbage and recycling and it's very unclear what is supposed to go in which. For example don't have a blue bin for garbage and make sure the signs are above the bins and are easily viewable.
You could try making the garbage bins harder to access or having fewer. Even something like putting lids on garbage bins that have to be open to use can persuade people to consider the recycling bins.


Fastest way to keep the last frame of a clip persistent

Question: I have a video clip I would like that the last frame of this video clip last more seconds so the user can see it very well. Which is the fastest way to keep the last frame of a video persistent on the screen for a determinate amount of time without stretching all the video clip?
Answer: To hold the last frame simply drag the tail handle to the right. It will repeat or hold the last frame. If you want to do this in the middle of a strip then make a hard cut (not a soft cut) shift-k, this will remove the ghost handle, seen after trimming or soft cutting. You can then drag the tail out for a freeze frame again.
Comment: Thanks! I really needed this answered, and it was right there! Thank you!


Completely Removing Mac OSX from MBP

Question: I have a 2009 MBP that runs Linux Arch and OSX on a dual boot. I have no use for OSX on this machine. I installed it 12 months ago, and straight after installation I set up Arch via BootCamp and have never logged into OSX.
It's using 20GB of my HDD space doing nothing. When I installed from BootCamp and partitioned I remember that BootCamp reserved 20GB space of OSX and wouldn't let me go beyond that.
Is it possible to totally remove OSX and just have Arch running on this MBP? I don't mind reinstalling Arch again as everything I need on Arch is all backed up anyway.
Answer: Piece of cake, boot the Mac in target mode, connect it to a computer and repartition / erase the drive. You also can remove drives from portables easily and connect tem to an inexpensive ($5) USB to sata adapter and format things.

Completely Removing Mac OSX from MBP


What lens will get the whole body in the picture for street fashion photography?

Question: I'm looking for a lens for fashion street photography which covers all the body in the pic. Do you recommend the Nikon 50mm 1.8d or Nikon 35mm f / 1.8G for my D3300 camera body? (I don't have the budget for anything more expensive.)
Comment: Welcome to the site! Do you have a kit lens already? What focal length do you find yourself using on that lens for this type of photography? Have you used the search function of this site to read about street photography lenses? What did you learn? What did those questions not answer for you? Note that this is *not* a shopping site(see help for more). See this if you haven't already - [What is a good focal length for street photography?](http://photo.stackexchange.com/q/59932/4892)
Comment: Curious why you're willing to spring for the better 35mm G but not for the 50mm G? The 50mm D has no focus motor in the lens and won't AF on your D3300, The 50mm G does have a focus motor and will AF on your D3300.
Comment: People's lens choices are often very subjective.  Any time you have questions about whether an expensive lens is "right for you", consider borrowing one from a friend or renting one for a day or two.  It's a hassle, but you'll thank yourself later if you avoid an expensive but unhappy purchase.
Comment: Wouldn't that depend entirely on how far away you are from your subject?
Answer: The 35 mm will include more background. Decide if you prefer more context in the image or more isolation. There will be a bit more distortion with the wider lens. It will be more apparent in head shots than full body shots though. Otherwise, 35mm and 50mm are close and it is a matter of personal style and preference.
Also, when you buy a lens, think about what your next lens purchase should be. For example, if you plan to purchase a 60mm macro or an 85mm portrait lens in foreseeable future, it probably makes more sense to get a 35 now, because 50 is too close and you might find the two lenses overlapping...
Answer:
Do you recommend the Nikon 50mm 1.8d or Nikon 35mm f / 1.8G for my D3300 camera body?

Get the 35mm. Assuming "fashion street photography" means that you're relatively close to your subject, the wider lens will do a better job covering a person-sized subject. The 50mm would work too, but you'll need to stand farther away.
Using this dimensional field of view calculator, you can see that on a body with a 1.5x crop factor like your D3300, at a distance of 10 feet, a 35mm lens will cover a distance of 6 feet 10 inches in the longer dimension. At the same distance, a 50mm lens covers about 4 feet 10 inches, and needs a distance of about 14 feet to get the same 6' 10" coverage.
I haven't considered lens quality at all here, so that's something else that you should of course look at in making your decision.
Answer:
I'm looking for a lens for fashion street photography which covers all the body in the pic.

Whether or not you'll get as much coverage as you want depends entirely on your working distance and framing choices. Nobody can absolutely tell you what focal length to use, because everybody tends to frame differently and to have varying degrees of comfort in terms of how close they are to their subjects.  Street, to some shooters, can mean anything from in-your-face shooting from a few feet/inches away to sniping with a telephoto from across the street.
I'd recommend starting with an 18-55 kit lens, assuming you already have one, and then seeing what focal lengths yield the coverage you want, and then going for a lens.  Chances are good that the 35/1.8 might still not be wide enough, if you like or are forced to work in close, and you might be better off with a 24mm lens. On the other hand, if you tend to use your 18-55 zoomed all the way in, then the 50/1.8 might be a better choice.  Understand, too, that the chances of distortion increase the shorter the lens gets.
But overall, I'd also say if you really want a good lens for what you want to do, consider saving up enough to buy a good lens before going shopping.  Being "forced" to buy a lens because it's all you can afford is one way to end up with a lens that doesn't manage to do what you want.  And it's not like a kit lens turns every photo you take butt ugly simply because you used it.


Who first distinguished planets from the stars?

Question: This is a pretty straightforward question, when the first observations of the night sky were being made, who was the first person to suggest that a planet, say Mars, was not a star, in the sense that their physical compositions were different? I thought Tycho Brahe, but he lived in the 16th century, whilst a large part of such observations was made in ancient Greece, so could it be someone else?
Comment: It is certainly very much before Tycho Brahe, before Ptolemy, and before Hypparchus. Any person who looked at the sky systematically, surely discovered this. History did not preserve the name of this person.
Comment: @AlexandreEremenko, I might have been unclear, the question was not who first realized that stats and planets have different motions. As you said yourself, the first person to observe the sky. What I meant was who first suggested that the two types of bodies were different, as in physically different. One emits light, the other doesn't. This has a much less intuitive answer, and likely there are records of ancient astronomers who studied the night sky with precision.
Comment: Why would you down vote this? This forum is specifically for this kind of questions.
Comment: HDE226868: And I think the answers have nothing to do with the question "WHO FIRST distinguished...". And it was clear from the beginning that this question, as stated, has no reasonable answer. "Who was the first to observe the sky"? "Who was the first to observe that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the West?"
Comment: I fail to see how this is off-topic; it fits here perfectly. @Alexandre - regarding your point - I think the answers go against your point.
Comment: @LR: I think you should rephrase the question. You did not mention the crucial word "PHYSICALLY different". You did not mention "emits the light". With these specifications, it would be a completely reasonable, legitimate question.
Comment: @LR: The main difference which is immediately observable is NOT PHYSICAL: planets move (with respect to stars), while stars don't (with respect to each other). This is something you immediately notice when you start looking at the sky.
Comment: @AlexandreEremenko I disagree. The answers clearly address the answer. The answer to a "who" question is not always a specific person. You could ask "Who first observed the W and Z bosons;" the answer would not be one person but a group.
Answer: We can try to find the necessary informations browsing some History of Astronomy books, like :

Anton Pannekoek, A History of Astronomy (1961, original ed : 1961)
Christopher Linton, From Eudoxus to Einstein A History of Mathematical Astronomy (2004)

and the "classical" studies of Otto Neugebauer on ancient science and astronomy, mainly :

Otto Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity (2nd ed, 1957).

I think that it is necessary to separate at least three different "stages" :
(i) the "planets" have irregular motions (the retrograde ones) compared to the movement of the "fixed stars".
It is due to Babylonian astronomy; see Lipton, page  :

Ancient astronomers were also aware that five of the star-like objects in
  the sky changed their position relative to the other stars. These five objects –
  now named after the Roman gods Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn –
  are the planets, from the Greek for 'wanderer'. Careful observations of these
  objects reveal that, like the Sun, as well as participating in the daily rotation of
  the heavens, they, too, move around the celestial sphere though with differing
  periods, and also that while they move predominantly in the same direction as the
  Sun – from west to east – they sometimes switch back and, for a time, move from
  east to west in so-called retrograde motions. [...] The planets also remain close to the ecliptic, the maximum deviation for any of them being 8◦, and thus all the wandering heavenly bodies can be found within a strip on the celestial sphere 16◦ across centred on the ecliptic. This strip,therefore, is very important, and is known as the zodiac and was divided by the Babylonians into twelve equal parts: the signs of the zodiac.

Despite their astronomical and mathematical ability, it seems to me that their is no trace of "physical" Babylonian theorie regerding the nature of "celestial objects".
(ii) some planet, like the Moon, does not shine by his own light (compared to the Sun and the stars); see Pannekoek, page 100 :

[the pre-socratic philosopher] Anaxagoas of Clazomenae (c.500-428 BC) [...] was the first to state clearly that the moon shines by the light it receives from the sun and that lunar eclipses occur when the earth (or another dark body) intercepts the sun's light.

See also Lipton, page 21 :

He [Anaxagoras] was the first to think of the seven wandering heavenly bodies in the order Sun, Moon, followed by the five other planets, an arrangement adopted by a number of later astronomers.

(iii) The last stage is the understanding of the "physical" difference between the fixed stars and others "celestial objects", like the planets and the comets.
This process occurred during the Renaissance, starting with the physical-cosmological debate of the 1580s, stimulated by the apparition of a nova in Cassiopeia in 1572, the comets of 1577, 1580, 1582 and 1585, and followed by the nova of 1604.
See :

Miguel A.Granada, Adam Mosley, Nicholas Jardine Christoph Rothmann's Discourse on the Comet of 1585 (2014)
Patrick Boner, Change and Continuity in Early Modern Cosmology (2011).

This debate culminated with Galileo's telescopic observation of the moon and of the phases of Venus (1610), and of the sunspots (1612)  :

Galileo Galilei & Christoph Scheiner, On Sunspot (translated and edited by Eileen Reeves & Albert Van Helden - 2010).
Answer: I'm not an expert in the field, but I'll give it a go. Unfortunately, my only source is wikipedia, since I learned most of these things from encyclopedias years ago.
The distinction was certainly made centuries before Tycho Brahe. My humble research hasn't been able to exactly pin down who were the first to observe the difference, but I'd bet Babylonians were already aware of it. In this wikipedia article, we can read:

The oldest significant astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of the Enūma Anu Enlil, the Venus tablet of Ammi-saduqa, which lists the first and last visible risings of Venus over a period of about 21 years and is the earliest evidence that the phenomena of a planet were recognized as periodic. The MUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations.

Which strongly suggests that Babylonians knew that there two different luminious objects in the night sky: planets and fixed stars.
The word planet comes from greek πλανήτης, which means wandering (or errant, don't know which word is better). This is evidence of the greeks knowing about the difference, which is confirmed in the (very complete) fixed star Wikipedia article, where we particularly read:

The phrase [fixed star or stellae fixae] originated in classical antiquity, when astronomers and natural philosophers divided the lights in the sky into two groups. One group contained the fixed stars, which appear to rise and set but keep the same relative arrangement over time. The other group contained the naked eye planets, which they called wandering stars.

Conclusion: Even though evidence strongly suggests Babylonians were already aware of the difference around 1000 BC, when the Enuma anu enlil was written, we can be sure the differentiation was made sometime between this date and classical antiquity, which ended around 100 BC.
Comment: (I'm a girl by the way) :P
Comment: The information you provided looks correct to me, I suspect you might not have interpreted the question as the OP intended. People have indeed distinguished the so-called wandering-stars from the fixed-stars in this way since time out of memory. But all this really amounts to is a distinction between two types of stars, and the word "planetary" is just an adjective describing a certain kind of star. This is not quite the same thing as distinguishing a planet *from* a star. The issue is that the question was vague, and we need to distinguish between different possible distinctions.
Comment: I assumed he meant the differences in their physical composition and intrinsic properties, as opposed to geometrical/kinematic ones. For example, the Bible describes the Sun and Moon as, "two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night"; that is, instances the same basic type of object, differing only in magnitude. The first noteworthy challenge to this idea came when Anaximenes suggested that the Moon isn't itself a source of light; it's merely reflecting the light given off by the Sun.
Comment: @DavidH I see, you mean he may as well mean the difference between things that are light-years away and planets?
Comment: @DavidH I see, let's wait to see what the author says about it.
Comment: Yes, only he can say for sure. Regardless of what he meant though, I think a question on this topic would probably deserves more of a panoramic view of the historical development anyway. :)
Comment: @MauroALLEGRANZA It is my understanding that idea (II) in the earliest presocratic Greek astronomical model we currently know of, the one traditionally attributed to Philolaus. I would have believed that Galileo was probably the first to empirically demonstrate (III), but I'd also expect that he likely wasn't the first to consider the possibility. Do you know if the idea can be traced any earlier than that?
Comment: @DavidH wrong place to reply :P
Comment: Yes, @DavidH, sorry for being unclear, I actually meant the point when they realised that planets shine with reflected light while stars produce their own. But thank you anyways!
Answer: Certainly much before Tyco Brahe. By Hindu Rishis obviously.
"Indian and Greek Models:
We first note that the idea that the sun is roughly 500 or so earth diameters away from us is much more ancient that Ptolemy. So Neugebauer was wrong on two counts: first, he did not know of any Indian connections although he admitted that the "study of Hindu astronomy is still at its beginning;" second, he did not recognize that the tradition regarding the distance of the sun might be much older in Greece itself. This greater antiquity is in accordance with the ideas of van der Waerden,4 who ascribes a primitive epicycle theory to the Pythagoreans. But it is more likely that the epicycle theory is itself much older than the Pythagoreans and it is from this earlier source that the later Greek and Indian modifications to this theory emerged which explains why Greek and Indian models differ in crucial details.
It should also be noted that Ptolemy's Almagest is a 12th cen- tury Arabic book that is likely to include much information of the first millennium astronomy and its original 2nd century form can- not be established with certainty.
Did the idea that Rs ≈ 500de originate at about the time of Pancavimsa Brahmana (PB), that is from the second millennium BCE, or is it older? Since this notion is in conflict with the data on the periods of the outer planets, it should predate that knowledge. If it is accepted that the planet periods were known by the end of the third millennium BCE, then this knowledge must be assigned an even earlier epoch. Its appearance in Pancavimsa Brahmana (PB) , a book dealing primarily with ritual, must be explained as a remembrance of an old idea. We do know that PB repeats, almost verbatim, the Rgvedic account of a total solar eclipse. PB is in second millennium BCE.
Once the conflict between the planet period information and the supposition that the heavens were 1000 earth diameters away became clear, this supposition was dropped. Presumably, the theory that Rs ≈ 500 de was too entrenched by this time and it became the basis from which different Greek and later Indian models emerged. As mentioned before, Ptolemy considers an Rs equal to 600 de, whereas Ayabhata assumes it to be about 438 de. Thus the Greek and the later Indian modifications to the basic idea proceeded somewhat differently.
The ideas regarding the distance of the sun hardly changed until modern times. The contradictions in the assumption that the luminaries move with uniform mean speed and the requirements imposed by the assumed size of the solar system led to a gradual enlargement of the models of the universe from about twice that of the distance of the sun in PB to one 4.32 × 10^6 times the distance of the sun by the time of Ayabhata. This inflationary model of the universe in AAr makes a distinction between the distance of the sky (edge of the universe) and that of the stars which is taken to be a much smaller sixty times the distance of the sun.
"Beyond the visible universe illuminated by the sun and limited by the sky is the infinite invisible universe" this is stated in a commentary onAryabhabaıya (AAr) by BhaskaraI writing in 629CE. The Puranic literature from India, part of which is contemporaneous with Ayabhata, reconciles the finite estimates of the visible universe with the old R. gvedic notion of an infinite universe by postu- lating the existence of an infinite number of universes.
It is possible that the original notion that the heavens are 1000de away from the earth arose as a metaphor for the large extent of the universe, given that a thousand represents a very great size in Indo-European languages. But it is more likely that some measurements and a theory were at the basis of this supposition. "
"The Surya Siddhanta 12.84 says: "Any orbit, multiplied by the earth's diameter and divided by the earth's circumference, gives the diameter of that orbit; and this, being diminished by the earth's diameter and halved, gives the distance of the planet."  The next verses give the distances as follows:
Table 8.1: Distances to planets and stars in yojanas (= 7.5 miles approx )
Moon  324,000
Mercury (conjunction)  1,043,209
Venus (conjunction)   2,664,637
Sun   4,331,500
Mars   8,146,909
Jupiter  51,375,764
Saturn  127,668,255
Asterisms 259,890,012
Brahmanda  (Edge of the Universe)    18,712,080,864,000,000 "
from  http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.695.536&rep=rep1&type=pdf
by   Subash Kak The Astronomical Code of the Ṛgveda (Third Edition)


Advise on 123 Magic for hyper or anxious kids

Question: Has anybody that's done 123 Magic have any experience with a child who knowing they will get a time out, negotiates the conditions of their time out? My son will know on 3 he goes to his room for 5 mins (his age) so as I'm counting he takes over the control and opts to put himself in time out BUT because he has anxiety and is scared of being alone in his room or basically being anywhere by himself, he negotiates that either his dad or I sit at the steps close to his bedroom while he's in time out. Other issue is, when he's having a diva moment or being difficult and I put him in time out he doesn't comply and I don't know if physically fighting his going to time out might constitute being physical which I don't want to be. Often we have to wait for tantrum to be over before administer time out. Any advise on this from other parents of hyper/ tantrum kids? I'm concerned the 123 magic has become predictable and he knows what to expect and opts for doing the time rather than adjusting behaviour.
Answer:
because he has anxiety and is scared of being alone in his room or
basically being anywhere by himself, he negotiates that either his dad
or I sit at the steps close to his bedroom while he's in time out.

Don't negotiate this, just do it.  The point of the timeout is for the kid to get themselves is control emotionally, and if you sitting nearby helps, then you should do that.
Answer:
...as I'm counting he takes over the control and opts to put himself in time out...

There's nothing wrong in that that I can see. If the child feels better having a bit of control over this, fine! As long as they do the time out. "Negotiating" a time out implies, to me, that they start trying to get out of doing a time out or change it in some way ("I'll sit down here and be quiet!") by pleading or arguing, and the whole point of counting is to stop engaging in conflict. Your child taking himself to a time out voluntarily is not prolonging conflict. However, trying to negotiate where he will have the time out isn't ok. Maybe at the beginning of a period of time (say a week), you can come to an agreement about where a time out will take place, giving the child a feeling of some control? From that agreement on, for that period of time, it's non-negotiable. ("We agreed on this already. That's a two..." and discuss after the time out. Integrity isn't learned when we change our agreements all the time.)
Regarding anxiety, there's no law stating that a time out needs to be in a room where the child is alone and frightened. Sure, most parents choose the child's bedroom, but it could be a corner of the room you're in, or the next room over from where you will be, whatever. The point is to have quiet time to gather oneself up again and settle down.
If you're the child's primary caretaker, you know them better than anyone else. If their anxiety is real, then adjust your consequences and expectations. For an extremely anxious child, sitting quietly in the corner for the prescribed time may be all they need as a consequence of getting to "3". If they speak, the timer is reset from the beginning or by a certain amount (you need to be the judge of whether they are  gaming the system.)
All of this must be discussed and expectations need to be outlined (and, I would add, allowing and considering/respecting the child's feedback) ahead of time, when all is well and peaceful. There needs to be understanding of the system and, to some degree, agreement, even if it's only that time outs are better than x alternative (taking away a toy, an activity, or other often unhelpful "consequence"). After the time out, there needs to be some discussion and reflection. It doesn't need to be a long, drawn-out affair, but it needs to happen most of the time ("Can you tell me why you had a time out? Do you think you can make better choices?" And every once in a while, "Is there a different way we can help you make better choices?".)
I guess the take home message is that 123 Magic is a style, not a rule book. If you agree with the style, adjust the rules to fit your particular situation while keeping within the principles. And feel free to ask questions!


Should I use dip, dp, sip or sp for text formatting?

Question: I wouldn't say my app is text heavy...but it displays random strings sometimes that are longer than others.  They fit fine on my droid 2, but I know they won't display the same on smaller droids.  Does anyone know the proper way of formatting different sized text to ensure it will work on all androids?
Comment: Define work. It will work on all droids. It just depends on how you want it to display.
Answer: If you just want to make some text bigger or smaller you should prefer using default styles provided by Android:
<TextView ... android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView ... android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
<TextView ... android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />

Neither of them is default, default is:
<TextView ... android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearance" />

It can be surely applied not only to TextView, but to other views as well.
Answer: Google recommend using sp for text size dimensions. The layouts you use will need to work so when the layout scales it works at all sizes to the best degree possible (you may need layouts for different sizes of screen). If the text may not fit, wrap it or ellipsize it
Answer: SP and DP don't seem to work the way you might expect.
DP is supposed to be "display independent", and SP is described as the same; but can be scaled (presumably by "zoom" commands).
However, they do not work as you would expect.
For example, I have two devices, a 320x480 phone, and a Nexus; which is 800x1280 BUT which describes itself as sw600 (I have no idea why).
To see what was going on, I added a textview to my view, which consists of 60 'X' characters (chosen because they look the same kerned as monospaced).
The textView textSize was set to 10dp, and 60 of these entirely fill the Nexus screen.
However, they appear exactly the same size on the phone, and form nearly two lines.
So, it appears that DP is not display independent; but merely describes the (approximate) number of pixels each character will be given at maximum.
Defining the dimension in SP makes no difference.
This is not very helpful - I was expecting that some form of scaling would be applied, so I could select an appropriate size on my phone, and it would be scaled for the Nexus.
For example, if my line of text was roughly thirty characters long, and I wanted it to fill a whole line across the screen, I would define it as 10dp; and each dp would be one pixel (roughly).  Then, when it was drawn on the Nexus, each dp would be two pixels, and it would appear twice the size.
This is not how it works, as far as I can tell; which makes it pretty useless.
My only solution, and it's not an elegant one, is to only use dimensions from a dimens.xml file, and to have six of them, one for each of the common widths (240,320,480,600,720,800 - anything higher can sort itself out), then design my code to fit on the Nexus, and use a spreadsheet I've written to scale any values in dimens.xml for the common widths.
It's a pain; but it works.
Unless I'm using it wrong, the Android system is just broken.


Is it legal to use bitcoin in a domain name?

Question: Is it legal to use bitcoin in a domain name? Not a sub domain, but in the main domain name.
Comment: @PieterWuille just wanted to make sure cause its based on MIT license and opensource but the name it self might be registered for some reason. Thanks for your help Pieter :))
Comment: What do you mean 'in' a domain name? A domain name which contains the substring 'bitcoin'? Buying a domain name with bitcoin? Putting a bitcoin address on a website?
Comment: @PieterWuille like bitcoinShop.com so the main domain name has the word bitcoin in it not a subdomain like bitcoin.example.com
Comment: Why would that be illegal? Is is not allowed to have a website with the name dollar in it?
Answer: To date, no entity has trademarked word "Bitcoin" in the US. This means that it's highly unlikely that any US entity would file against your domains under the ICANN Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.
There was a servicemark application for Bitcoin, but it was abandoned in July 2011.
Related trademark applications

Bitpay applied for Merchant Solutions for the bitcoin currency and Bitcoin Merchant Solutions, both also abandoned.
There is one for Bitcoin appliance, also abandoned.
Bitcoin Magazine applied for a trademark, and it's still in processing.
Comment: Mt. Gox registered it. https://mtgox.com/press_release_20111014.html http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128254.msg1365911#msg1365911


Why doesn't my truck crank up after I changed the starter,neutral safety switch and starter relay?

Question: I had my truck stored away for about a year and the battery went bad so I changed it,but the truck didn't crank until I put it on neutral or sometimes it would start on park.Today I had the neutral safety switch replaced and the starter too as well as the starter relay,but no crank just clicking in the fuse box.I've tried charging battery and turning the ignition on and off but no good results.Any suggestions?
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
Answer: Clean all of the battery connections and ensure they are tight. This includes the batter and terminal connectors, wire ends at the solenoid, wires to the starter, and wherever else you can find they run. If it connects somehow to the battery, clean and tighten. Also check to ensure there are no bulges in the battery cables. This indicates corrosion, which will block the flow of electrons. If there are any bulges (in any of the power cables coming from the battery) replace them.

Why doesn’t my truck crank up after I changed the starter,neutral safety switch and starter relay?


How to install gdebi?

Question: I have a freshly installed system, and i've not been able install any third party software or packages via the terminal or software center. Please help me out
Answer: You dont need 'gdebi' anymore...just open Appcenter and install Eddy.
Comment: But there are NO apps beyond the installed ones in app center! I tried updating the repo but the screenshots are testimony to what happens everytime. I can't find any specific app center setting like in Ubuntu
Answer: Try these commands out.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdebi

Those will let you install third party applications and repositories in the terminal.
Comment: software-properties-common is unnecessary for installation of apps present in the repositories.
Answer: Looking at your error list in screen 1, it seems as if you have a DNS failure - perhaps check that you can reach, say apple.com, with Epiphany, and go from there.
HTH
Comment: Everything is working fine. I can open all the usual sites. I tried registering the mail client, it simply stays with a blank box. And then there is the terminal business.

How to install gdebi?


What are the average Elo and USCF ratings?

Question: I'm not sure if there exists an average, but what could be considered an average rating range in these systems?
Comment: Related: https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/36883/what-is-the-mean-and-standard-deviation-for-mens-and-then-womens-standard-fide
Answer: I took the following data from the September 2013 Golden Database1 and "active" players are players with a USCF membership expiration date later than January 1, 20132.  All ratings are regular ratings.  Note that players have an established rating after completing 25 games.
USCF Active Players

Established Ratings

46,574 Players
1315.99 Mean Rating
1390 Median Rating

Provisional Ratings

33,692 Players
537.09 Mean Rating
410 Median Rating

All USCF Rated Players

Established Ratings

252,989 Players
1165.77 Mean Rating
1148 Median Rating

Provisional Ratings

303,153 Players
631.46 Mean Rating
576 Median Rating

Distribution of active, established USCF ratings

Note that unrated players were discarded and that no checks were done on the data (duplicate entries, placeholders, etc.).
Distribution of ratings by age

This image comes from the uschess forums.
1: The Golden Database is a database provided to USCF affiliates and TD's that includes the names, ratings, and expiration dates.  It can be downloaded from the USCF website
2: I picked January 1, 2013 as an arbitrary cutoff date.  If there's a better and easy check for whether or not a player is active I'm happy to add additional data or update these stats.
Comment: Unfortunately the USCF does not make a scholastic/adult determination available, but the data is clearly a bi-modal distribution, most likely reflecting the fact that scholastic ratings are much lower than adult ratings.
Answer: An updated rating distribution graph:

The data is from the Golden Database.  It uses data from just current members with established (non provisional) ratings.  Note that only "regular" ratings are shown, not Quick ratings or blitz ratings.
The overall shape of the graph, of course, is almost identical to the first one, with data from 2013.
Answer: (I assume in the following discussion that by "average" you mean median, not mean.)
It depends on whether you are just looking at active players (who have played a tournament recently) or all players, and on whether you are just looking at just adults or players of all ages.
The latest rating distribution chart for the USCF I could find was from 2004 (here). You can see from it that at that time the 50th percentile was about 1050 for all players, or 1280 when just adults are considered. (USCF ratings have inflated a bit in the last decade so they are probably a bit higher now.) This is for all members, not just active ones; the median rating for active players would be higher, probably by 150 points or so from looking at the graph here.
Answer: While the numbers drift and have to be adjusted from time to time, the average USCF rating is supposed to be 1500.
Answer: If by average, you mean a number, then there is a number in the middle. If by average, you mean a player who wins half and loses half, it is not in the middle. Chess champions almost always win. To win half the time, you must be one of the best.
Comment: "then there is a number in the middle."  No kidding.  He's asking for that number.
Answer: The average is the sum of list values divided by the number of list entries. Unfortunately, since list values do not contain equivalent information, averaging them does not reduce error. A 500 rating losing to grandmasters with a single draw denotes much greater proficiency than many wins against players who have only just learned how the pieces move (I refuse to embarrass people by citing names). I have found that when players know each other's rating, the lower rated player lets up while the higher rated fights like a demon (peruse any tournament crosstable).
  Ratings are manipulated by players who lose unimportant games and by organizations (CCF, dare to deny it!) who pin ratings because of accidental outcomes. Ratings are inappropriately used (by almost all organizers) to assign prize classifications.
  Average rating does not contain any information for the whole list. However, for a particular event, players tend to perform relatively in accordance with their ratings. This is not because the ratings are accurate, but because the players want them to be so (I want it, and I don't know any player who doesn't).
Comment: When he asked "what is the average rating", he wasn't looking for the definition of "average", he was looking for a number.  The rest of this is just rambling that doesn't answer the question.


What are good methods to prepare and vend cold brew?

Question: I am considering in preparing a cold brew and vending at events such as music festivals/parties.  What are good methods for ideally brewing the coffee the night prior to the event and storing it, then serving it?  How should the cold brew be made?  My initial idea was to make several gallons via pour over and refrigerate and serve out of a 5 or 10 gallon dispenser with a spicket on site.
Answer: For large batches of cold-brew I suggest to try out the Toddy.
For more information (I suspect you have any knowledge about cold-brew) I suggest you to read this article.
Comment: In my opinion, it is always a better idea to copy the essence of the external links into the answer. The links may fade out in the following years and the answer  may become meaningless.
Answer: Go for Toddy if you want to do large batches. I suggest you experiment with the recipe a few times before you sell it to get the kind of cold brew you want and to get to know the coffee you are selling.
I like very strong cold brew, so my recipe would be 1:4 or 1:5 coffee to water (and I think this is roughly what Toddy suggests as well). Let it steep for about 6 to 12 hours, again depending on your taste. This gives you a concentrate that you can either dilute with water or I personally just pour a shot of it over a lot of ice and drink it like that. It gives a very sweet, full bodied cold brew. Most of the cold brew sold is way too diluted for my taste, I prefer the sirupy concentrate.
However you may not like it that way, so you could dilute the brew or experiment with the recipe. If the flavor is too intense try 1:6, then 1:8 and so on. I'd not go any lower than 1:10, although many people do. In the end it's a matter of taste and in your case how you want to sell it (diluted, on ice, in bottles etc.)
Also cold brew lasts a good week (arguably even 2 weeks) if you keep it refrigerated, so you can make several batches in advance with a toddy. If you start a week before selling you could make easily make around 15 liters (2 liters a night) or if you are ambitious even 30 liters (if you make another 2 liters during every day) of concentrate. If you sell it as shots (around 40ml) on ice, you can sell around 750 shots.
Comment: this is the route that I plan to go, do you have any suggestions on water to use?  I have spoken to a local shop manager and he has suggested reverse osmosis, however as a startup that might be a bit more overhead than I have intended.  I have also been suggested to look into mineral water.
Comment: Good mineral water or spring water should work. It really depends on how big you want to go. It's what I'd do if it's more casual. If it's your only income source and you plan to do it full time, then a proper water purifier would probably be the more efficient and cost effective choice. Just be careful that the water isn't too hard, calcium and magnesium are the two minerals that contribute most to that. You'll find info online on optimal water hardness and how to calculate it based on calcium and magnesium concentration.
Answer: I sell cold brew in my shop.
Follow these elements, then find a way to adapt it into your situation. Grind slightly coarser than melitta brew, combine with cold water to a 1:12 ratio (g/mL), mix and pat until grinds sink, fill with water to the brim and seal (for air-free conditions). Let sit inside the fridge for 8-12 hours maximum. Employ a multi-stage filtering system. I use cheesecloth, aeropress, then melitta filter. Get that grinds out. Grinds exposure beyond 24 hours will make your cold brew sour. I observe the instagram posts of some successful cold-brew companies and it seems we've figured out the same way to make cold brew. Cheers!
Answer: Not trying to sell anything here. Just came across this article in Daily Coffee News.


Could China be considered a 3rd side during World War 2?

Question: I mean that China was attacked by Japan, yet they held no well-known contributions to the allies. So could they have been a third side?
Comment: The Russians technically never shared a front with the rest of the allies either (until the armies converged anyway). So you could make this argument about Russia too, if you wanted to carry it to a ridiculous extreme.
Comment: @T.E.D.: Not ridiculous at all.  Russia was initially allied with Nazi Germany in 1939 and forced to "switch sides" in 1941. In a forced choice, I'd make this argument more strongly for Russia than for China.
Comment: The answer to all questions phrased, "Could X be considered. . . " is "yes".  By asking the question, you are considering it to be so.  Can you revise the question to clarify what you really want to know?   What is a third side? Why would a third side be relevant/interesting? What information would distinguish a third side from a second side?  Perhaps what you mean to ask is whether considering China a "third side" (whatever this means) would lead to a deeper understanding of the events of WWII?
Comment: @TomAu - Yes, you could. But then I'd think Russia could turn that around easily as well. But then you'd have to explain why Stalin thought it so vital the entire war that the Allies open up a major new (unconnected) front against Germany. The answer to that (the large diversion of German forces that would have ensued), is exactly the answer to the question when you change the subject from Russia to China as well.
Comment: @T.E.D.: While Russia didn't share a front with the US / the UK, they DID share battle plans..  They did so many one-two punches together.
Answer: Not really. They were busy with Japan, and with the Chinese Communist forces, which is why they didn't do much outside of their own territory (they supplied significant forces for the Burma Campaign). In the same way, USSR operations were confined to their own territory for a large part of the war. But in both cases, the Chinese and the USSR kept most of the Japanese and German armies, respectively, busy, making Allied operations in the Pacific and European theatres far easier.
The Chinese did have representatives from the other Allied powers, and some effort was put into trying to get arms and supplies to China, so that they could use their vast supplies of manpower effectively. The Burma Road was built for that purpose, but was not successful because the Japanese invaded Burma to block it.
The USAAF ran a large airlift operation from India to China during 1942-45 which did get supplies through, but a decent road or railway line would have been much more cost-effective. The experience of this operation was helpful in the Berlin Airlift, which was run by the same officer.
The USAAF also planned to operate its B-29s from Chinese territory, but supplying them by air from India just wasn't practical, and little was accomplished until they were moved to bases in the Marianas islands, newly captured from the Japanese. Their operations from there were far more successful, because they could be supplied by ship.
You might well consider the Chinese Communists a third side in the Chinese theatre of WWII. After the breakdown of their united front with the Chinese government in 1941, the two Chinese sides fought each other covertly. The Communists certainly didn't side with the Japanese, and occasionally co-operated with other Allied powers. They agreed to assist US airmen operating against the Japanese who ended up in territory they controlled, for example.
Comment: To be pedantic, China *did* do something outside its territory: they contributed significant forces in the Burma Campaign.
Answer:

Could China be considered a 3rd side during World War 2?

No!
The US saw involvement with the Chinese war effort as very much
   part of their overall war effort. Ref (2) below is a US Army military
   history brochure which portrays the Chinese activities as a US
   campaign. (Probably even more than it was). By keeping China in the
   war, in the order of 1 million Japanese troops were kept occupied and
   were thus not available for use elsewhere. This was probably around
   20% of total Japanese  military manpower.

The Chinese had been fighting Japan since the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931. So WW2 was a long way into the Chinese fight with the Japanese.
The Western powers (notably USA, UK, Netherlands) had been opposing the Japanese activities in China essentially since the start of the invasion.
Large amounts of history here {web search}
While the war between Japan and the US became a fighting one when the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbour, the undeclared war effectively started in a tit for tat manner almost 5 months earlier when the Japanese, with occupied Vichy France's "agreement" took control of France's Indo Chinese colonies and then
On July 24th 1941 Japan occupied Cam Ranh naval base in Vietnam, about 800 miles from both the US garrisoned Philippines, and the British base at Singapore.
In response, on July 26th 1941 the US froze all Japanese assets in America and placed a trade (including oil) embargo on Japan
Ref(1)  Britain and the Dutch followed soon after. Japan lost access to 75% of its overseas trade, and about 90% of its imported oil. Japan's had 3 years oil reserves at normal usage rates or about 18 months if on a war footing.
Once formal hostilities commenced the "Allies" aid to China could and did assume a war supply basis.
Initially supplies were sent via "The Burma Road" but this was cut off by the Japanese in April 1942.
From mid 1942 until August 1945 daily flights were run over the then formiddable Eastern end of the Himalaya ranges - known as "The Hump". In the 42 months of action about 650,000 tons of materiel were delivered by air (3)- or about 500 tons per day. Considering the capacity of the aircraft used and the difficulties in the route "they were busy".
The number of Japanese troops deployed in China during WW2 varies not only by date but significantly with reference source. Ref (4) indicates thjat in 1943, despite the demands on resources elsewhere,  there were still 25 infantry divisions, 1 armoured division, 11 mixed brigades, 1 cavalry brigade and 1 flying division – a total of 620,000 men and 14,000 vehicles in China.
This no doubt constituted "a useful quantity of men and resources" to not have fighting against the US in the bitter island to island campaign. A few hundred thousand extra Japanese soldiers on eg Guadalcanal 'would have been annoying'.

More could be said, but I think this demonstrates the integral part of the Chinese war effort in WW2 as a whole.
_________________________________________________
(1) United States freezes Japanese assets.
(2) US Army Centre of Military History brochure showing clearly whose campaign they think it was ! :-)
- China Defensive - The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II
(3) Wikipedia The hump
(4) The hump - historical (web search)
Other:
Imperial Japanese Army
CEA

Supplies sent by Burma Road in 1 year - May 1941 - April 1942.
110,864 tons (so precise :-)) or about 300 tons per day.
About 60% of what was achieved by air per day subsequently.
Major impediments, in addition to the road itself, were Burmese customes procedures (somewhat surprisingly), and a very steep in-Burma railway section that required the use of "mountain railway" engines and small load sizes.

A section of the Burma Road [!!!!]
A degree of dedication by the Allies in maintaining supplies is indicated.
Wikipedia - Burma Road
Answer: China was a "Big Four" nation in World War II, as defined (principally) by America's Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that signed the Atlantic Charter with 22 smaller nations that later became the "United Nations" (Allies).
To characterize China as a "third side" would mean that China was in a three way war, fighting both Japan and the Allies at the same time. In World War II, that simply wasn't true.
China's accomplishments were not as well known as those in Europe of the South Pacific because it was landlocked and isolated during the war, and far from "news" centers. Nevertheless, something like one third of the Japanese army was tied up in China and Manchuria, (one third on the home islands), leaving the Americans and British to face only one-third in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and India. In fact, China's best divisions provided valuable "cover" to the British forces in their retreat from Burma to India in 1942, and in the subsequent reconquest of Burma.
Comment: I doubt you could have convinced General Stillwell that Chiang was not on his own side. ;-)
Comment: @KorvinStarmast: Which is why Stilwell was fired by FDR.
Comment: @KorvinStarmast True enough - given that you could probably not have convinced "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell that any of the Allies were his allies. He hated the British, and went on from there. [**Wikipedia - "Vinegar Joe"**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stilwell)
Comment: Stillwell just really wanted to fight the Japanese his way....  whether anyone agreed with him or not.
Answer: What do you mean with "a 3rd side"?
Russia was on the side of Germany until Hitler invaded them in 1941.
(Would you consider Russia to be its own side?)
The US was neutral until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor…
(Would that make America another co-belligerent?)
No.
The US, the UK, Russia, and China actually fought side by side against Germany and Italy and Japan…  (Japan actually was almost a co-belligerent, as they had very little coordination with Germany and Italy.)
The coordination among the allies was one of the key reasons the allies ultimately won.
Proof:
General Stilwell of the United States commanded tens of thousands of Chinese troops in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater against the empire of Japan.
General Chennault led thousands of American airmen and crew in China (backed by Chinese ground personnel), first as the Flying Tiger, later as the 14th Air Force.  They played a key role in the air war against Japan.
The Doolittle raid was only possible, because the bombers ended up landing in China…
Another thing to notice is, China was ultimately a massive winner of WWII.

A permanent member of the UN security council
Restoration of all territories lost over the previous 50-100 years (including validation/recognition of claims made by the Qing Dynasty)
Free entry to the nuclear weapons club

Being part of the Big Four got China a seat at the high table, which sets China up very well for its current position on the world stage.  If nothing else, the diplomatic currency of a permanent security council member can't be understated.  Who doesn't want a staunch permanent council member as an ally? (A friend who can block any UN action against you...  is a powerful friend indeed...  )


Apache sending error file after every request

Question: We've got a problem with my apache2 here, which seems kind of hard to debug... or: to understand in the first place.
Our environment is Debian Wheezy + Apache2 + mod_perl + Mason.
The problem is, that apache, even, if I try to get an empty site, sends an error file after the file itself,
<code>OK

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
</code>
But the file itself gets send. So lets say I have the index.html with just "hello" inside.
Every "gui browser" (that Ive tried yet, so Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera) just show hello, even in the source code theres nothing like that error. Theres no interpretation of mason or anything else going on there. It really seems, that most browsers totally ignore every other file, after the first one was sent (which is, in my opinion, perfectly fine), but I dont really understand how - and why - apache sends such things after the file itself was successfully created and sent.
But in the network logs (and in w3m and lynx) I see that error message below every file.
Apache does not log anything anywhere from which file or component this comes and we've already tried disabling anything like mod_rewrite and everything else, so, that just the "basic apache2 config" is in action and we disabled the autohandler and dhandlers of the directory of the file and upwards, but: Still it sends this message.
I know, my explaination is not very well, because I'm not an expert on this, but just maybe anyone has an idea of how that could be or at least, how I could try to see where that thing comes from.
Answer: It is either mod_perl or Mason that produces the 500 error.
Show the configuration for mod_perl and the vhost it applies to, and somebody may be able to set you straight.


how the members can login to civicrm

Question: after I created the signup and renewal page and configuring it, I found that it is not accessible by people who are not wordpress users, how to solve this, and how the users can enter their profiles without being users in wordpress(in another word to be a user in civicrm and not user in wordpress)?
Comment: Could you please ask your question more clearly?  Are you asking how to allow visitors without accounts to fill in a CiviCRM profile?  Or are you asking how to allow visitors without WordPress accounts to log in?  If the second option, what precisely do you want them to log in to?
Answer: Muhamed - you can allow people to register anonymously, they do not have to be 'members' or users in WP. When people register, their name, email and address information will be used to create new 'contact' records. It is a matter of setting up CiviCRM permissions as you want them.
Answer: I guess you should install a plugin to grant permission for the user
Please refer to the below plugin
https://civicrm.org/extensions/civicrm-wordpress-member-sync
I guess this helps !!!

how the members can login to civicrm


"Inward-pointing" or "inward pointing"

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?
To hyphenate or not?

Which one is correct?

The normal vector we mean is the inward-pointing normal.
The normal vector we mean is the inward pointing normal.
Answer: First let me state that this is mostly a matter of style, and if you are writing for an academic or technical publication, you would do well to get a copy of their style guide and look there for your answer.
That said, hyphens in compound adjectives are used for clarity. They are not always necessary, but are used when a compound may be ambiguous, as in

I'm hosting a small car auction
I'm hosting a small-car auction.

Here the first sentence could mean an auction of small cars or a car auction that is small. The second sentence specifies that it is the former.
When an adverb and adjective combine to make a compound adjective, a hyphen is frequently unnecessary, because more often there is less chance for ambiguity.

He was a well known cellist.

Here there is little chance for confusion, so the hyphen may be dropped.
In your example, "inward pointing" and "inward-pointing" are both correct and easily understood. It becomes a matter of style as to which you prefer.
Comment: +1 And *I* would say the hyphen should *always* be used not as a matter of "style" or acquiescence in a rule, but as a courtesy to the reader.
Answer: The general rule is: When you have a pattern like "adjective noun noun", hyphenate the first two words if the adjective modifies the immediately following noun; do not hyphenate if the adjective modifies the second noun.
As in Mr Robusto's example, a "small-car auction" is an auction of small cars, while a "small car auction" is a small auction of (any-sized) cars.
I'd differ with Mr Robusto in that I really think you should always use the hyphen when it applies. Yes, there are cases where one combination would not make sense and so there is no ambiguity. But it's better to be consistent rather than try to turn every use into a unique case to be considered from scratch. I can't think of any advantage gained by leaving out the hyphen, so rather than contemplate every use, just do it. If you try to think out each case, not only do you waste time and effort, but sooner or later you will create an ambiguity because you didn't happen to think of an alternate reading.
It's like driving on the correct side of the road. Sure, if no one's coming the other way, it might be safe to violate this rule sometimes. But what if you make a habit of driving on the wrong side of the road whenever it "looks safe", sooner or later someone will suddenly come around a corner, or you won't see the other car because of the rain or fog, or you'll just be distracted and not notice. What's the gain? If you truly come across a case where the hyphen hurts readabiliity, sure, drop it. But I think such cases are rarer than legitimate cases for briefly driving on the wrong side of the road (like there's a huge pot hole, or a child playing in the street).

"Inward-pointing" or "inward pointing"


Is there a clang-snapshot?

Question: I've just discovered the wonderful gcc-snapshot package for Ubuntu. I don't see a clang-snapshot or llvm-snapshot package though. Is there an equivalent for clang?
Answer: If you want a later version of clang installed on a regular basis you might want to add one of the PPAs on LaunchPad e.g. this one or this one.
Once you have the PPA added to your /etc/apt resources, the package can update the package with the normal system update/upgrade just like gcc-snapshot would do.
These PPAs are normally the latest, which means not always stable versions of the software. gcc-snapshot is AFAIK somewhat more conservative, being a later version of gcc at the time of release of the Ubuntu version you are using, (but which was not used to compile the system itself).

Is there a clang-snapshot?


What lenses are preferred for DSLR video?

Question: I do plenty of Macro and product photography (love the Tamron 60mm Macro). I have no idea what videographers who use DSLR like for lenses. Any advice and broadest usage appreciated. Assume camera in the 15 MPixel range plus or minus a few MPixels.
Answer: Properties that are desired in these lenses are quiet operation, image stabilization, zoom construction that usually cover wide to short tele focal lenght and that have a constant aperture across that range. A perfocal design is good when using a zoom. These are a couple of general characteristics but they may be different for special applications.
Quiet operation helps if you want to avoid focusing sounds appearing in your video. If you're using external microphones this is less of a problem.
Image stabilization makes everything (from static vieography to panning= appear a lot smoother.
To have a zoom lens gives a lot of nice possibilities and constant aperture is an important feature since the exposure won't change when zooming. A parfocal lens is a lens that maintains its focus when changing focal lenght (zooming) and is of course very useful. Also a zoom range from wide to short tele is usually enough and you probably don't want to go out of that range during video production unless you're looking to produce nature films and alike.
Look for for lenses with this kind of properties. Being a Canon user I'm most familiar with them and can recommend Canon EF 24-105/4,0 L IS USM having most of these features but if you're using another brand I can't help ypu more than this due to lack of experience with other brands.
Comment: I am using a Canon 50D converted to generate RAW video, even HDR video, so good Canon lenses for video is what I need.
Comment: If you have a larger budget, the 24-70 f/2.8 II and 70-200 f/2.8 IS II lenses work fantastically as well and aren't too expensive if video terms (around $2k to $2.5k a piece).  (These are the ones I use.)  The best options for Canon are the EOS Cinema lenses, but they are outrageously expensive ($20k for a prime, $55k for a zoom).  They are the best Canon lenses for video, but if you are using a 50D, then they are complete overkill for your needs.


Word for the group of people who supporting a corrupt leader

Question: What can I name the group of people those who are following a bad/corrupt leader, supporting his all kind of activities (even knowing their leader is corrupted) and never give up their leader with others in any arguments, as always saying that his leader is genuine.
Answer: I like Peter's suggestion of henchmen. Another alternative is cronies.
From NOAD:

crony noun (pl. cronies) informal, often derogatory
  a close friend or companion: he went gambling with his cronies.

The dictionary mentions this is often used as a derogatory term, so it conveys the negative sentiment you are looking for.
Incidentally, NOAD adds an even stronger label under henchmen: chiefly derogatory.
Macmillan defines crony as:

crony noun a friend or supporter, especially of someone powerful

so the word also conveys the notion of supporting a leader. Macmillan adds a negative usage note, too, mentioning that the word is used for showing disapproval.
Answer: The word henchmen comes to mind, cadre might also be possible, or the obvious phrase corrupt followers.

Mugabe and his henchmen
  Mugabe and his cadre
  Mugabe and his corrupt followers
Answer: You might like this term: Kakistocracy
From the link:

A kakistocracy (English pronunciation: /kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/) is a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.1[2] The word was coined as early as the 17th century.[3] It was also used by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829, but gained significant usage in the 21st century.
Comment: Hi @Scott, I edited to add the Wikipedia link. But kindly edit further in case the source (or something else) does not match. Also, please, please, please provide explanation, as your original answer isn't a good reference. Note that SE is not a forum. Always bear in mind that we are creating a collection of useful (and additional) knowledge for readers, learners and the rest of humanity (exaggeration intended).