Uncaught TypeError: Type error in WebGL using Three.js

Question: I am building a small music visualizer with WebGL and Three.js, using the ThreeAudio.js library to convert the audio into a texture that is passed into the shader. Though everything is currently functioning, I am getting the following error that I'd like to track down:
"Uncaught Type Error: Type error"
Which then traces back from my animate function, to my render function, to the three.js render function, to something called "l", to renderBuffer, to "z".
My animate function is as follows:
function animate() {
 requestAnimationFrame( animate );
 audioTextures.update();

 stats.update();
 render();
}

And my render function is as follows:
function render(){
 renderer.render( scene, camera );
}

I believe it's an issue with the mesh I am creating, because when I comment out the code to add it to the scene the error goes away.
The code for the animated sphere I have is as follows:
audioSource = (new       ThreeAudio.Source()).load('https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125098652/stream?client_id=MYCLIENTID').play();
audioTextures = new ThreeAudio.Textures(renderer, audioSource);
audioMaterial = new ThreeAudio.Material(audioTextures, vertexShader, fragmentShader);
audioMesh = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, audioMaterial);
scene.add(audioMesh);

The ThreeAudio github can be found here: https://github.com/unconed/ThreeAudio.js
Please let me know if it would be helpful to post my shaders as well.
Does anyone know how I should begin to solve this error? Has anyone seen it present in this way? Please let me know.
Answer: Ok, I ended up answering this question myself. In case anyone stumbles upon this looking for the answer to a similar problem, this is how I fixed it:
I realized that the animate function was being called before the audio source was loaded, which meant the audio textures did not have any data in them. It seemed like the library (ThreeAudio) that I was using handled the exception, in my limited experience issues with data getting to the shader tends to blow everything up.
The solution was to move the animate() call into a callback function once the audio source loaded. My code looks like this:
audioSource = (new ThreeAudio.Source()).load('https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125098652/stream?client_id=MYCLIENTID', function(){
clock = new THREE.Clock();
audioSource.play();
audioTextures = new ThreeAudio.Textures(renderer, audioSource);
audioMaterial = new ThreeAudio.Material(audioTextures, vertexShader, fragmentShader);
audioMaterial.uniforms['volume'] = {type: 'f', value: 0};
audioMaterial.uniforms['volume2'] = {type: 'f', value: 0};
audioMaterial.uniforms['volume3'] = {type: 'f', value: 0};

// My custom cube geometry
var geometry = CubeGeometry(audioTextures, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500);

audioMesh = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, audioMaterial);
audioMesh.position.y = -200;
scene.add(audioMesh);

animate();
});


How to search for pattern in certain syntax regions?

Question: I am using vim to edit latex documents. Often, I will want to change the name of a variable to something else. However, it's a little annoying to have to wade through irrelevant matches when I search for the variable name. I would like to search only in "math zones" as defined in the tex syntax file. Is there an easy way to limit a search to a specific syntax region?
Comment: [This mapping](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip99) uses `synIDattr()` to obtain syntax groups for the character under the cursor. You could write a function that performs the search (or does `normal n`) and then uses `synIDattr()` to decide whether to stay at this location, or continue the search forwards.
Comment: I think the answer is no: there is no _easy_ way to limit a search to a specific syntax region.
Comment: @joeytwiddle I saw your comment just now after posting an answer with such a function. Is it like what you had in mind?
Comment: @jjaderberg Yes it is. Great job!
Comment: Just for completeness (I found it a good answer): http://stackoverflow.com/a/2696143/5000478
Answer: Here is a function that you could try. I've only tested it a little bit but it seems to work ok.
function! JJSyntaxSearch(pattern, syntaxitem)
  while search(a:pattern, 'W') > 0
    for id in synstack(line("."),col("."))
      if synIDattr(id,"name") =~? a:syntaxitem
        return line(".")
      endif
    endfor
  endwhile
  return 0
endfunc

command! -nargs=* JJSyntaxSearch call JJSyntaxSearch(<f-args>)

The function calls Vim's search function in a loop until it finds an 'ordinary' match that is also a 'qualified' match to a particular syntax item, or until it reaches the end of the buffer.
It takes two arguments. The first is the search pattern and it is passed on unchanged to Vim's search() function. See :help search() for how that function works. The second argument is the name of the syntax item on which you want to filter these matches. This can also be a pattern and is compared as a case-insensitive regular expression.
To find the pattern 'alpha' in math zones you can do
:JJSyntaxSearch alpha texMathZone.

The . at the end is the pattern atom for any single character, see :help /.. This is because there many math zone syntax items called texMathZoneA, texMathZoneB etc.
The search() function moves the cursor to the next 'ordinary' match. Then our function gets all the syntax item IDs for that new cursor position with synstack(). Looping through them, it retrieves the name of each item in turn and tests it against the syntaxitem argument. See :help synstack() and :help synIDattr(). If there is a 'qualified' match it returns the line number. If it reaches the end of the buffer without finding any 'qualified' match it returns 0. The point of the function is to get the cursor to the next 'qualified' match so you can do some operation there, but it is useful to return "line number or 0" to indicate whether it is meaningful to call the function again, for instance if you want to call the function repeatedly from another function or a macro.
I chose to use the W flag for the search() because it prevents 'wrapping around' the end of the buffer. Otherwise the function might get stuck as it keeps finding the same 'ordinary' matches but no 'qualified' matches.
Comment: Note: late Vim 8.2 supports `skip` expressions for the `search()` function
Comment: Thanks for your help! I haven't tried this function yet, but it looks like what I wanted.
Comment: The [vimtips wiki on syntax lookup:](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Identify_the_syntax_highlighting_group_used_at_the_cursor).
Answer: This should perhaps be a comment but seems I have no reputation to do that. As an exercise in creating a vim-plugin I created one based on the answer of jjaderberg which you can find here: https://github.com/AckslD/vim-sisr
Comment: Welcome to [vi.se]!
Answer: Since 8.2.0915, search() supports a fifth optional argument which – among other types of expressions – can be a lambda.
Assuming you wanted to look for the literal string pat, you could run:
:call search('pat', '', 0, 0, {-> synstack('.', col('.'))->map({_, v -> synIDattr(v, 'name')})->match('\ctexmathzone') == -1})

This can be turned into a custom command:
com -nargs=1 SearchInMathZone call s:SearchInMathZone(<q-args>)
fu s:SearchInMathZone(pat) abort
    call search(a:pat, '', 0, 0, {->
        "\ get the stack of syntax items under the cursor
        \ synstack('.', col('.'))
        "\ translate the IDs into names
        \ ->map({_, v -> synIDattr(v, 'name')})
        "\ skip the match if no syntax item under the cursor contains "texmathzone" in its name
        \ ->match('\ctexmathzone') == -1})
endfu

The code gets a little more readable in Vim9 script, because the line continuations become implicit, and you can get rid of the leading backslashes:
vim9script
com -nargs=1 SearchInMathZone SearchInMathZone(<q-args>)
def SearchInMathZone(pat: string)
    search(pat, '', 0, 0, () =>
        # get the stack of syntax items under the cursor
        synstack('.', col('.'))
        # translate the IDs into names
        ->mapnew((_, v) => synIDattr(v, 'name'))
        # skip the match if no syntax item under the cursor contains "texmathzone" in its name
        ->match('\ctexmathzone') == -1)
enddef

It requires a recent Vim version; it works on 8.2.2332.  It should also be faster once the skip expression is compiled.

Note: you can always substitute line('.') with '.' whenever a function expects a line address, provided that the function can only work on the current buffer (not other buffers).  synstack() is one of them:
synstack(line('.'), col('.'))
⇔
synstack('.', col('.'))

For more info, see :h search().

Credit @Christian Brabandt for the reminder, and for writing the Vim patch making search() support a skip expression.
Answer: If you're searching for the string foo inside $...$ or $$...$$, this should work:
\$.*\zsfoo

This anchors the match to a $ character but only selects the string foo.
It's not really an easy solution, but one could use a :global + :substitute to find "math zones" and search inside them:
:global /\v\\begin\{%(align|alignat|displaymath)\}/ +1,/\\end/-1 s/foo/&/gc

Pretending that :substitute is a search command, you can go to the next occurrence with n and quit with q. Should you confirm a substitution by mistake there shouldn't be any problem.
You will have to set the list inside %( ... ) to the names of the math environments you use (the full list is a bit hefty: align|alignat|displaymath|eqnarray|equation|flalign|gather|math|multline|subequations|xalignat|xxalignat). Note that I'm using a very magic (\v) pattern here.
Explanation:
:global execute an Ex command (:s) on each line where the pattern matches (:help :global)
/\v start a very magic pattern (:h /, :h pattern, :h magic)
\\begin\{ match a literal \begin{
%(align|alignat|displaymath) match any of these words (:h /\%(, :h /bar)
\}/ match a literal } and end the pattern.
+1,/\\end/-1 a range consisting of the next line (counting from the one found by :global) up to the line before the one found by the search pattern /\\end. Within that range,
s/foo/&/gc search-and-replace every occurrence of the literal foo with itself, after confirmation (:h :substitute)
Comment: This is certainly a start, but I make frequent use of the equation, align, and IEEEeqnarray environments, and I don't want to exclude those from my search.
Comment: @RobF.: it's quite possible to match inside a range of environments, but it's not going to be easy unless one scripts it. If, however, you consistently use `\mathit` around variable names, finding them is much easier.
Answer: In case your "math zones" are qualified by some syntactical pattern, say, the string "math", then you could at least use pattern sequences to find a line with the matching pattern, as in:
:/math//your pattern/

(Note: the two patterns may be on different lines!)
This may not restrict your matches to the zones - for that you'd need to identify the end of the zone -, but it will display only those matches after an initial pattern /math/. You can repeat the search for the next occurrence by using the ex-mode history (: up-arrow enter).

Note: ISTR that in earlier vim/vi versions I was also able to use that method directly as a search command (as opposed to an ex-mode command) /math//your pattern/ with the advantage of less typing and using of the n and N commands, but I cannot confirm that for my current vim version.
Answer: If you're searching for the string 'morning' inside file
/morning then enter and press n to move forward direction
Comment: The question said `I would like to search only in "math zones"` your method searches for the whole file it doesn't delimit a research zone.
Answer: There is no option but to write a dedicated function for this.
I wrote a function that searches the string you want and only stops if either:

it runs out of matches
there is  a match which is inside math environment(it will stop on the match)

You just call it with the string you want to search.
function! Finmath(nextstr)
    while 1
        if search(a:nextstr)==0
            break
        endif
        if searchpairpos('\(', '','\)','n')!=[0,0]
            break
        endif
        if searchpairpos('\[', '','\]','n')!=[0,0]
            break
        endif
        let a = getcurpos()
        if count(strpart(getline('.'),0,a[2]),'$')%2==1
            break
        endif
    endwhile
endfunction

I intend to write a similar function for GrammerousCheck that only stops on grammar errors outside math.


Is flash brand X compatible with camera brand Y?

Question: I have flash brand X and would like to know whether it will work with camera brand Y. What do I need to consider to determine whether the combination will work?
Other questions of relevance:

What features should one look for when selecting a flash?
What should I look for when choosing a speedlight to learn off-camera flash?
Are Yongnuo flashes interchangeable between dslr's or are they brand specific?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Can a Nikon/Canon flash be used on the other brand of camera?](https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/4550/can-a-nikon-canon-flash-be-used-on-the-other-brand-of-camera)
Comment: Is it, though? Aren't the possibilities basically "it's made for this brand / it is not and will fire at full power with the center pin / it's a dedicated-only flash and won't fire with just the center pin"?
Comment: Is it necessary to have a separate question for every single flash/camera combination? There must be some basic guidelines to figure this stuff out.
Comment: The matrix of possible camera/controller/flash combinations and the desired level of "work" that different users desire/require make this question entirely too broad. "Lens X on camera body Y" is difficult enough. This one has several orders of magnitude more variables than that one does.
Comment: I think it is. There are a number of other possibilities about what a user may desire to be able to do in order to consider the flash "working" with their camera.
Answer: Well, if the camera hotshoe and the flash are both ISO-compliant, you can use one system's flash on another's hotshoe, and the flash will fire in sync with the exposure being made.  But that's the only function you will have.  No TTL, no high-speed sync (FP), no menu commanding of the flash, no flash exposure compensation, no wake-up from sleep, possibly no 2nd curtain, no matching the zoom to the lens's focal length—anything that requires communication between the flash and the camera body other than the "fire!" signal won't be communicated.
If you look at the camera's hotshoe and the flash's foot, you'll see why.

Nearly every camera manufacturer follows the ISO standard for flash hotshoes (from 1985–2012 Sony didn't, using the old Minolta iISO hotshoe, but as of the NEX6, they've moved to the ISO-compliant (sorta) multi-interface hotshoe). The ISO standards for flash feet and camera hotshoes give the physical dimensions of the foot and shoe, and specify that the rails on the shoe are ground, and that the contact in the center of the "square" of the foot/shoe is the sync signal.
(Footnote for Canon T7/SL3/T100 users, see this fstoppers article about the missing sync connector on those models, and the Canon EOS 4000D Hot Shoe for Sync (with Studio Flashes) Q&A, but be aware there are also reports that newer copies of the T7 have it reinstated.)
Everything else is proprietary. For example, Canon and Nikon have their non-sync contacts/pins placed in different areas, so if the flash is seated correctly on the hotshoe, there is no electrical contact and no communication.
However. The four-thirds, micro four-thirds, Fuji X, and Canon hotshoe contacts all use identical placement (although not necessarily the same number of pins), so if you mix brands among these three, there is the possibility of cross-talk.  And since every brand uses a completely different signaling protocol, there could be some errors and possible damage (although the risk is small), so if you're very paranoid, taping over contacts or removing pins might be advisable. I pulled the TTL pins (completely reversible) on a Nikon SB-26 to use it on my Canon hotshoes.
On the upside, however, this similar placement also means you can use Canon TTL cables for MFT and Fuji as well (i.e., you can connect an MFT flash to an MFT camera and a Fuji flash to a Fuji camera with a Canon TTL cable and have full function with TTL and high-speed sync); but this only works with passive cables simply doing signal pass-through.
It does not work with TTL-capable radio triggers which may do some form of signal manipulation. And, newer versions of the MFT and Fuji X hotshoes now supply power to accessory flashes with an additional contact the Canon hotshoe doesn't have or use in that way, so Canon TTL cables will not work with those flashes (such as the Fuji EF-X8), as they have no other power source.
While Nikon and Pentax have separate pin arrangements, oddly, the wake-up signal is identical both contact-placement and electronic signal-wise so something like a for-Nikon Yongnuo RF-603II can actually wake up Pentax flashes, but again, there's no TTL/HSS cross-brand with Nikon gear on Pentax.
Sync voltages, if you are using digital-era flash models, should not be an issue. All the digital-era flashes tend to have sync voltages of <10V, and most Canon/Nikon hotshoes have a limit of 250V, while mirrorless cameras are guesstimated to have limits around 20V.  The 6V limit you often seen in web references are for the first generation of Canon dSLRs.  If you have a Canon camera model that was made after the original dRebel (300D), the limit is 250V.
If you really need cross-brand TTL/HSS compatibility with legacy flashes, you may want to consider the Cactus's X-TTL triggering system. But as of 2021, they've gotten out of the photography gear business and no longer offer support.
Comment: "6V only!" seems to be often quoted for Sony Mirrorless.
Answer: Well, if it has a hot shoe, and the flash fits in the hot shoe, then it's compatible, sort of. Normally it will fit, but there were some cameras (Sony is one) that did their own shoe thing, preventing all others from fitting.  I suppose that was to sell their own flash brand.
Many third party flash brands (like say Yongnuo) make "dedicated" models, designed expressly to fit say Nikon or Canon camera systems.  Or some are Manual mode only, working with any brand camera (with a standard hot shoe).
But compatible has different levels of meaning.  There are several different configurations of the smaller pins in the shoe
At best, it means Manual flash mode should work regardless of brands.
TTL mode of one brand surely will Not work on a different camera brand (due to hot shoe communication differences from the smaller shoe pins).
And even in Manual flash mode, the frills of the flash reading the communication pins of a different brand shoe probably never work (so it may not zoom, or show f/stop, etc).  This could be true of old vs new of the same brand, if there were communication changes.
But yes, the flash should fire when triggered in Manual flash mode.
One other concern is some old flashes used a very high sync voltage (meaning like 200 volts DC or more, including both old hot shoe flashes and some old studio lights).  That can damage some digital cameras not designed for it. Many DSLR can accept up to 250 volts DC, but some cannot, and they advised to NOT use flashes measuring more than 6 volts, which is more typical today (the ISO spec is 40 volts max).
You can measure this voltage yourself to be sure, measuring from the foots large center pin to the metal foot or shoe contact, with flash turned on and not connected (and NOT aimed into your face, and NOT face down on anything that could be scorched, because it could fire when being measured. Shorting that pin is how the flash is triggered.)
Answer: There are several independent brands of flashes that are compatible with various brands of cameras.  When you purchase these flashes, you must specify that you want the one that is compatible with your brand of DSLR.
Each brand of DSLR has a hotshoe with one large circular contact in the center surrounded by multiple smaller round contacts.  The large contact is the one that sends the signal to the flash telling it to fire.  The other contacts are used for through the lens metering (TTL). The arrangement of these contacts are unique to each brand of camera.  The exception to this rule is with cameras that do not utilize some form of TTL (e.g. A-TTL, E-TTL).  These cameras will still have a hotshoe but it will only have one large single contact.  Some of the Sony Alpha series of cameras are an example of cameras that only have the one large contact.
Every brand of DSLR will use the same pattern of contacts on their hotshoes.  This makes it very easy to tell if a 3rd-party flash is compatible with it or not.
Just as long as the pattern of contacts are the same on the flash and hotshoe, the flash is compatible with the camera.  However, this is not to say that the flash will be able to utilize all of the flash technology built into the camera.
You can use flashes with a single pin on cameras with multi-pin hotshoes.  The only caveat here is that some flashes may use a different voltage which could damage a camera.  This is not common among the major brands of flashes such as Metz and Sunpak.
Comment: Better measure those very old flashes first. For example, the Vivitar 283 (and older) was one of the worst and most common offenders, reported around 280 volts (it was a mixed bag, Vivitar brand name was sold a few times, and there were some later versions of same model number that were safe, but better measure if any suspicion).
Answer: The first thing you need to do is define what you mean when you say "work."

Fire in manual only mode with no higher level communication whatsoever between the camera and the flash?
Mounted on the camera's hot shoe or via a wired connection?
Be controlled in some type of TTL mode when mounted to the camera's hot shoe?
Be fired wirelessly in manual only mode? Using optical or radio control?
Be controlled wirelessly in manual only mode? Using optical or radio control?
Be controlled wirelessly in some type of TTL mode? Using optical or radio control?
Which specific model of flash "brand X?" (e.g. the Yongnuo Yn560/RF605/RF603 system, the Yongnuo YN622 system (Canon or Nikon?), or the Yongnuo RT clone?)
Which specific model of camera brand Y (e.g. Sony/Minolta with ISO pin or Sony without ISO pin on the hot shoe?)
How much trigger voltage can the specific camera model tolerate?
How much trigger voltage does the specific model flash use?

The point is, there are way too many variable to make this a general question. The subtleties of each possible combination compared to what the user wants to be able to do make this a much more complex matrix than asking, "Will lens with mount X work on a camera with mountY?"
Answer: Does it have a hotshoe contact? Then yes it's compatible.
The number of flash features which will be made unavailable or made manual increases with temporal or corporate distance from the manufacture of your camera.
P.S. be careful connecting very old flashes without hot shoe contacts to modern cameras. Some of those old flashes pass 110vAC through their sync cables!
Update: Many incompatibilities due to trigger voltage (I.E. older flashes with very high voltages) can be overcome with a "universal hotshoe" Such a unit often also includes a sync-port. Most cameras with 6v trigger include overvoltage protection and I've seen cameras with blown out overvolt circuits which sacrificed the hotshoe to save the rest of the camera. Probably better to just buy the $20 part and not take the chance.
Bear in mind that there are two points of potential incompatibility. First is mechanical incompatibility. This is easy. If it fits and everything lines up (contacts touch where they should and don't where the shouldn't) then you are good to go. The second is electrical compatibility. This is trickier since there is no visual check you can make (unless trigger voltage is printed on the flash) and it would be quite a task to make a list of every flash and which cameras it is compatible with. so find a manual, do your homework and, when in doubt, use an overvoltage protector.
Comment: There were a LOT of SunPak, Meitz, Vivitar, etc. flashes pre and post 1980 that weren't make in the Soviet Union that had trigger voltages well north of 250V.
Comment: Even those have maximum voltage ratings that can be exceeded and overloaded, allowing too much voltage to reach the camera's circuitry. The one you linked is only rated to 400V.
Comment: Not necessarily. Sony had/has a hot shoe design that is not compatible with the generic ISO hot shoe center pin.
Comment: They're all pretty much DC, but some are greater than 250V-500V.
Comment: I guess it depends on your definition of compatible. I can say that with a pair of spreader pliers, a diamond file, and some copper tape, a pentax flash can be "compatible" with the weird Sony mount. OP makes an interesting point though. You and I were able to figure out the only _likely_ exception to the rule. I think that if you put a few caveats on it (E.G. ignore mains-powered units build in the USSR pre 1980) It wouldn't be that hard to put together a matrix which covers 99% of the situations.
Comment: just get a [overvoltage protector.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/245292-REG/Wein_W990560_Safe_Sync_Hot_Shoe_to.html?ap=y&gclid=CjwKCAjws8vaBRBFEiwAQfhs-GCeQwZzrAmTkAxpVUe5XLP5MSYlNRsnU10XdTa5n-XXR-OPjQkgnBoCIh8QAvD_BwE&smp=y) If it fits, it ships!


Is burnt microwave safe to use?

Question: Microwave popcorn left a burnt hole on the little metal plate inside the microwave. It still, works perfectly fine.  But is it safe food wise? Should i use it?
Comment: This sounds like it may be more of an electronics question than a cooking question... Generally speaking, electronics with burn damage should be considered potentially unsafe, as they may be a fire hazard.
Comment: Are you sure that's burned metal? Metal doesn't burn... My microwave has a cardboardish piece covering some hole like that. I think it's called a wave guide cover. You can order a new one (e.g., online) and just replace it. The black stains could just be from the burning cardboard. Try wiping them off.
Answer: That's not a metal plate. it's heat resistant mica composite. The microwaves come into the oven through the hole behind it. You can take it out scrub it off, put it back in and be good to to go. Be gentle with the stuff. It'll crack if you scrub too hard. From the soot marks on the metal above the piece, you must have had a big blob of grease explode onto the shield, where it burned merrily. Clean the soot off too.
Pull the piece up gently to remove, and push it down under the clips to put it back.
Comment: I don't see it. If there is an actual hole through it, you can buy a replacement, cheap: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=microwave+mica+waveguide+cover&t=ffsb&ia=products
Comment: The OP says there's an actual hole in it, in which case I'd suggest it's not safe to use. If it's just a mark your advice would be correct.
Answer: I have always been told by my dad that a fire in ANY electric appliance warrants an expert who is knowledgeable in the repair of the appliance before it is used again. Electricity is one thing, microwaves are another. All of the shields are there to protect you and your family. What price will you pay later to save a few dollars. My advice is take it outside and destroy it. People go thru dumpsters to pick up stuff and sell it to someone who is trying to save money. If it works use it is bad advice. But do what you want and I hope you sleep well

Is burnt microwave safe to use?


After dual boot Ubuntu 12.04.3 on SSD touch screen enabled Win8, cannot boot into Win8 anymore

Question: Requirement:  Install Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS alongside Win8 (hardware is i5 processor with SSD  memory with touch screen - sony vaio ultrabook)
Solved:
Got Ubuntu 12.04.3 installed successfully. Shared below successful steps followed to get Ubuntu 12.04.3 finally working:

USB ubuntu image created
I had another laptop running ubuntu 10.04. So created 12.04.3 ubuntu image using 'Startup Disk Creator' from within ubuntu. USB Disk image created from windows may work, but at least i couldn't make it work.
Disabled fast boot in Win8.
You can access it from Win8 Control panel --> Power Options -->
select the check-box 'Choose what the power options do' --> select the check box 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' at the top of the screen to enable the option to choose --> Now the setting gets unlocked. Un-tick the checkbox 'Turn on fast startup' and then reboot.
Disable UEFI secure boot
Inside BIOS setting, under 'Security' tab, disabled the UEFI secure boot.
Regarding Intel SRT option
Somewhere in ubuntu forum, i read to disable Intel SRT technology option, but at least i didn't have to do any changes regarding this option. May be not required for my Sony Vaio Ultrabook.
Removed all other usb devices plugged in for eg: usb mouse.
In fact, I had my usb disk image plugged into USB 3.0 port.
Before , getting it successfully, I saw this error message often: "unable to find a medium containing a live file system".
Wireless on ubuntu
Recommend not to try to turn on Wireless if your wireless SSID is not shown by default.
Now even after, installation is complete, if you can't connect to wireless, then its possibly because of the acer-wmi module. I did something similar to what is mentioned in this link:
[broadcom 43225 wireless on acer laptop is disabled

Nothing additional done to enable touch screen. By default, working after ubuntu installed.
Unsolved pending issue:
However, upon reboot into Win8, have some errors - "error: invalid EFI file path".
Any brief answer to solve this would be appreciated.
Thanks folks !
RobinJ
Answer: Try using my rEFInd; I've seen several reports that it will fix this problem. You can try the USB flash drive or CD-R version risk-free, then install the Debian-package version if that works.


SAAS Project Management Methodology with API driven and User Centered Design focuses

Question: How can API driven project management methodolgy for SAAS applications can involve user centered design? I mean in which state User Scenarios, Personas (thus focusing on the UX) can be involved?
Answer: In traditional project management, most UX activities occur during the early (Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases.  Personas and scenarios would be created as requirements are gathered and analyzed.  Application flow and style guides would be created during the design phase.
In modern product management, the user is an active participant throughout the process, providing feedback on each increment if the effort as it is being created or modified.  The UX designer would be involved in facilitating those conversations.


I can pay invoices on my mainnet LND node, but others cannot pay my invoices

Question: I have an LND node running the 0.5.2-beta release on a 2 core, 8GB ram Ubuntu 16.04 VM. This is my node: https://1ml.com/node/02d5efae50c1cdc6011e40b74f061ea4f444088865ec14a59e4ee6cf0d71c842fc
I used the Raspibolt tutorial to setup this node. It appears to be working properly, however when trying to receive payments it doesn't work. I can make channels and stuff, the only issue is being unable to receive payments.
For example, I have a post on yalls. I have paid for posts, it works perfectly. However when I try to withdraw whatever I have earned through yalls, it says payout failed. When I try again it says invoice is for too much, although that is false. I can confirm I have entered the right node public key when creating the post as I tried my invoices on other yalls posts and it clearly says the node pubkey is different. Here is an imgur album demonstrating this.
I have also tested my invoices with BlueWallet, and it says LND api failure 7. Here is an imgur album showing this. I think the problem here is my node. Has anyone encountered this problem, or know of a solution to it?
TLDR: I can do everything with my LND Node, except receiving payments on invoices I make
Comment: Does your LND node have channels with capacity to accept payments?
Answer: I did not have any incoming connections with enough liquidity. I got some and it is working now.
Comment: For people interested in how one could get more incoming connections, here is a relevant discussion: http://medium.com/lightningto-me/60224aa13393


Why are bread and wine important?

Question: In the first Rashi of the sixth chapter of Mesechet Brachos, Rashi writes that wine (and bread) have their own Brachas because they are important. What does Rashi base this statement off of? Where does he see their importance?
Comment: I remember hearing once (though I don't have a source) that the amount of human involvement required to turn stalks of grain into bread or grapes into fermented wine reflects the partnership between G-d and man in creation.
Comment: Very interesting thought. If you could try to hunt down the source that would be awesome!
Answer: According to this article by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rav Soloveitchik explained the special nature of bread as relating to the degree of human involvement required to turn G-d's creation (stalks of wheat) into edible bread.

Rav Soloveitchik explained as follows: Concerning the Seven Species,
  the partnership between G-d and humans is limited, with the humans
  performing a largely custodial task...   In contrast, bread's extraordinary journey from the field to the mouth requires a series of specific procedures.   According to the Mishna's categorization of the 39 forbidden activities on the Sabbath, eleven are devoted to the preparation of bread: "Sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking…." (B.T. Shabbat 74b)...
  Rav Soloveitchik suggests that the greater the degree of human input, the greater  the degree of sanctity.

We may also compare the midrash (Tanchuma Tazria 5) which describes the conversation between Rabbi Akiva and Turnus Rufus, in which the human involvement of making bread is compared to circumcision. It shows how the world was created with the intent that it be completed by man.
As for wine, the same principle could apply. Grapes can be eaten right from the vine, but the human involvement of pressing and fermenting elevates the sanctity of the product.
Comment: Perfect! Just what I was looking for.
Answer: Initially, I thought it had to do with the centrality of the 5 grains, but that would then demand that ALL grain products have a special bracha. I found this discussion of Pat akum which discusses why bread is important enough to be covered by such an edict, and in it the author writes
"The Rif (Avoda Zara 14b) and Tosafot (Avoda Zara 35b s.v. Michlal) record the Jerusalem Talmud (Avoda Zara 2:8) that states that Chazal also rescinded the Pat Akum decree because of the difficulty for most people to abide by it, as bread is "Chayei Nefesh" (one's life depends on it). We should clarify that in pre-modern times and even today in many cultures, bread is the main component of the meal (see Tehillim 104:15). Our affluent North American society in which bread does not serve such a function is an exception. Certainly, in the time of the Gemara, bread was a centerpiece of a meal (see Sukkah 27a regarding Agrippas' assistant)."
Though I have no specific source, I would assume that wine's importance is through its sacramental position or centrality to simcha.
Comment: I think wine was important because water was not generally potable.
Answer: This may come from Genesis 14:18:
וּמַלְכִּי-צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם, הוֹצִיא לֶחֶם וָיָיִן; וְהוּא כֹהֵן, לְאֵל עֶלְיוֹן.
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.
Comment: LeeNeverGup, welcome  to Mi Yodeya, and  thanks for this suggestion!  I look forward to continuing to see you around.

Why are bread and wine important?


How long does hot chocolate stay good?

Question: My resource for food shelf life is usually stilltasty.com . However, I can't find hot chocolate on the list. I'm talking about a small pot of hot chocolate - milk, cocoa, sugar, water. Is the guideline the expiration date of the milk? Or will it last longer/shorter?
Answer: It is a common misconception that the shelf life of a cooked food (= mix of ingredients) is the same as the shelf life of the shortest-lived ingredient. I cannot stress enough how wrong this assumption is.
As with any cooked food, the shelf life of hot chocolate should be about 3 to 5 days in the fridge, with a cumulative stay in the danger zone of no longer than 2 hours.
An explanation of why the assumption is wrong: Food spoils when bacteria (or sometimes other organisms like mold) create a colony in it. For this to happen, the food has to offer all the conditions an organism needs for survival. Most cooked foods are nutritious enough to ensure the survival of simple organisms.
There are single ingredients which hold for longer. Bar chocolate is a good example. The reason for that is that they are not a complete medium. Chocolate does not have enough moisture for bacteria to grow in it. But as soon as you mix any ingredient with something else, you cannot know if the other ingredients have not added the factor the bacteria have been missing. So, if you mix for example water (practically indefinite shelf life because it has no calories) and flour (practically indefinite shelf life because it has no moisture), you get dough, which will have large bacterial colonies within 3 days.
Exceptions in the other direction (food that spoils sooner than 3 days) are foods which decompose on their own. For example fish - it goes bad quickly even at fridge temperature, but the reason is the fish's own enzymes, not bacteria. That's why it is normally held on ice, if not frozen outright.
As a side note, you cannot rely on the expiration date of milk anyway. It is OK for traditionally pasteurized milk. But the expiration date of ESL and UHT milk is only valid as long as the packaging has not been broken. Once you open it, it is again good for about 5 days.
Conclusion: For anything cooked, up to 5 days in the fridge is a good assumption. Make it less for food which is known for high risk of contamination (e.g. food containing raw eggs), but never longer, even if the expiration date of the ingredients is longer than that.
Comment: @jefromi I got this information for both UHT and ESL milk from a TV report, so I cannot link a written source. The report was of the trustworthy journalism type, and the person saying this was representing a professional association of milk producers, so I hope they knew what they were talking about. Besides, both ESL and UHT are thermal processes which work by killing the bacteria present in the milk, they don't make it poisonous to new bacteria. Once the milk gets exposed to new pathogens, they grow at their usual rate. So the 5 days make sense, even if we don't trust the source.
Comment: Where's you get the five days for milk as soon as it's opened from? I don't think I've heard that before. [StillTasty says](http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17687) usually a week past the sell by date - obviously oversimplifying, but still. We also have a lot of [vague answers here](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/1863) but if there's a consensus, it's probably that you should just smell/taste it.
Comment: @Jefromi As mentioned, she meant UHT milk, http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17690
Comment: @Mien Oh, right. I was confused by the first part, saying you can't rely on the expiration date - in the US, UHT milk is much less common than in Europe, and you pretty much *can* rely on the date.
Comment: The only UHT dairy I can think of off hand here is those horrible little portion control creamers like fast food restaurants use.
Comment: Great answer.  Really comprehensive with right amount of scientific reasoning so readers can re-apply the logic.
Comment: @rumtscho Yeah, sorry, I wasn't doubting you anymore - Mien resolved my complaint. It's just that in the US we don't really have UHT milk as far as I know, so the expiration dates work, and everyone just tests by smell/taste.
Answer: You can still use the prepared food rule (~4 days in fridge, 2hrs at room temp).  You can go with expiry of the most perishable IF the other ingredients don't have a spoiling effect on it (in this case, the effect is not significant).  So the question somewhat reduces to how long does previously warmed milk last?:

If it's left at room temperature (in the danger zone 40F-140F), then the answer to How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat? applies.
If it's in the fridge, then a few days (~4) is the guideline. Have a look at Expiration Date on Milk.
If it's pasteurized and unopened, the expiry date is the indicator (usually a couple of weeks depending on the type of filtration).

How long does hot chocolate stay good?


Win 10 IoT + apache + php + mysql + ssl?

Question: I'm looking for an easy way to get on Win10 webserver based on apache (or familiar), php, mysql, and ssl (all 3 must have). Everything I found on google has no info how to do it... only how to change something or how to provide new things.
Comment: Windows IoT is supposed to be used a thin client. The PHP, MySQL and SSL should live on a real server. There are ways to do what you want but not using the stuff you want to use.
Comment: You just need to someone port PHP source code to win 10 iot
Answer: Everything you assume from traditional Windows systems is irrelevant in IoT Core. Wintel binaries like apache.exe , php.exe and mysql.exe are positively unwelcome and simply won't work.
Windows 10 IoT core is best regarded as vehicle to run one (1) full-screen Universal Windows Platform App all the time - there is no Desktop , no explorer.exe and definetely not multiple Windows - by design. Also there is no regard to backwards compability - by design. 90 % of the worlds Windows software (including WAMPP and relatives) doesn't work on it  - by design.
Raspbian can transform into a solid LAMP (Linux , Apache , MySQL , PHP) system with one apt-get invocation - by design.
Comment: Buy an Intel Compute Stick or a real PC. You will get nowhere with Win10IoTCore + Raspberry Pi if you want (X)AMP.
Comment: I can't use Raspbian (don't ask why...). I know Raspbian can become LAMP, because I've done it. But right now I need to have the same on Win10 IoT.


When to use 'je te kiffe'?

Question: Recently I read a question on how to say I like you in French. None of these answers provided the expression 'je te kiffe', although I'm quite sure it is used very often. Is there a different context for this expression, or is it even out of date? What is its real meaning?
Comment: I'd like to point that this expression only exists in France (should we add the "France" tag?).
Comment: "Je kiffe [something]" is slang but not offensive and pretty common. "Je *te* kiffe", said to a person is a little more tricky to use without offending.
Comment: @Sifu Good question... if the expression essentially *doesn't exist* in français québéquois, then I say yes. It is helpful, in my opinion, to be able to separate cultural variances in language - for example, how *tabarnac* doesn't exist in thelanguage in France, because it a specific part of Québec culture.
Answer: Sir, that's a very slang term (whatever that actually means) for saying "I appreciate you a lot".
Often used by younger people like teenagers.
Although, this suffers from a lot of prejudices (thus I feel I really shouldn't say more. I don't want to tell prejudices about anyone).
This is often used to imitate / picture / caricature teenagers living in HLMs (wich they can refer to the "téci", verlan of "cité" - look at wikipedia, or  "banlieue", the "suburb") who have their own style (which I cannot describe here shortly as easily), sometimes called "caillera" (verlan of "racaille", translated to "scum" by Google trad) (though that word is, IMO, a bit too strong).
In particular, we often see/hear this kind of sentence: « Hé mademoiselle, j'te kiffe ! Tu me files ton 06 ? » which has many, many variants.
I think though it was more often (and commonly) used in the 80s or 90s in general (I mean just the verb "kiffer" in general, like for instance: « J'kiffe grave ce que tu fais »)
Comment: +1 For centring this in its social context: "Je the kiffe" is fine if you don't mind sounding like a 1990s teenager...
Comment: @fiscblog And they start with 04 in Belgium but I never heard _« Tu me files ton 04 ? »_.
Comment: What does "Tu me files ton 06" mean? Is it something like "Give me your mobile number"?
Comment: @fiscblog: Mobiles phones numbers in France starts with 06 (and 07 occasionally), see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_pr%C3%A9fixes_des_op%C3%A9rateurs_de_t%C3%A9l%C3%A9phonie_mobile_en_France for details.
Comment: About *racaille* : if you find *scum* too strong for this use, maybe *riffraff* ? *thug* (with a *badass* undermeaning) ?
Comment: @JeromeJ > Phone number patterns are much different in France and Belgium, 01 -> 05 depends on your geographical zone and 06(+07) are for mobile phones, but the patter is the same. In Belgium we have several patterns, including old prefixes that are now always mentionned, but there are phone numbers starting by 04 which are not mobile, in Liege neighborhood)
Answer: "Kiffer" is a derivative of "kif", which comes from Arabic meaning "hashish" (or at least something related to hemp, I'm a bit short on serious references), figuratively "sensation of pleasure (due to hasish)". It usually means to appreciate, to enjoy, to like. I'm not sure it's still in use nowadays, but it was enough in the nineties to warrant its appearance in Le Robert 1, 1993 edition.
In Walloon secondary schools some fifteen to twelve years ago, however, the verb's more usual meaning was simply "to smoke weed".
In any case, I've only encountered it in familiar register.
Comment: I am not sure "kif" means "hashish" in Arabic. Isn't it the other way around (i.e. a broader meaning in Arabic that became associated with hemp in French)? See also https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiffer and "kif-kif".
Comment: Kif in arabic means على كيفي = "as I like". It is used for expressing your admiration for something.
Answer: I wouldn't advise you to use "je te kiffe", unless you want to say it to a friend who said it to you. When young people say "je te kiffe", it can mean "I like you", either in terms of friendship or slight dating interest.
But it can also mean "I like your personality" or "I like your body", the latter being highly improper when said to a stranger. It's like a cheap "you're nice" or "you're pretty".
You can "kiffe" anything - "je kiffe cette chanson" (I like this song"), "je kiffe ta veste" ("I like your jacket") - but it's teenspeak, and not considered a proper French word.
Answer: But in the NTM song "Ma Benz" there is a line,

J'veux juste que tu puisses me kiffer jusqu'à l'aube

so it probably could, in some contexts, have a nastier sense of physically pleasuring someone. Maybe it's just making out (snogging for Brits), but in the context of the song, it might possibly be a new euphemism for having intercourse, or simply be a direct translation to "pleasuring" in a broader generic sense. I'm not even French, let alone live in the téci, so I have no idea.
Comment: I personally don't interpret it the way you did. More like a funky way (see my answer) to say "to like/love me". Of course the rapper might be insinuating some extra related "actions". **Note:** I don't personally know that song, it might clearly set a context making me wrong on my personal assumptions. Thank you for (trying to?) contributing to answers!
Answer: It's true that the expression "Je te kiffe" is became something slang. But, it's less and less used in order to say that for a girl (or a boy).
Actually, you can use this expression for special things you like to do as :

-Tu as aimé la soirée hier soir ?
  -Ouais, j'ai trop kiffé !

It means

-Have you enjoyed the party yesterday ?
  -Yes, I've liked it !

It can be also used ironically, or in movies (if the movie pretends to be a young spirit movie). But, it's not really used for people, unless you're a teenager under 15 years old, or you don't want to be serious.
However, as I said it's used often for things you like as music, movies, activities, etc.
I hope it's useful.
Answer: "Kiffer" means "to like" but it's slang, and it's totally ghetto <= see what I did there? It's about the same level of colloquialism…
I would recommend you just don't use it. It's not rude per say, but it's rather unsophisticated and will sound really weird coming from a foreigner.
Answer: "kiffer" for us is "to like" but you can't use it all the time.
It used to be used mainly by teenager, but now it's used by more or less everybody. It is a very familiar word/expression.
You can't say that to everyone, you should use it just with friends and family.
As a french girl, I use it all the time. The real word to "to like" is "aimer".
So for example, to say :

I loved the movie i watched last night

It would be :

j'ai aimé le film que j'ai vu hier soir

but I'll say (with all my friend) :

j'ai kiffé le film que j'ai vu hier soir

If you say to someone "je te kiff" it should be for your friends, not the girl you love or really appreciate.
Hope it helped you!
Answer: It seems the verb can be used by a child towards her mother.
When Jean-Pierre Vial was asked to write a variation on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star he referenced the original name of the tune (as used by Mozart) which is "Ah, vous dirais-je, Maman" and named his variation "Ma Mère, J'Te Kiffe Trop Grave"
Edit - 2020-06-17
Jean-Pierre Vial's response:

I confirm Mourad Qqch's answer above, but I would say it's
a youth "popular" rather than "slang" expression, meaning "I love you".
Answer: Seems like "je kiffe" is pretty similar to how people say "I dig it" in English
Answer: It means "I like you" or "I appreciate you" in a slang way.
It is still used a lot, especially from the teenagers.
Wa also say "je kiffe ", which means "I appreciate  a lot".

When to use 'je te kiffe'?


How to evaluate Elisp code contained in a string?

Question: The question pretty much says it all: I have a string containing the source code for a valid Elisp expression, and I would like to evaluate it.
(In Python, for example, the expression eval("1 - 2 + 3") evaluates to 2.)
Comment: Note, `(calc-eval "1 - 2 + 3")` fits your python example better even if this is not valid elisp. If you do not yet require the `calc` package you need to load it before with `(require 'calc)`. (I know that this does not answer your question. Hence it is formulated as comment.)
Answer: Evaluating a string of elisp code is a two-stage process: you need to parse the string using read-from-string and then evaluate the resulting Lisp expression with eval.
(defun my-eval-string (string)
  "Evaluate elisp code stored in a string."
  (eval (car (read-from-string string))))

Now (my-eval-string "(+ 1 2)") evaluates to 3.
Edit:
As pointed out by @lunaryorn, read-from-string reads the first expression only, so this should be better:
(defun my-eval-string (string)
  (eval (car (read-from-string (format "(progn %s)" string)))))

Edit 2:
To evaluate elisp code for side effects one could also use with-temp-buffer and eval-buffer (eval-buffer always returns nil).
(defun my-eval-string-for-side-effects (string)
  "Evaluate a string of elisp code for side effects."
  (with-temp-buffer
    (insert string)
    (eval-buffer)))

(my-eval-string-for-side-effects "(message \"hello!\")")

Comment: `with-temp-buffer` is less than ideal because it will mess up with all buffer-related calls, e.g. `buffer-file-name`, ...
Answer: The answer of Constantine is okay.
Just to provide a slight modification:
(defun my-eval-string (str)
  "Read and evaluate all forms in str.
Return the results of all forms as a list."
  (let ((next 0)
        ret)
    (condition-case err
        (while t
          (setq ret (cons (funcall (lambda (ret)
                                     (setq next (cdr ret))
                                     (eval (car ret)))
                                   (read-from-string str next))
                          ret)))
      (end-of-file))
    (nreverse ret)))

(my-eval-string "1 2 3 (+ 3 1)")

The last form returns the list (1 2 3 4).
Answer: In my case I wanted to evaluate elisp in a string only if it actually was valid elisp. Otherwise I just wanted the string as-is.
(defun maybe-eval-string (string)
  "Maybe evaluate elisp in a given STRING."
  (or (ignore-errors
    (eval (car (read-from-string (format "(progn %s)" string))))
    ) string))

(print (maybe-eval-string "(format \"hello, %s\" \"world\")"))
(print (maybe-eval-string "hello, world"))

Output:
"hello, world"

"hello, world"

Full credit to @Constantine's answer. I just wrapped it in an or and ignore-errors but I though it was handy enough function to post as an answer.


What is the reason for halving the rewards?

Question: What is the reasons for halving the rewards?
Why not, for example, let the reward be always the same and the amount of currency always growing? Are the reasons technical or just purely ideological?
Answer: Because the block halving incentives getting into Bitcoin NOW, rather than later. Early birds take more risks and get more rewards. Otherwise the network would have problems getting enough miners involved in the first place.
Asides that, there is a concept of inflation and deflation - we have already experienced the first one, so we might as well try the latter one.
Answer: Technically, constant rewards, halving rewards… doubling rewards, or any other fluctuation that depends only on the current blockchain state, all are feasible. (Halving rewards guaranties a bound on the total amount of bitcoins in circulation, which helps in avoiding overflows, but this is an extremely minor point that could be overcome very easily.)
Rewards have two unrelated repercussions:

They incentivize mining. This basically means buying hashpower for the network. More rewards means a more secure network, but also more waste in electricity.
They continuously inject new currency shares. This means that, in the long term, all bitcoin holders (not only transactors) pay a fee for the sustained service offered by the network. (In the same way governments, or nowadays banks, collect an inflation "fee" with traditional currencies : with inflation government or bank debts are being forgotten over time.)

First of all, it's unclear as to what amount of hashpower guaraties securrity without being wasted. To make things more difficult, the amount of hashpower that corresponds to a given reward depends on the trade value of the currency. So, Satoshi took a wild guess and he decided halving rewards (every four years) would somehow be satisfactory for the early days of bitcoins. There is no reason for this to remain true in the future. If it was not satisfactory any more, be assured that either Bitcoin workings will change or that another currency with adjusted parameters will quickly be born.
Now, you may realize that Bitcoin only provides one degree of liberty. Rewards must be adjusted to network-maintenance costs, so they cannot be used to influence inflation without being stupidly wasted. This is because Bitcoin does not come with a global community-shared fund (like government or bank reserves) that could receive newly minted money or be cleared from "old debts". In fact, no ideological choice had to be made, except for the choice not to add such a thing in Bitcoin.
Answer: In some ways, halving reward prevents people with power and money to manipulate the bitcoin network. Supposed you have lots of dollars. You decided the bitcoin network is now valuable for your purpose. You can put your money into bitcoin. If there's no halving, price is likely to be stable. Your share of coins will increase over time. If you have the power to print money, you can inflate your currency to do this.
At some point, you have enough coins to control price movement. With halving, you get diminishing return. When you inflate your money to control the network, you get less coins.
I think if it inflates at exponential rate, inflation can also deflate manipulators. But it has to be exponential inflation, not constant inflation.


How can I make bacon powder?

Question: I want to make bacon powder, I assume the means cooking all of the fat out without burning the meat.  Is this right?  if so how should I do this?  If not what should I do?  How should I turn the bacon into powder?  just in a blender?
Comment: @Binary Worrier, I can answer that.  render out the fat, and mix it with tapioca maltodextrin which stabilises the fat into a solid.  Then pass through a sieve to get a powder.  But this (whilst delicious in the right context) has no substance (as as soon as you put it in your mouth the liquid destabilises the tapioca maltodextrin and releases the bacon fat), whereas crispy bacon, powdered, is a little crunchy.  and this is what I'm looking for.
Comment: Do you mean *Bakin' Powder* ;)
Comment: To make bacon powder, just get me to pan cook it. It seems like every time I try, it gets beyond crispy and brittle. One bite and you'll swear it's powder.
Comment: Mark, as I mentioned in the other post where you pasted that link: that article (which cites a study from 1973, which is far from recent) says that nitrosamines aren't necessarily bad. From the article: "It is unknown at what levels, if any, nitrosamines are formed in humans after they eat cured meat products, or what constitutes a dangerous level in meat or in humans." and "Although nitrite is a controversial food additive, recent studies indicate that nitrite can inhibit the production of malonaldehyde, which may be toxic to living cells."
Comment: Bacon powder doesn't contain the actual bacon, it's a mixture of bacon **fat** and starch. How you turn that into powder? I have no idea :)
Comment: Pleae read the following regarding bacon and cooking temp regarding nitrosamines: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0974.html
Answer: My wife loves bacon that's cooked to the cusp of burning, so I've got a good knowledge of the properties of bacon on that fine line. It's so brittle, you can powder it very easily.
I myself would probably just stick it in a plastic bag, and whack it a few times with a pan, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't put it in the blender. I have a nice mortar and pestle I use for powdering things, but that's probably overkill in this case.
Comment: @sam holder: Low heat, long time all the way. If you cook it on high heat, it'll burn before all the fat cooks off.
Comment: OMG bacon pepper! Yes!
Comment: and how do you recommend best getting to the cusp?  low heat, long time?  high heat regular turning?  Under the grill (broiler)?  In the oven? frying pan?
Comment: I think the degree of 'pulverisation' of the bacon will depend on it's intended use. if you're going to use it like cracked pepper, then a fine powder is unnecessary. However, with a fine powder like preparation, it's idea to use on sweet and savoury dishes where 'crunch' is undesired.
Comment: It's a lot easier if you use a George Foreman grill. I swear that thing was invented to cook bacon. Slanted surface drains the grease automatically, so you can get crispy bacon very fast.
Answer: You can make bacon powder simply by frying some bacon until it becomes crispy (don't let it burn) when done place on paper towel for until cool then wizz it in a food processor with a little fine powdered sugar. Keep wizzing until it stops sticking and you have a fine powder.
Comment: My mother used to bake bacon in brown sugar. Result: candied bacon, possibly the most deadly food product on the planet.
Comment: Powdered sugar has corn starch in it. I'll bet you can get by with just adding corn starch (or any other starch) to crispy bacon... Cool technique!
Comment: @sam That's just the recipe I'm familiar with. I guess one could use any fine starch powder and which you choose will largely depend on the purpose of the bacon powder, i.e. will it be used in a sweet or savoury dish.
Comment: @Harlan probably correct, see my comment to Sam. The starch is only being used as a binding and a carrier.
Comment: Interesting.  why the sugar?
Answer: I suggest cooking the bacon in a fry pan with some water.  This allows the fat to render and produces crispy bacon.

Add enough water to cover the bacon in a fry pan
Cook until fat is rendered and water evaporated
Cool bacon
Pulverize in a food processor

Alternate Modernist Method
1.  Render bacon as in step 1 and 2 above
2.  Separate the liquid fat and cool
3.  Combine bacon fat with tapioca maltodextrin in 60:40 ratio by weight
4.  Pulverize in a food processor
Answer: To make the bacon to make power out of I have a trick.
Place the bacon on a wire pan grate and let them cook in a oven on medium heat. The fat will then drip off leaving a bacon-chip.
(Remember to have something below collecting the dripping fat.)
/L
(Wire pan grate: An non-English, I am not sure I use the right term. Normally in for the oven there is a wire-grid which you can place pot and pans on. Am I using the right term?
So please edit here!)
Comment: I think Leif is describing a cooling rack on a sheet pan. And this method does produce nice low-grease bacon, with the option to cook it really slow if desired.
Comment: In American English, that's generally referred to as a "rack" in that context.
Answer: You could try to freeze the cooked bacon. Then quickly put it in a cold blender or coffee grinder. I don't like bacon that's well done I think it tastes burnt. Using this method will allow you to get it in a powder before the fat starts to melt. The ultimate would be to put the bacon in liquid nitrogen then blend it.
Answer: If you literally want a powder, you can use a standard blade coffee grinder. Not the ones where the coffee goes in one end and then comes out another, but the ones where you take off the lid, fill it up, put lid back on and grind, then dump it back out (just a blade at the bottom of a bowl). I have used this device to powder many different things. Just get some nice crispy bacon and use a paper towel to get the grease off, then crumble it up and stuff it in there. It will powder it very quickly, like 8 seconds. Again, this is if you really want a powder rather than just bacon bits that you would get from pounding it with a hammer.
Answer:
Render out the bacon fat by cooking the bacon in the oven on a broiler pan. The fat will drain off the slotted top into the bottom
Rough chop the bacon with a chef's knife or meat cleaver
Place chopped bacon in food processor or blender and process to desired texture.
Answer: Cook bacon in oven or frying pan to medium well, drain, pat dry and place in dehydrator afew hours, checking often till desired doneness is reached. Then either powder in grinder or pulverize for bits. Dehydrating will make for a long lasting product
Answer: I am mixing up a batch right now. I use store bought bacon bits, and a dehydrator. Dehydrate bits for 3 hours at 155 degrees, then grind in a coffee grinder and back in the dehydrator for another 3 to 6 hours. Then grind again to a powder.

How can I make bacon powder?


What happened to Hitler's personal possessions and real estate?

Question: When World War II ended and Hitler committed suicide, what happened to his personal possessions and real estate? I presume that given his defeat, any will he might have had wasn't honored. Did certain parties seize control of them? Were they looted? Something else?
Comment: Note the interesting issue of his copyrights. For a long time, the state of Bavaria held that it owned them, and declined to allow any reprints.
Answer: Short answer:
Hitler's will, as such, probably played no role in the redistribution of his personal property.
Reliable sources could,  no doubt,  be found to confirm that the Allied intension from the beginning was to confiscate the property of the NSDAP and it's main party leaders.
Careful reading of the Wikipedia sources show that, when no longer needed by Allied Forces, property was transferred to the local state governments (no doubt with conditions).
The Wikipedia (German only) Führersperrgebiet Obersalzberg article shows that this held true also for  personal property

Die Schallplattensammlung Adolf Hitlers gelangte in das amerikanische Nationalarchiv.
Adolf Hitler's record collection reached the American National Archives.

which was not necessarily allways returned.

Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment now belongs to the Bavarian state.
Based on this German article from 2013

Eingezogen war Hitler am 1. Oktober 1929 samt Personal. Eva Braun kam oft zu Besuch. Und auch allerhand Größen der damaligen Zeit waren am Prinzregentenplatz zu Gast. Ende 1938 ging − wohl mit Hilfe der Partei und dank der sprudelnden Einnahmen aus dem Verkauf seines Buchs "Mein Kampf" − das ganze Haus in Hitlers Privatbesitz über. Bis zu seinem Tod 1945 blieb er mit dieser Adresse in München gemeldet – auch wenn er nach Ausbruch des Kriegs kaum mehr in der Wohnung lebte. Dabei war gleich ab 1939 für ihn ein Luftschutzbunker mit einer 4,75 Tonnen schweren Stahldecke und Eichenholz-getäfeltem Führer-Raum gebaut worden.
Hitler was moved in on the 1st of October 1929, including personnel.  Eva Braun often came to visit.  And also all sorts of notable people of the time were guests at Prinzregentenplatz.  At the end of 1938 - probably with the help of the party and thanks to the bubbling revenues from the sale of his book "Mein Kampf" - the whole house passed into Hitler's private ownership.  Until his death in 1945, he remained registered at this address in Munich - despite the fact that he he hardly lived in the apartment after the outbreak of war. In 1939, an air raid shelter with a 4.75-ton steel ceiling and oak-paneled "Führer room" had been built for him.

Traditionally, with the exception of the present Chancellor, a Chancellor used the provided flat within the Chancellery.
This residence was situated in the (Old) Reichskanzlei, Wilhelmstraße No. 77 (former "Palais Schulenburg").

to my knowledge, Hitler had no property in Berlin, possibly none outside of Bavaria.

Hitlers privates Eigentum fiel an an den Freistaat – darunter auch das gesamte Gebäude am Prinzregentenplatz. Seit 1949 residieren hier verschiedene Polizeibehörden und verhindern, dass die Wohnung eine Wallfahrtsstätte für die Ewiggestrigen wird. Heute ist der Prinzregentenplatz 16 Sitz der Polizeiinspektion 22.
Hitler's private property fell to the Free State [of Bavaria] - including the entire building at Prinzregentenplatz. Since 1949, various police authorities have been residing there and preventing the apartment from becoming a place of pilgrimage for the die-hard.  Today the Prinzregentenplatz 16 is the seat of the police inspectorate 22.

In 1933 a property was bought in Obersalzberg, which was renamed to Berghof in 1935/36 and served as a Sommer residence.
In 1937 the building of the Kehlsteinhaus (known as the Eagle's Nest in English-speaking countries) was commissioned by the NSDAP and was not considered to be private property.
Comment: The German copyright exires 70 years after the authors death. So, [in 2016 Mein Kampf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf) entered the public domain in Germany. The Institute for Contemporary History published a commented edition of [Mein Kampf](https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/aktuelles/themen/edition-mein-kampf/mein-kampf-english/) roughly at the time, when the copyright expired. The state of Bavaria used its copyright on Mein Kampf to prevent any publication of the text. As the copyright expired, there was a public debate how to proceed.
Comment: Nice answer. I think that it is worth remembering that the copyright for *Mein Kampf* went to Bavaria Lander.
Comment: @SJuan76 I have left out the copyright aspect since the question is about personal possessions and properties. The German version about Mein Kampf goes in more depth about the legal process after the war and now.
Answer: Hitler's last will and testament gave "items of sentimental value" to his remaining family, his art to a gallery in his home town, and any wealth to "the National Socialist Party if it survives, or the German state if it does not".  He explicitly said he didn't care what happened to it if neither of those organizations existed.
Specifics about what ended up where are harder to come by.  According to Wikipedia, his home in Obersalzburg was destroyed and looted near the end of the war, and the ruins were demolished in 1951.  A golf course is there now.
Hitler's other residence, the Wolf's Lair, was destroyed by the SS as the Soviets approached in 1945.  The ruins are still there in Poland, and are a bit of a tourist attraction.
The German's attempted to demolish the Eagle's Nest in 1945, but fled before they finished.  It was captured by the US.  Post-war, it was used as the headquarters for Organisation Geheln, a US-German intelligence agency that eventually became the Federal Intelligence Service.  In 1991, it was sold back to the family the Nazis appropriated it from.  It's an apartment complex now.
One problem I had researching this is deciding what was Hitler's and what was the state's.  He didn't seem to see much distinction.
Comment: Wolf's Lair and Adlerhorst were military headquarters, not  residences. The used English translation of Adlerhorst in the Wikipedia artical is not correct. The name is commonly used for the (also incorrectly translated name) of Kehlsteinhaus near Obersalzberg. So those 2 paragraphs should be removed.
Answer: Just adding to the other answers, Hitler's chief aid Julius Schaub was ordered to destroy his boss' personal possessions.

Schaub was instructed to burn all of Hitler's personal belongings and
  papers in the garden of the Reich Chancellery.1 Schaub then flew to
  Munich and did the same in Hitler's private apartment at the
  Prinzregentenplatz and then at the Berghof on the Obersalzberg.1 His
  final act as aide and adjutant was to destroy Hitler's personal train,
  the Führersonderzug.

Some things were taken by Nazi officials and ended up in Argentina (according to some Argentine investigators quoted in a Daily Telegraph report). These include a magnifying glass used by Hitler (there are photos showing him using it).
Some things were taken or looted by the Americans (and probably the British also). Hitler's 1939 Mercedes was seized by the US army. There's a list of other things in an article Most Expensive Adolf Hitler Memorabilia Sold at Auction (but not all of these were Hitler's).


Help with Wiring Multiple HATs to GPIO

Question: first time poster. Sorry in advance if this is the wrong place/title/etc.
I'm currently working on a senior design project for mechanical engineering, but it requires some basic electronic controls. This is definitely out of my expertise, but I'm hoping the idea is simple enough that I can get through it.
The quick run-down:
Motorized wheelchair, with two powered motors for moving around, and two linear actuators that lift or extend parts of the frame, but without overextending and breaking anything.
I need to run 4 electric motors independently. Two (wheels) will receive commands from a bi-axial joystick, run through Python on a Raspberry Pi 3, and two (actuators) will operate with "on-off" buttons, with sensors that operate as kill-switches (again, using the Python program).
I'm fairly certain that I won't have the know-how to actually create my own controller/boards, so I'm relying on rigging things together with existing parts. Obviously price is a major factor in what is available for use. Current plan is to have the joystick signals coming in through USB, use two of these HATs to control the actual motors from my 24VDC power supply, and presumably attach sensors to remaining GPIO pins so the Python code will know when to shut-down power outputs.
Does this seem like a relatively do-able setup? Am I correct in assuming that I can use multiple HATs (I'm aware they probably won't stack nicely) as long as I use different GPIO pins from the RPi and connect everything with jumper wires? The HAT user manual shows only 4 GPIO pins being used, so theoretically I should have plenty left over to work with? Anything horribly obvious that I've overlooked and failed to account for? Thanks in advance for any help or advice that you may have.
Answer: The HATs is a bit flawed. I cant see that the GPIO's that control the HAT can be changed and this mean that "HAT 1" and "HAT 2" is using the same GPIO.
And a reflection, a Raspberry Pi is a bit overkill, a Arduino could do the jobb.

Help with Wiring Multiple HATs to GPIO


Finding Complex Number $z$ in $\frac{z+2i}{z-2i}=\frac{7-6i}{5}$

Question:
What I did: Cross Multiply, try to expand out the mod and args, but they all seem to lead to dead end (probably I am not seeing something)
Comment: So: you got as far as $2z - 12 - (24 + 6z)i = 0$. What can you do if you collect the $z$ terms together, that is $(2 - 6i)z - (12 + 24i) = 0$?
Answer: All your equations are correct but apparently your main difficulty was how
to find $z$ in the algebraic form $a+bi$ from the given equation, which you
have shown is equivalent to the linear equation in $z$
$$
2z-12-(24+6z)i=0.
$$
To solve this equation add the terms in $z$ and separately the independent
terms.
$$
\left( 2-6i\right) z-(12+24i)=0.
$$
Move the independent term to the RHS.
$$
\left( 2-6i\right) z=12+24i.
$$
To find $z$ divide both sides by the coefficient of $z$, multiply both
numerator and denominator by the conjugate of the denominator and simplify
$$
\begin{eqnarray*}
z &=&\frac{12+24i}{2-6i}=\frac{6+12i}{1-3i}=\frac{\left( 6+12i\right) \left(
1+3i\right) }{\left( 1-3i\right) \left( 1+3i\right) } \\
&=&\frac{-30+30i}{10}=-3+3i.
\end{eqnarray*}
$$
So $a=-3,b=3$. You can easily find the modulus of $z$
$$
\left\vert z\right\vert =\sqrt{a^{2}+b^{2}}=\sqrt{(-3)^{2}+3^{2}}=3\sqrt{2}.
$$
Its argument $\theta =\arg z$ is the angle in the 2nd quadrant$^1$ such that $\tan \theta =b/a$. The range of the arctangent function is $]−\pi/2, \pi[$. Then
$$
\arg z=\pi+\arctan \left( \frac{b}{a}\right) =\pi+\arctan \left( \frac{3}{-3}\right)
=\pi+\arctan \left( -1\right) =\pi-\frac{1}{4}\pi=\frac{3}{4}\pi .
$$
As for $w$ you do not need to find its algebraic form. You can apply the
properties of the modulus and argument of a complex fraction. Since
$$
\left\vert \frac{2z}{w}\right\vert =\frac{\left\vert 2z\right\vert }{
\left\vert w\right\vert }=\frac{2\left\vert z\right\vert }{\left\vert
w\right\vert }=\frac{6\sqrt{2}}{\left\vert w\right\vert }=3,
$$
solving for $\left\vert w\right\vert $ you get $\left\vert w\right\vert =
\frac{6\sqrt{2}}{3}=2\sqrt{2}$, while from the following equation
$$
\arg \left( \frac{w}{z}\right) =\arg \left( w\right) -\arg \left( z\right)
=\arg \left( w\right) -\frac{3}{4}\pi =-\frac{1}{8}\pi
$$
you find $\arg \left( w\right) =-\pi /8+3\pi /4=5\pi /8$.
$^1$ added and corrected
Comment: RE: Finding $\arg{z}$: I thought since the angle in in the 2nd quadrant, I should be doing $\arg{z} = \pi - \tan^{-1}{|\frac{3}{-3}|}=\pi - \frac{\pi}{4}=\frac{3\pi}{4}$?
Comment: @jiewmeng: You are right, the angle is in the 2nq quadrant. I corrected the associated computations.
Answer: If you solve $(2 - 6i)z - (12 + 24i) = 0$ you should get that :
$z=-3+3i \Rightarrow |z|=\sqrt{(-3)^2+3^2}=3\cdot \sqrt{2}$ , and
$\arg z= \arctan(\frac{3}{-3})+ \pi=\frac{7\pi}{4}$
I assume that you can do the rest of task...


How do you get transparent colour on Gimp?

Question: In the colour selection I have been searching for a transparent option, but I can't find one. How can I do it?
Comment: In the '_what ever tool it is you're using_ **settings**', try to find the Opacity slider. That should be found from the Layers window as well. Of course the layer opacity controls the opacity of a layer where as opacity of a tool, controls the opacity that the tool will produce.
Answer: Transparency is not a color. Its a property of the image.
There are many ways by which you can induce transparency in your image.
If you want for eg all the red regions in your image to be transparent, go to Layer -> Transparency -> ColorToAlpha and select red color in the 'From' box and click OK. You will obviously need to know the exact HTML-notation of the shade that you want to turn transparent.
If you want the whole layer to be transparent, then play around with the opacity slider as Brian puts it.
Let me know if you need any other help.
NOTE : Only png and gif support transparency. If you save your transparent image as a jpg, all transparent regions would be defaulted to white as jpg doesnt support it.
Answer: To add an alpha channel, go to Layer in the top menu, then to Transparency and click Add Alpha Channel.

As xiaohan2012 said, you can cut a selection out by pressing Ctrl + x, but you can also just press delete on your keyboard. Hope this helps.
Answer: Here is my way of converting the selection to transparent.
Just press Ctrl + x, so that the selection is cut.
Answer: If you want to make existing color (that is, pixels with a given value of transparency in your image) more transparent, you can use the Eraser tool in GIMP.
Make sure that your image and the layers you're using it on have an alpha channel, otherwise the eraser will just erase to the current background color.


Want to know if I may apply for the patent or not

Question: I have made one inspire-able  sentence which is very helpful in living life for inspiration, because with the help of inspiration everything is possible. So shall I apply and get the patent for that sentence which I made.  If yes tell me procedure abut that, hope you do for needful.
Comment: Welcome to Ask Patents. Patents are for inventions. An inspirational sentence is not an invention and would be rejected as being wholly abstract and also under the printed material doctrine.
Answer: A sentence cannot be patented. It can be protected under copyrights.
A patent is granted to an invention which has new and inventive solution to a technical problem.
You may want to refer the article at the below link to get insight on what can be patented and what cannot be patented:
http://www.invntree.com/blogs/what-can-be-patented-and-what-cannot-be-patented
Answer: You cannot patent a sentence. Here are the list of ideas or innovations that cannot be patented.

Laws of nature
Physical phenomena
Abstract ideas Literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works (these can be Copyright protected)
Inventions which are:
 Not useful (such as perpetual motion machines); or Offensive to public morality
Comment: I'm not sure what "physical phenomena" is intended to mean but would add "abstract idea without something more". It sounds ridiculous but is from a recent Supreme Court opinion. Offensive to public order is a real reason for rejection in Europe, but not in the U.S. Design patents *can* get rejected for offensive images but it is under "all business with the patent office must be conducted with decorum" so it doesn't have a real foundation.


How long would it take to move the population of the earth into a single city?

Question: Say if humanity was forced to create a single mega-city on a, relative to the entire land-area of the earth, small area. Where skyscrapers are 1000-4000 meters tall. If the world pooled all its resources and created profit-incentives for the private sector to get that extra push going. How long do you think that city would take to build and how long would it take until all the people got over there?
Comment: Hi, it should be two seperate question, as it is 2 completely different problem. Building that city is one, moving the whole population is a completely different. It's not moving the population, but somehow related: https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/
Comment: Welcome to worldbuilding. 4000 meters tall skyscrapers are beyond our capabilities today, so we don't know how long does it take to build them. And without that info we cannot answer in any reasonable way. Please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to find out how to ask a good question.
Comment: The elephant-in-the-room question though is _why_ would you want such a huge city?  I can see beauty and advantages to having the word's population in a very small number of very large cities, but why would anyone want 10 billion people there?  I'd suggest that twenty megacities, each with 50 million people, would be more than enough for anything humanity might want.   Cities could be more spread out than you propose, but either way there would be an automatic 90% reduction in pollution, etc. Most of the world would be left in its natural state, perfect for vacations and scientific research.
Comment: Probably never, 'cause a lot of people wouldn't go willingly.  So the question becomes, what size army do your urbanites need to compell or kill off everyone else?  You might start with the technical difficulties the Nazis had with moving only a small fraction of the population of Europe to extermination camps.
Answer: Regardless of how people end up being transported to the city, the bottleneck will be the process of getting them into the city.
What land area does the city occupy?  How many ways are there to enter it, and how large are they?
Suppose:

Buses enter the city carrying 50 people each.
An entire busload of people can be processed in 5 minutes.
There are 25 entrances to the city (or one entrance with 25 lanes or whatever).

That means that 250 people can be processed every minute.  If this operates 24 hours a day, every day, that means that 360,000 people per day can be admitted into the city.
Now consider that 250/minute happens to be the current worldwide birth rate.  The above situation will barely handle the new people being born.
So, even if the above process prevents the current population from growing, how long do you think it will take to process the remaining 8 billion people?
If the city had another 25 entrances processing them at the same rate, it would take 61 years to admit everyone.
The world has far too many people for there to be any practical solution to this (or almost any other) problem.
Comment: In the other direction, but [Relevant XKCD](https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/)
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)   Union station is not particularly large, nor efficient. It handles 200,000 per day, predominantly in rush hours, on a round trip basis. So this one station could easily outpace your bus estimates.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Subway  Beijing subway handles about 18 million one-way trips per day. It could handle the Earth's population in about 2 years.
Comment: @puppetsock, yes, but nearly all those people know where they are going and immediately leave. My allowance of processing 50 people in 5 minutes was very optimistic.  If those 50 people are from a tribal village in central Amazon, I doubt that they will even be able to communicate with anyone else, much less know where to go and how to get there.  The OP's proposal is the reverse of the Babylon solution.
Answer: It would take no time at all.
Everyone already in the city is to be saved.  Everyone outside is not.
Build a wall.
When everyone outside dies, all that remain (it would be hard to call that collection of beings "humanity") would be inside.
There would be no need for 4000 ft apartment blocks.
Comment: A comment was made that my answer does not answer the question.  I disagree, but it is a cynical answer.  If the population of the earth is counted after the move, then this answer is exactly responsive.  Politically, we spend a lot of time examining if people are worthy -- if they are real people.  Every group is de-humanized by other groups.  By one group's standards, some other group or groups should not be counted among the worthy humans.

It was with this in mind that I wrote this answer, which does not match my personal beliefs.
Comment: Does not answer the question asked.
Answer: As people have said, we don't have any way to know how long it takes to build a 4000 meter tall building. So that's going to be a huge unknown.
But JUST getting them in is, more or less, two years. Assuming about 7 billion people and only luggage they can bring with them.
Fly them to the continent the mega city is on. Current air travel stats show this takes about two years. Right now there are about 4.5 billion air passengers per year. It only takes re-directing the planes, not new capacity.
Though maybe you need more trans-ocean airliners than currently exist. So maybe while the 4000 meter apartment blocks are going up, you also have to build a bunch of the latest jet airliners. Probably you have to build less than 50% of the current fleet. Or possibly not even that many, since you could use local transport a lot to get people to and from the trans-ocean flights.
Beijing subway carries about 9.75 million passengers per day. Your mega-city will require something at least this efficient. That requires about 2 years to get all the people in.
So you need a network of airports all over the city, both inside and around the edge. Each airport gets a honking-big subway station. Or possibly two or three stations, depending on the density and local conditions.
So total move in time is two years plus construction time.  This Yahoo answer claims an international airport is 2 to 5 years construction. So that might be the rate limiting step there.
Note that this omits any possible transport of personal belongings beyond what you can carry with you. If people want to bring huge truckloads of furniture and VHS cassettes and such, the time will increase correspondingly.
Answer: It all depends on the level of technology available. Say if we have teleporter technology, building the city might not take that long, since you can build units all over the world and then teleport them to the top of what's being build of the city. The units are obviously built from superstrong materials able to stand the weight of billions of people and their basic daily needs collected in a small area. Maybe diamond nanothread? With enough machines building or teleporting these units, this need not take very long, depending on the availability of raw materials. If the materials are made from carbon harvested from asteroids by millions of robots, raw materials will not be a problem.
Then, once the city has been finished, you can use the same teleporters to teleport families into the units. If there is one teleporter per thousand families, this can be done within a day, if a family can be teleported every minute.
What I am really saying here is that you must specify the level of technology before we can even begin to answer this question.
Answer: How long would it take to build? How long would you like. One week. Or one year. With such venture your goal is to build everything from scratch to finished product as fast as you can. So there is no natural growing stage. It's rather something like fake cities of China, new capitol of Burma or "New Kairo". You build up finished product.
Now, for the "people in". I will use something that is already exist and reflect similar idea. Manhattan.
Manhattan's daytime population is approximately 3.94 million of which 1.46 million are local residents. So everyday you have two and a half million people pouring in. On special days that number can rise up to 5 million. But keep in mind those 5 millions are usually with "hand luggage".
So 2.5 million people each day is something that can be realistically done. It would take 3200 days to move in 8 billion people at that rate. For ease of the calculation we assume all "soon to be born" people moved in first so whole global birth take place already and only in The Citey.
That leave you around 9 years of people moving in.  With the assumption that all "soon to be born" people moved in first so whole global birth take place already and only in The Citey.


Can Penetration Testing be considered as a part of a Vulnerability Management Program?

Question: Can Penetration Testing be considered as a part of an exhaustive Vulnerability Management program?
P.S: I realise the difference between penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. But I want to know if both fall within Vulnerability Management umbrella ?
Comment: Have a good look at this - it may answer your question: http://security.stackexchange.com/a/2841/485
Answer: Absolutely. Penetration testing can be considered a key part of both vulnerability management and vulnerability assessments. Penetration testing is quite different to vulnerability scanning although vulnerability scanning may be one of the initial tasks performed in a penetration test to identify obvious issues in the environment.
Penetration testing within a vulnerability management program should be done when obvious issues have been addressed so the environment is subjected to a real life attack scenario. It is only at this point that the defences in place can truly be measured.
Answer: When you are assessing your risk in your vulnerability management program, there are two factors to your risk equation. Vulnerability assessments provide the factor that gives you the exploit vector and its potential risk value to your organization. But the actual risk value has to be address in situ of the environment it will be exploited to know how truly badly it is for your specific scenario. Exploitation analysis (penetration testing) provides that real risk value and illuminates the primary, secondary and tertiary risks that vulnerability assessments can not illuminate from the portal risk identified in vulnerability assessment.
So as an example, I know in my house I have windows and they are a vulnerability - because basically any idiot criminal can bypass a window (even with decent window alarm detection, btw). And I may think I am "safe" because I have this nice jewelers grade safe I keep my jewels in. However, when I hire someone to exploit my windows, and break in - I may find my significant other who I need (in case of emergencies) to get into that safe, has written down the safe combination and taped them to her desk in the office, right next to one of the windows. Now, in my vulnerability assessment, windows might have been rated as low to medium in my risk assessment since it is a well known vulnerability. However, not until my exploitation analysis do I find I have a MAJOR risk because of the lack of protocols in handling the combination to my safe.
Answer: It comes down to: what you mean by pentesting.
Vulnerability scanners have a high incidence of false positives and proving out a vulnerability often involves exploiting it.
If you mean red teaming your environment, it's a good way to test your teams response to active threats. It also gives a good picture of actual threat vs the environment rather than evaluating a risk by itself without context.
If you're just trying to shame your developers I'd spend my money elsewhere.
--
Not to downplay it as part of a well rounded risk management program, it is important, but it is more of an awareness lever for upper management than it is for those working on the technology.  A well motivated and funded (and security minded) infrastructure management team can do much more for you in 99% of cases than a report that says what they've been telling you all along will do for their morale.


Dual boot with Windows 7 issue: Windows occasionally restarts at startup

Question: The installation went smooth and everything works fine with Ubuntu. The issue is as follows:
When I boot into Windows 7, it shows the Windows logo and start loading and suddenly restarts. Luckily, this does not happen always, after a few restarts it does startup properly.
What seems to be the problem?
Comment: Did such behavior happen before installing Ubuntu?
Answer: Try to schedule a disk check when you are able to boot or press F8 for the Windows boot menu and boot in safe mode.
You can schedule a disk check by pressing the Win + r keys and typing chkdsk /F.
Answer: All modern operating systems (Windows7, the 'buntus, etc) do error-check-repair when booting. What is happening in your case is normal.
Eventually, after about two Windows7 reboots, it accepts that there is another operating system on the computer. If it contines to give the message: " ... press any key if you do not want ..." to error check, then stop it from further error checking.  If you watch the error checks, you will see they it detects no further errors, but continues with its silly nag-screens.
Only rarely do I use Win7 now, but when I do, Win7 hates things that Linux tolerates, like filenames with " ? ! ... ; in their filenames. That is mainly what Win7 is complaining.  Occasionally it does have a real gripe. So I let Win7 do its NTFS file system check.  When it finds 'errors', it creates a directory called dirxxx, with many files names filexxx.chk. Some of these filexxx.chk are zero files, so I delete these. Under 1 kilobyte - delete these.  Others are renamed to filesxxx.txt, then (sometimes) examined to put the correct extension on them.
Sometimes I seemingly lose work, since all my data, archives, temp, cache, etc are on NTFS-compressed partitions & files. But regular backups, and easily tracable work tracking, I avoid losing my work & data.


Anesthesia, being knocked out, unconsciousness...what does the Buddha have to say about it?

Question: This is something that I have trouble coming to grips with. If the mind can be aware without a body or brain then how is it possible that one can experience things like the Bardo when we know that without certain conditions the mind becomes unaware? Anesthesiologists can purposely put people into this state. One second you are going under for surgery and the next second you are laying in a hospital bed without any awareness of the lapse of time. If one were to extinguish ever becoming or going doesn't that mean an unconscious state? Does Buddha ever explain this phenomenon?
Answer: The mind is always reacting to sensation on the body what every any state you are in, including but not limited to anesthetized, knocked out, unconsciousness, etc. Only time you do not sense any sensation is when you are in Pala Samapathi. So you are always have some level of awareness of the body through sensations at the deepest level of the mind or subconscious mind. At the surface level (conscious mind) you might not be aware of it.
Also see: From the Deepest Coma, New Brain Activity Found
Answer: Lack of memory doesn't necessarily imply lack of consciousness.  For
instance, some people are fond of drinking to the point of 'blacking
out'.  One minute they are drinking something they probably shouldn't,
and the next minute it is the next day, another place, and they are
regretting it.
Yet it would be odd to suggest that the person was "unconscious"
between those two moments, since they probably e.g. responded
"intelligently" to stimuli (more intelligently than, say, a rock,
anyway).
As Suminda Sirinath Salpitiko may have hinted in his answer, the same
applies to normal sleep: not remembering your dreams is not the same
as not dreaming (or at least this is not the usual understanding).
Some people report so-called out-of-body experiences when under
anesthesia.  Can we assume that those that don't report them don't
experience them?


laptop display problem

Question: My sony vaio laptop screen  displays pictures that are bloomed.The text as i am typing is mixture of green and blue.My  NVIDIA GEForce is disabled as the laptop wont boot with it.External monitor seems working OK.The bios password screen has a pattern of thin vertical lines and the the screen fills momentarily
with column of two ZEROES separated by a column of two zeroes etc after password is entered and before windows vista loads.Is the display or NVIDIA or both faulty.In an earlier simmilar situation the problem resolved while runnin Anti virus scan. Any clue please.Thanks
AM
Answer: The graphic artifacts that you dealing with, are probably because of heating problems.
If it happens right after you turn on your laptop (when his cold), and the problem still occur - I assume that your video card is damaged.
If you got warranty - I suggest to use it as soon as possible.
Answer: Sounds like the cable is either lose or the monitor is going on you. If you can find a manual online to take it apart you can try to check that the cable is tight and if it is you will need to buy a new LCD screen.

laptop display problem


Active Directory Import (UPS) not updating users

Question: I'm importing users with Active Directory Import (in User Profile Service) in Sharepoint Server 2019. It imports new accounts well but does not update current users. There are no errors in ULS logs. A full user import takes 2 seconds. None of the current users job titles are being updated. Anything else I can check?
Answer: You can validate to make sure 'Replicate directory changes' permission is in place for configuration objects in active directory. If the job title alone is issue then check the mapping under 'Manage user properties' for Job title. If the mapping is correct then you can enable Verboseex ULS logs to understand if this particular property is being pulled from AD or not. These kind of issues generally does not give any error message in ULS Logs. You would need to validate property specific to understand if this property alone has issue or are there any other properties also has similar issues.
Answer: You can check your configuration as the complete step by step in the following blog, it also works in SharePoint 2019:
Step by Step: Active Directory Import for SharePoint 2013