No C terminal on furnace to connect a wifi thermostat

Question: I have an new Emerson thermostat and would like to connect a c wire so it always has power. I have an extra wire that's not being used, but I don't have a C wire terminal on my furnace. I'm wondering if I can use any of the unused terminals or if I can tap into one of the wires coming off of the 24v transformer.
Answer: The blue wire coming off of the transformer is what you want, but there might be a better place to tie into that.  Look for any wires that are simply screwed to the metal chassis of the air handler.  You can check with a continuity tester, but those chassis grounds are usually a connection for that other side of the transformer (the blue wire).
Looking at that schematic, I can see a few places where a wire terminates to "ground", but I don't necessarily see any terminals where the "C wire" would be conveniently exposed.  Also, when you find a ground screw use a volt meter to make sure you get a good 24v there between the ground point and the red wire from the thermostat and/or transformer.
Comment: Lol I think I edited your answer instead of mine.
Comment: The B terminal already has a green wire on it. Can I just add another wire to that terminal? It will be ok?
Answer: The B terminal should be you common wire. It looks like you have air conditioning, one wire goes to the Y terminal and the other is common. Often marked B for heat pump applications.

It's literally the same as the blue wire on the transformer as in JPhi1618 pointed out. Either spot will work the same. The B terminal is easier.
Comment: The B terminal already has a green wire on it. Can I just add another wire to that terminal? It will be ok?
Comment: Fixed the edit...  I believe you about the B wire, but that notation on the schematic is saying to "See note 5" on the right side of the label.  The 5 being under the O and the B terminal is coincidence.
Comment: There is a rectangle box on the left above all the text that lists "B/C" as a notation for Common, so makes sense.  Voltage and continuity test can confirm if there is and doubt.  And @Karl, yes, two of the same size wires under that screw terminal is fine - typically one on each side.  One wire being larger than the other can cause clamping issues on some terminals.
Comment: You guys are awesome.  I'll try the B terminal tonight and let you know. Thanks!
Comment: I finally got time to do this yesterday and it worked beautifully. Thanks again!


How is samsara nirvana?

Question: How is samsara nirvana? I have heard this mentioned in a couple books recently, but they never go into much detail.
Comment: Well technically, the "idea of nirvana" is part of samara, in that such an idea is subject to arising and ceasing. Complete harmony with samsara is in a sense the path leading to nirvana. But as far as I understand, they're two distinct experiences.
Comment: it depends on who you ask in what tradition, i think...
Comment: From what I understand Nirvana is a different "portion" of reality than samsara. You might say they comprise two different spheres of experience?
Comment: Ok I wasn't sure if nirvana was complete harmony with samsara or whether the idea of nirvana is samara
Comment: perhaps you could clarify your question somewhat though, I'm not entirely sure i understand what it is you're asking. hence why I'm only commenting on the question instead of answering it.
Comment: Hi patrickbarker and welcome to Buddhism.SE. We've put together some information to help you get started [here](http://meta.buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/1502/i-am-a-new-user-here-at-buddhism-se-what-should-i-know-before-i-post?).
Comment: Like a child who finally wakes up from his nightmare and knows now that the frightening images were false.
Answer: From a Zen standpoint, the unification of samsara and nirvana cannot be comprehended by the discriminating mind.  Don't worry if you are having problems!  In fact, the more you try to rationalize it, the farther away you will be from truly comprehending it (to paraphrase Seng T'san's Hsin Hsin Ming).
If you aren't a Zen student, this is going to sound a lot like the mumbo jumbo the school is famous for.  Apologies in advance!  All the same, putting samsara up against nirvana, and trying to see the distinction, is a product of the small mind.  Likewise, trying to intellectualize how they are the same is to miss what is meant by nirvana (and samsara too for that matter!).  Thinking will get you nowhere.  Only direct insight will show you the place where the boundaries between the two break down.  Emptiness must first be apprehended.  One then looks deeply into that emptiness.  Coming out of profound emptiness, and back to world of form, one directly perceives how the two are not distinct.  This is enlightenment.  And it takes years on the cushion to get there!  It also takes deep faith and trust.  Once that realization is reached, however, you know it just as well as the feeling of the shirt on your back.
Comment: Deep faith yes.  Trust yes.  Study the perfection of wisdom sutras and try and sit everyday and you shall certainly apprehend the unapprehendable.
Comment: First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

Great post, this is about a perspective shift that happens at a more primal level than the intellect.
Answer: The The Jewel Ornament Of Liberation (which I have only begun to read) has some paragraphs near its beginning which juxtapose samsara with nirvana:

In general, all phenomena are included in the two categories of samsara and nirvana. That which is called samsara is empty by nature, a confused projection. Its defining characteristic is that it manifests as suffering. That which is called nirvana is also empty by nature, but all the confused projections are exhausted and dissipated. Its defining characteristic is freedom from all suffering.

And:

III. HEARER FAMILY
The family of Hearers consists of those who fear samsara and yearn to achieve nirvana, but who have little compassion. It has been said:

One who is afraid upon seeing the suffering of samsara
    And yearns to achieve nirvana
    But has little interest in benefitting sentient beings—
    These three are the marks of the Hearer family

IV. SOLITARY REALIZER FAMILY
The Solitary Realizer family includes those who possess the above three attributes and in addition are arrogant, keep their masters' identities secret, and prefer to stay in solitary places. It has been said:

Fear at the thought of samsara, yearning for nirvana,
    Little compassion, arrogance,
    Secretive about their teachers, and enjoying solitude—
    A wise one should understand that these are the marks of the Solitary Realizer family

So these two families, the Hearers and the Solitary Realizers, engage in their respective vehicles and even though they achieve the results of their practices, these results are not the final nirvana. How do they abide when they achieve their fruits? They maintain unafflicted states of meditative concentration, but those states are based on the psychic imprint of ignorance. Since their meditative concentrations are unafflicted, they believe that they have achieved nirvana and remain that way.
If their states are not the final nirvana, then one might argue that the Buddha should not have taught these two paths. Is there a reason the Buddha should teach such paths? Yes. For example, suppose great merchants from this Jambudvipa are traveling the ocean searching for jewels. After many months at sea, in some desolate place, they become completely tired and exhausted and think, "There is no way to get the jewels now". When they feel discouraged and prepare to turn back, the merchant captain manifests a huge island through his miracle power and lets all his followers rest there. After a few days, when they are fully rested and relaxed, the captain says, "We have not achieved our goal. Now we should go farther to get our jewels."
Similarly, sentient beings without courage are frightened when they hear about the Buddha's wisdom. They believe attaining Buddhahood is a great hardship, and think, "I have no ability to do this." There are other people who are not interested in entering the path, or who enter the path but turn back. To counter these problems, Buddha presented these two paths, and allows them to rest in these states.
As said in the White Lotus of Sublime Dharma Sutra:

Likewise, all the Hearers
    Think that they achieved nirvana,
    But they have not achieved the final nirvana
    Revealed by the Buddha
    They are only resting
Answer: How I understand it, "what is" seen as divided is samsara (with self, non-self etc) and seen as undivided is nirvana (with no independent self etc). So samsara and nirvana are the same stuff viewed differently, in other words samsara is the superficial view and nirvana is the deep view of the same stuff.
Answer: There is this beautiful story, once Buddha preached to some of his disciples when they ask about Nirvana.
They asked from Buddha, "Blessed one, please tell us what Nirvana looks like, feels like. So we can try to attain it." Buddha said nothing. They asked several times and Buddha continued his silence. When these disciples went out, he preaches others below story.

When I am (Buddha) going on a journey, I saw this house full of
  flames. It is burning so badly with everything in it. And I saw
  some people still in there. I went to this burning house, open the
  door and said them, "This house is burning. Please come out". Instead
  of coming out, these people asked me, How is outside, is it raining?
  will there be a place for us if we leave this house etc". So I didn't
  tell them anything. Just came out.
Comment: Any source for this story?
Comment: Nope. I heard it on the TV.
Comment: This is the story in a poem. But it is in 'Sinhala'. http://www.w3lanka.com/2014/12/blog-post_28.html . This poem is by Bertolt Brecht. Here is a link. https://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/bertolt-brechts-interpretation-of-the-buddhas-parable-of-the-burning-house/. But I couldn't find any reference where lord Buddha preaches this. The above given article says it's from Lotus Sutra.
Answer:
Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya sūtra: « There is no suffering, no cause of
  suffering, no end to suffering, no path to follow »
Where beauty is, then there is ugliness;
   where right is, also
  there is wrong.
  Knowledge and ignorance are interdependent;
  delusion and enlightenment condition each other.
  Since olden
  times it has been so.
  How could it be otherwise now?
  Wanting to get rid of one and grab the other
  is merely realizing
  a scene of stupidity.
  Even if you speak of the wonder of it all,
  how do you deal with each thing changing?
-Ryokan

As @Nemo says this is the highest truth that is grasped fully only by self-realization. It would be ineffectual to explain it. This being the case, why did the enlightened ones speak about it?
For two reasons.
Firstly, these quotes are mysterious statements designed to awake in one the deep introspection that leads one to awakening.
Secondly they act as sign posts to dispel doubt when such contrary views are realised for oneself.
These were expressed more frequently in Japanese Zen in times when the monastic order had become excessively institutionalised, and monks started to expect the laity to honour, respect and feed them as if they laity were a lower order of being. At this time the enlightened ones recalled these views to show the right way. It is not meant as a a ridicule or insult of tradition, but a gentle nudge to not forget the ideals and get caught in value judgements and dualistic discursive convention.

Outwardly they pretend to be superior, praying on the gullibility of
  old peasant women and congratulating themselves on their cleverness.
  Alas! Will they ever come to their senses? A monk would sooner walk
  among a pride of mother tigers than tread the path of fame and
  fortune.

The Vimalakirti sutra is important and well known in the Mahayana tradition, and is famous for expressing this higher ideal.
The story in the sutra is Vimalakirti, the lay Buddhist known to be a Bodhisattva falls ill, and he uses it as a convenient excuse to teach everyone who visits him. Even in his period of convalescence he spreads the truth of the Bodhisattva way.

Manjushri rides on the lion
  Samanthabhadra mounts the elephant
  Ghosa enters nirvana on his jeweled seat
  And Vimalakirti lies ill on his bed

Here Ryokan compares the sick bed of Vimalakirti to the mounts of fabled Buddhist teachers. In his sickness Vimalakirti embodies the Bodhisattva's grasp of non-duality, using it to teach many.
Answer: Samsara and nirvana are subjective points of view. Each is experienced by you by means of your mind. Whether something is pleasant or unpleasaant is a subjective judgement created by the 5 skandas, which are your own personal, unique, and subjective sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. The objective world "out there" is devoid of your subjective skandas.
Comment: Welcome to Buddhism Q&A, @Virginia Lyons
Answer: Samsara is Nirvana in at least two senses:
Nirvana is achieved here, in this world (="samsara"). We don't fly to another planet or go to other dimension when we achieve Nirvana; our perception changes, and so does our subjective reality.
Samsara is Nirvana because we should stop trying to escape. Trying to escape "this" is what makes it Samsara. The idea of otherworldly Nirvana is exactly the kind of craving that leads to suffering. Samsara is Nirvana means one has stopped craving. That is called cessation.

How is samsara nirvana?


Japanese books that teach Japanese?

Question: After I finish learning the Japanese From Zero series, I would like to learn Japanese from Japanese sources such as what a Japanese school/college student would study from. I would like these books to make use of Kanji as if it were everyday Japanese but they must use furigana.
Comment: "what a Japanese school/college student would study from" で "make use of Kanji as if it were everyday Japanese" で "they must use furigana" て・・ そんなのあるかなぁ・・??
Comment: Aside from "Japanese school" criteria, when I took Japanese courses at my university, they used Japanese books with kanji and furigana. I couldn't remember the title of the book though... however, based on their current curriculum, looks like they're using [*Minna no Nihongo*](https://www.amazon.com/Minna-Nihongo-Book-Bk-Japanese/dp/4883191028). This is not the only book in full kanji/kana for learning Japanese though. If it's restricted to what Japanese schools used, then not sure if I can help...
Comment: You might want to have a look at this course http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/mt/ja/gmod/courses/c02/, it does not have furigana but you can use a browser extension on an external website to append them
Answer: The problem with this question is that you are looking for something which is inherently an oxymoron: You want to find a language learning book for people who are mature natives of that language which use reading-aid tools to help consumption for non-natives of the language.  No self-respecting publishing company would actually market such a thing, and no self-respecting native language speaker would consume it.
That said, you may not be entirely out of luck.  While I can't point you to any specific ISBNs, if I had to read between the lines here, you seem to be looking for a book that teaches advanced Japanese in Japanese, rather than teaching Japanese in your native language (which I presume is English).  To which there are plenty of good resources, although they might be hard to acquire outside of Japan.  I would suggest starting by looking for Japanese-published JLPT study guides; I know for a fact (because I own them but do not have them on-hand at the moment to check the ISBNs/titles for you unfortunately) that there exist multiple product lines of study guides for JLPT N2 which seem to fit your purpose, if that's the level you are targeting.  That said, it is unlikely that any native Japanese people would actually use such books, for many reasons, the least of which is that a Japanese native would have no interest in studying for or taking JLPT.

Japanese books that teach Japanese?


I deleted some photos in Onedrive, but they are still appearing in my Nokia Lumia 520, How can I fix this?

Question: Like I said, I was managing my onedrive folder in my computer and deleted some photos that are useless; but they're still appearing in my celphone and when I try to delete them it says it's not possible. Can someone please help me with this?
Comment: Pictures on your phone don't sync with OneDrive, they only get uploaded there once. What exact error message are you getting when trying to delete a photo? Have you tried connecting your phone to a PC and deleting the pictures there?
Comment: Possible duplicate: http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com/q/839/106
Comment: @RowlandShaw That question is in reference to how images get on a tile. This question is asking how the phone and OneDrive interact with each other.
Comment: @caschw it's not clear where on the phone Marvin is referring to - after all, this is tagged as so many things...
Comment: @RowlandShaw You have a good point on his lack of clarity. He could be talking about the OneDrive app afterall. Either way though. This question, on any interpretation I can think of, does not relate to the images on photo live tile question.
Comment: @caschw I was going by the [tag:photos] for it possibly being that, and hence why I only said it was a *possible* duplicate...
Answer: The reason you see this happens is because your phone only syncs your pictures to OneDrive when it takes them. Once you take a picture it is saved locally. At the phone's earliest convenience, it will upload the file to OneDrive. Changes to your pictures in OneDrive do not sync back to your phone.
Also if you delete a photo from your phone, the copy in OneDrive will still be there. It does not sync changes to photos, just the initial photo.
Answer: I have a Lumia 1020.  I had this one very unappealing photo that kept showing up as the permanent thumbnails for Onedrive and Recent Photo under Albums.  I was unable to get rid of it as it was already deleted weeks ago both from phone and Onedrive.  It finally went way after I went to Storage Sense App -- Phone -- Temporary Files  --- Delete.  It takes several 'delete' actions to clear everything if there's a lot on your phone.  Hope this helps.


Can basil flowers be substituted for basil leaves to make tea?

Question: Can you use the basil flowers just like the leaves to make tea?
Comment: Ana, welcome to the site! Please note that health questions are off-topic here. I took the liberty to remove the part on effects on your body, otherwise we'd have to close this question.
Comment: Not really, but sort of.

See:http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/53953/how-can-one-use-thai-basil-stems-and-flowers/53971#53971
Answer: Yes, you can use them the same way you would use the leaves- note that flowers are often used in herbal tea blends (I see hibiscus used particularly often). Depending on the cultivar, however, the flavor may be noticeably different than what you would get with the leaves, probably a bit more bitter- that's what I noticed when using mint flowers for tea, and mint is very closely related to basil.


What causes butter to "hiss" in the frying pan until I shake it?

Question: When frying an egg, I drop about a tablespoon of room temperature butter in the frying pan and turn it on medium flame. As it's melting, it starts to make a hissing sound, and bubbles a bit. Then, I take the pan and give it a shake, spreading the butter around the pan - and the hissing stops, even after putting the pan back on the heat. What's going on?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Does sputtering butter mean that water is present?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/75282/does-sputtering-butter-mean-that-water-is-present)
Comment: Related, possible duplicate: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/75282/does-sputtering-butter-mean-that-water-is-present
Answer: The hissing and bubbles are due to the butter's water content turning into vapor. It stops when there's no more water and only fat/milk solids remain on the pan. When you shake the pan you help release the last few water/vapor droplets into the atmosphere, thus speeding the process.
Answer: @Vida R is correct, it is moisture boiling off.
The surface of you pan is obviously hotter than 212°F (100°C). At that temperature, the entrapped water turns to steam (hissing), the fat transitions from a solid to a liquid.
Here's a chart showing the fat, moisture and solids content of various butters (from here).

Note: the fat and moisture axis' do not start at 0, that threw me off at first
Answer: At a constant volume, increasing the temperature of a gas yields an increase in its pressure. This increase in pressure causes the gas to spread itself out; i.e., increase its volume, or take up more space. As with a kettle, steam (i.e., water vapor = gas phase of water) experiences an increase in pressure when heated and thus escapes its confinement area (i.e., the inside of the kettle or, in your proposed case, within the butter itself) in order to accomodate its consequent volume increase. The rate at which the steam attempts to increase its volume, however, is too great to fit through the hole(s) it's alloted (this is analagous to a bunch of people trying to escape an emergency situation all through one doorway at the same time) and thus produces pressure pockets that knock up against one another and cause the audible sound waves that we recognize as the kettle whistling or the butter hissing.


Code Analysis Tool for C#

Question: Can you please recommend an industry standard static code analysis tool
for C# language. It should take care of all the coding guidelines. Got the below tools which are licensed. Currently using
airbnb lint for react code review. Similarly is there any industry
standards available for C#. Found SonarQube but the enterprise edition
is licensed. Is there any open source available which can be used
straight away.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Static code analysis tool for C#](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/3123/static-code-analysis-tool-for-c)
Answer: Visual Studio can perform code analysis of managed code in two ways: with Binary analyzers, also known as FxCop static analysis of managed assemblies, and with the more modern Roslyn analyzers. Roslyn analyzers, which analyze your code live as you type, replace FxCop static analysis, which only analyzes your code after a build. source Visual Studio IDE is available from Microsoft in Community (free), Professional and Enterprise editions.
For more information on alternatives to built-in code analysis features in Visual Studio grouped by tool categories (code violation detection, quality metric tools, style checking tools, duplication detection, and refactoring tools) see this answer. Most of these tools are not open source.
Refactoring Essentials for Visual Studio and other IDEs is an open source tool that has features which include refactorings for C# and analyzers and code fixes for C#.
Comment: I believe fxcop is now deprecated. StyleCop is meant to be used with C#.

Code Analysis Tool for C#


What is the face value of sovereign and Britannia gold coins?

Question: I have seen claims on the internet saying sovereigns have face value of £1 and £100. These coins therefore have an embedded put option at the strike being the face value.
Comment: You also need to factor in the continued devaluing of the face value via inflation, as well as the security/insurance costs of where you hold them.
Answer: Here's the explanation from WikiPedia:

Britannia gold coins contain one troy ounce of gold and have a face value of £100. Gold Britannias also are issued in fractional sizes of one-half, one-quarter, and one-tenth of a troy ounce and with face values of £50, £25, and £10 respectively.

The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Prior to 1932 it was a fully circulating coin within Britain's then Gold Standard currency. Today it is used as a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewelry.
I don't know how you'd have a put on something with higher actual value than face, because otherwise the same would be true with the American Eagle $20 and $50 coins.
Comment: Right, you have an embedded put that's out of money but might have some time value (though at strike of £100 on a £1000 coin in terms of gold content it's probably not worth a whole lot).
Comment: The other part of my question was about the face value of a sovereign coin.
Comment: Perfect. If you can add that to your answer I'll happily give you a +1 and accept the answer. Thanks a lot
Comment: One thing that might be interesting to add - what is the nominal value of a guinea, if someone were to take one to the bank? None minted for two centuries but the notional unit remained in use until decimalisation...
Comment: @Andrew When created, the guinea's value was £1 or 20 shillings (20s), but it fluctuated up from there (at one point as high as 30s or £1.50) as the price of gold rose compared to silver. Between 1717 and 1816 it was fixed at 21s (£1.05). In 1816 it was denominated and replaced by the soveriegn, fixed at £1.
Answer: The British gold Sovereign is one of, if not the most famous bullion coin in the world and was first introduced as long ago as 1489, under Henry VII. The coin has a face value of £1, although as an uncirculated bullion coin, a Sovereign's real value is based on its pure gold content, which is worth considerably more than £1.
Since Britain abandoned the Gold Standard in 1931 the real value of the Sovereign has changed drastically, as the adoption of unbacked fiat currencies has completely altered the value of money. At the time of writing the real value of a full gold Sovereign is around £200. This is calculated by multiplying its pure gold content (7.3224g) by the gold spot price- currently around £27 per gram.
Of course, the fact that Sovereigns are considered to be semi-numismatic coins, a point of interest for coin collectors, means that certain Sovereigns will be worth even more than their bullion value. The demand for certain Sovereigns is boosted significantly by certain factors such as their rarity, the year or mint branch in which they were produced, or the specific design that they carry. While this is particularly interesting for collectors of certain Sovereigns, it must be noted that this does not necessarily make them intrinsically more valuable, as a bullion dealer will always value a bullion coin by its pure metal content.
from Bullion by post . com


Volume that encompasses the whole scene?

Question: I'm thinking that the straight-forward way would be to just iterate through the objects and just find the maximum and minimum coordinates on each axis, but this seems a little bit unoptimal.
Is there a faster, more efficient way of doing this?
Comment: @Gajet it has to be 3D, it's a volume ;-)
Comment: may I ask, first is your scene 2D or 3D, and second why do you need a volume that contains all objects?
Comment: it's a 3D scene.I'm trying to build an octree to reduce the number of collision detection checks.
Answer: When building an Octree, you can start at any size and change it later, for example, I once wrote an octree to help reduce the interation tests in my physics collision detection routine, and started out with size 1.0f for each axis. As physics elements were added to the scene, the octree grew, the first element was a 4.0f radius object somewhere quite far from the origin, lets say (5,4,100), so as there were no elements in the octree, I merely resized the root node (doubling it until it fit) to 128.0f.
The second element is where you see interesting things, the second element added was also outside the existing octree, (200,200,200, Radius4) so the root node could not hold it, so instead, i created a new double size root node, and pushed the current root node contents out into the 8 new nodes (only one created in this case as the octree was brand new)
The new root was big enough, so now I had two nodes, one root and one octree branch.
This carried on until all the elements were added to the scene, adding a new node at the root whenever the content was outside the existing range, adding new nodes at the branch whenever the number of items in the branch went over my arbitrary limit.
The side effect of starting with a small size and resizing cannot be overstated. Unless you're working in a constrained world, you're bound to go out-of-bounds at some point.
Answer: I don't know why or how exact your volume needs to be, but if you give each object a bounding sphere (you probably already have that, or it might be wise) you can very cheaply merge all these bounding spheres to find the entire volume. Of course this would still be O(N) but merging bounding spheres is really cheap.
Another solution would be spatial partitioning, you divide your world into large (axis aligned cube like) chunks and every time an object moves you update in which chunk it is, at the same time you can also check if the chunk it moved to is more to the outside as the last most outside part.
You have to take care though that if an object leaves one of the most outside parts you have to check if that outside chunk is now empty, and if so slightly shrink the volume.
A good way to do this would be to store an int[x,y,z] that stores how many objects are present, or another structure like a list, that stores a references to each object in that chunk.
Anyway if you clarify your question even further by describing what you're trying to accomplish we would probably be able to give you a better answer.


Why did Avraham argue with G-d about Sodom but not about his son's sacrifice?

Question: Are there any Mefarshim who commented on why Avraham chose to advocate on behalf of Sodom when G-d tells him that the city will be destroyed, but chose to remain silent and just accept the decree when he was told to sacrifice his son?
Comment: I find it more interesting that Avraham's pleas were all unsuccessful whereas Lot managed to save Zoar
Comment: Hi Ilanysong, and welcome to Mi Yodeya! Interesting question, +1. I've lightly edited your question (mostly tags); if I've done anything you don't like, you can always [edit] yourself to fix, or roll back my edits entirely. I hope to see you around!
Comment: Because sacrifice is (obviously) sacred, whereas punishment for sin is the exact opposite.
Answer: I hope you'll accept my memory lapse as to who said it, but I once saw one of the mefarshim say that by Sedom, Avraham was "tipped" as to the fact that he should advocate, as he figured "why else would G-d be telling me if not that I am supposed to do something about it?" (Similar as to how Moshe knew to "argue" with Hashem about destroying the Jewish people after the cheit ha'egel.)  But by the akeida, there was no such message, because he was the key player involved and there was no reason he shouldn't have been told.
On another note, someone once pointed out to me that in Selichos, one of the aneinus is addressed to "He Who answered Avraham on Har HaMoriah" - the only time we know of that Avraham went to Har HaMoriah was for the Akeida, and a teacher of mine suggested that he was being answered on a request to spare Yitzchok.
Comment: It sounds as though you have an answer to post [elsehwere](http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/48190)....
Comment: Right. An order is an order -- "go do this!" *Okay, God.* Vs. "Hey Abraham just letting your know there's some people over there and I'm still deciding whether to punish them."
Answer: My rav explained: (IY"H, when I see him next week, I will ask him where he got this source, and edit it.) For now, the explanation sounds credible. Sorry - I don't want to reveal his name...
Child sacrifice was common and customary at that time. Therefore, Avraham did not protest the request. Yes, Avraham probably was pained that he would have to sacrifice his own son, but, as he was devoted to G-d's commandment, he surmised that since this was something that everyone else did, it wasn't unusual of G-d to request this of him.
As a matter of fact, this was part of the "test". Hashem tells him at the end, Breishit 22:12 , "NOW I know that you are a G-d fearing person...". Didn't G-d (the angel) know all this before? But, it was to prove that BECAUSE Avraham was G-d fearing, this was the reason that Avraham sacrificed his son, and not because everyone else did it and he was following local custom. In other words, by doing so, Avraham made clear to everyone in the future that Jews DON'T sacrifice their children.
Comment: wow- that's an interesting approach. Yishar Koach to you and your rav!
Answer: This is a good question, but some more facts need to be taken into consideration:

Avraham sacrificed himself in אור כשדים jumping into the fire, we need a source that explains why sacrificing his son is any harder.

Itzhok was 37 and lived with his parents. Maybe Avrohom didn't love him "so much" after all and needed to push him out? As you can see, I don't accept anything for granted.

We don't know what exactly G-d said to Avraham that made him comply so fast. Tora's description is very scarce only mentioning "וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם לְעֹלָה" - no mentioning of a bloodshed at all. It was Avrohom's idea to cut the boy (the grownup, sorry).

Obeying to a prophecy is a Mitzvah, and Avrohom did it every single time - leaving Ur Kasdim, circumcising himself and his family, sacrificing his son and more. This behavior is consistent with Avrohom, so the only question left should be on arguing about Sodom, not about the Akeidah.

The Gemmorah in Sanhedrin 89b states that Avrohom did argue with G-d about the Sacrifice if you like:

את בנך ב' בנים יש לי: את יחידך זה יחיד לאמו וזה יחיד לאמו אשר אהבת תרוייהו רחימנא להו את יצחק וכל כך למה כדי שלא תטרף דעתו עליו
God said to Abraham: "Please take your son, your only, whom you love, Isaac" (Genesis 22:2). When God said: "Your son," Abraham said: I have two sons. When God said: "Your only," Abraham said: This son is an only son to his mother, and that son is an only son to his mother. When God said: "Whom you love," Abraham said: I love both of them. Then God said: "Isaac."

Now to the "real" answer:
According to Ariz"L (don't remember exactly where) here's an explanation in simple English:

Itzhok was 37 and he was "stuck" in life (as he was all Gevurah/feminine etc. That's why he looked so different from Avraham that others started to question his fatherhood. As Avrohom was Chessed). He was so Gevurah he couldn't procreate (we already know that) and therefore make the continuation of the Jewish nation G-d promised to Avrohom.

In his prophecy, G-d clearly explained to Avraham that the only way to change the situation was by making a "serious remake" to Itzhok's soul by an extraordinary event of taking his soul out (for the treatment). So he will become a "man" and procreate.

The plan worked out so well G-d needed to stop Avrohom from actually hurting his son because Itzhok played along and his soul flew away before the damage.

G-d made necessary adjustments to his soul, taking his feminine part out and making Rivkah's soul (don't ask me how).

I don't understand still why it was so hard for Avrohom to explain this to Sarah.
Comment: Please bring the source for this answer...
Comment: @user16403 what part?


Is my question a duplicate even though it doesn't impose a requirement that the original one did?

Question: I asked a challenge to interpret deadfish here, but it got closed for being a duplicate of a challenge to write an interactive deadfish interpreter here. Is this really a duplicate?
Comment: Just for the sake of completeness: another possibility would be to close the old challenge (which is 4+ years old) and reopen this one if it turns out that it better fits our current standards. (I don't know the rules about closing the older challenge as duplicate -- nor do I know if such rules really exist -- so please feel free to write a complete post if you do.)
Answer: Maybe!
The title of this question is general, so I'll provide a general answer. It applies to the specific challenges mentioned in the question too.

Ask yourself this:

Does it bring something new to the table?

If it does, then it's not a duplicate. If it doesn't, then it's a duplicate.
In general, taking away (or imposing new) restrictions might lead to very different answers in which case it's not a duplicate. However, it may also lead to similar answers where parts of the code is taken away, or there are some parts added to the existing ones, in which case it can be considered a duplicate.
It's hard to tell how close two challenges can be before they are considered duplicates. The Sandbox is particularly useful in such cases.
Comment: It might be my SO mentality shines through though... _"Help/answer everyone, not just OP..._
Comment: I think so too, but I think the question benefits from having a general answer that can be referred to in the future. I like when meta-posts can be used as guidelines in the future. If someone only reads the title (which is the only part visible in the "Related" section to the right, then it appears to be a general question.
Comment: I think this meta question is about the specific challenge, not questions similar to it.
Answer: No, it is not a duplicate.
Since I'm the one who hammered it back open, I should definitely explain my thoughts on this. An interactive interpreter is a lot different from a non-interactive one, because a non-interactive interpreter can be a lot simpler and use some golfing strategies that would not work provided a requirement for a prompt.
For example, displaying a prompt and taking input from STDIN takes up to 6 bytes in Jelly, and putting it in a loop takes another 2, at least, so answers from the interactive one would not be competitive enough in this scenario unless they were modified to match the challenge specs for this challenge, which I believe justifies its individual existence. Likewise, answers in this challenge wouldn't even be valid in the other one because they're non-interactive without a prompt.
Stewie Griffin's main point which I want to expand on is whether or not it "adds something new to the table". This is definitely a good point to consider and while I believe that the two have basically the same ideas in terms of what they're doing, I'd argue that the majority of KC challenges are all basically identical and that adding a non-interactive interpreter challenge does bring something new by allowing participation of certain languages without interactive input (maybe those exist, I don't know) and opening the scope to another set of golfing strategies.
For these reasons, I voted to reopen. (For reference, my vote counted in the place of 2 votes in this case)
Comment: There are many languages without interactivity, Brain-Flak or stackcats.
Comment: I think "adding something new to the table" would mean more than simply removing 8 bytes from an existing solution (can't judge this as there's no Jelly solution and I don't know Jelly), the heart of the challenge is the same. As an example my Haskell answer would require 3 really trivial modifications to meet the specs and be competitive and looking at other solutions, this seems to be the case too.
Answer: Yes, it is a duplicate
Since I am the one who "hammer"-closed it as a duplicate, I feel like I am morally obligated to explain my reasoning here. Because your challenge is merely a subset of the other challenge, I think they cannot be considered different challenges — although the answers are not immediately portable from one challenge to another, the core task is the same: Interpret the Deadfish programming language. Interactively or not, the idea is the same. Therefore, I think they are too closely related for yours to be kept open.
Don't get me wrong, it's a very well-written challenge, but I closed it as a duplicate because your was a subset — and a rather big one — of the other post.
Comment: I think this one is a superset (any valid answer for the other is valid for this, but not vice versa)
Comment: @Mr.Xcoder I don't think it's exactly a subset, because the other one required interactivity through a prompt. This one does not require any prompt whatsoever. In fact, the other one required producing extra output, while this one forbids it.
Comment: @user202729 If any answer to that one is valid for this one, then this one is a subset of that one.
Comment: Note that this is my very own opinion on the question. This is meta, so don't hesitate to express your agreement / disagreement by voting.
Answer: No
Since a valid answer for your challenge isn't a valid answer for the other one, and a competitive answer in the other challenge wouldn't be competitive in yours - I don't think it's a duplicate.
Comment: A competitive in the other can be competitive in this one actually.
Answer: The case for "No".
I did vote to close, but I was actually trying to just flag it for moderator attention. I don't necessarily have an opinion one way or another, but I want to present this viewpoint.
Sometimes challenges require a lot from a language (IO, measuring mouse clicks or positions, etc.) and a similar challenge with fewer requirements can be appropriate.
An example of this is Visualize Visual Eyes and The Eyes are Following You. The first challenge required detection of mouse location on a screen and the second challenge replaced mouse interactivity with an integer input, allowing for many more languages to participate.
In this case, if the first challenge is restrictive of many languages due to requiring interactivity, then another challenge might be warranted.
Edit: if you disagree, please consider adding a comment and explaining why.


psd to png - software or website that converts all the components?

Question: I have a PSD file with a lot of components. The only site I found for converting it to components is Zamzar, but it doesn't allow me to download all of the components at once and the other sites/software I have found only give me a flattened image as a single PNG. Does someone know of a website or software for this?
Comment: "the other sites/software" -> can you provide the list?
Comment: By components you do mean layers right? and you want to export each layer as a separate png file yes? Do you have any version of Photoshop (ie would a photoshop plugin work)?
Comment: @NickWilde yes. and i dont have photoshop...no other ways?
Comment: @User6413: I'm sure there are other way's possible - whether there are other ways easy I'm not sure of hand; but probably someone knows an easy way. Just was asking to narrow it down whether that would work for you.
Comment: Which OS do you use? [tag:windows], [tag:osx] or [tag:linux]?
Answer: 1. ImageMagick
This one is a command-line tool, available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. To export layers separately to individual PNG files, you can run the following command after installing it:
convert Boring.psd Cool.png

That will result in Cool-0.png, Cool-1.png, etc. for each layer.
For a flattened image you need to add the corresponding switch:
convert Boring.psd -flatten Cool.png

2. GIMP:
Some Photoshop fans call it an advanced MS Paint! But it is a decent image editing tool, released under LGPLv3 and GPLv3+ licenses and is available for Linux, OS X, and Windows, and it's free!
Here's a tutorial on how to convert each layer of a PSD to PNG files using GIMP.
Alternatively, you can install Export_Layers plugin to do it faster.
Comment: As far as I know this will flatten the image and save as png, but the OP wants to extract layers from a psd file and save them as individual png files.
Comment: Aw! Then that's the wrong tutorial, thanks for mentioning it @nidunc. Am updating the answer now. (:
Answer: You could use GIMP in combination with the Export Layers as PNG plugin.
However, installing plugins in GIMP is not an easy task.
Luckily I found another way of doing what you want:
PSDParse by Telegraphics
It...

... extracts all layers to png images
... doesn't flatten the psd file
... extracts all layers at the same time
... keeps the name of the layer
... is available for windows and osx, but unfortunately not for linux
... is gratis (aka "Free")

Go to the website, and download the Windows (32 bit) version: (I assume you're using windows, as you failed to specify the OS in the question)

Extract the contents of the downloaded psdparse-3.6f1-win32.zip (right-click --> "Extract All...") to a new folder
Go to the folder where you extracted the zip file. You should see 2 files:

Shift+rmb (Right Mouse Button) on an empty area, and click on "Open command window here"
In the command window, type psdparse and press Enter. You should see this:

Type "psdparse -w [location of psd file]", for example: psdparse -w C:\example.psd.
It should extract the layers and save them as png files in the folder "[name of psd file]_png" in the same location as the psd file, for example: C:\example_png\
That's it!

Source: Take a psd and export all the layers into separate image files without using Photoshop - Super User
Answer: There is a PSD.rb which is the file parser for Photoshop written in Ruby.
To get the list of components, you can write a script like:
require 'psd'

PSD.open('path/to/file.psd') do |psd|
  # Get information about all the available layer comps
  puts psd.layer_comps
end

To save same component, you can write:
# Save a layer comp
psd.tree.filter_by_comp("Version A").save_as_png('./Version A.png')

# Generate PNG of individual layer group
psd.tree.children_at_path("Group 1").first.to_png

To save a specific slice into PNG, it's:
psd.slices_by_name('Logo').first.save_as_png('Logo.png') #=> writes Logo.png

Another tool to consider is ag-psd, it's JavaScript library for reading and writing PSD files. Example script:
import * as fs from 'fs';
import { readPsd } from 'ag-psd';

var buffer = fs.readFileSync('my-file.psd');
var psd = readPsd(buffer);

console.log(psd);

fs.writeFileSync('layer-1.png', psd.children[0].canvas.getBuffer());


Use Pose Mode or Object Mode to move whole model

Question: I've been animating a set of 2D images against a long strip background (flower, bird).  I have been splitting up the animation between Pose Mode and Object Mode.  I set the character's gestures in Pose Mode, then I animate their motion along X using Object Mode.  I have never done this type of 2D animation before and chose this method because it seemed logical.  Is it better to do all of the character's gestures and X movement in Pose Mode?  Thanks.
Zaffer
Answer: If you are just doing all the animation on the armature (pose and object mode), then I see no harm in that. In fact I think there is a little benefit over animating it all in pose mode.

Here I have the X axis movement key framed on the armature object (it is 40 frames long). The small bounce along the Z axis is keyframed on the bone in pose mode (its animation only lasts 10 frames). Doing it like this enables me to separate the animation, and keyframe the bounce in local space, and then use a Cycle modifier in the graph editor to make it loop.

However if you are animating the mesh object too, then that is a problem.
The reason for this is because of the way parenting works in blender.
See parenting is one way, meaning that you can move the parent (the armature) and both will move, but if you move the child (the mesh object) it separates from the armature. When you bind an armature to an object you are parenting it among other things.
Comment: Thanks David,  I think I'm doing all my animation on the armature -- I'm not doing any "shape" animation like making a character's mouth move.  Is that what you meant?
Comment: The reason I decided to make armature pose changes in Pose mode and armature XYZ location changes in Object mode is that I noticed that if you make an XYZ location change on an armature in Pose mode, the origin doesn't move with the object.  But if you make the XYZ location change in Object mode, the origin stays with the object.  So it seemed to make sense to do it that way.  Thanks again.


How evaluate text clustering?

Question: What metrics can be used for evaluating text clustering models? I used tf-idf + k-means, tf-idf + hierarchical clustering, doc2vec + k-means (metric is cosine similarity), doc2vec + hierarchical clustering (metric is cosine similarity).
How to decide which model is the best?
Answer: Check out this paper.  It also addresses question of how many clusters to use.  The R package mclust has a routine which will try different cluster models/number of clusters and plot the Bayesian inference criterion (BIC). (great vignette here).  It's a general method, meaning, something you can do without being domain/data specific.  (It's always good to be domain-specific if you have the time and data.)
The chart is from the vignette by Lucca Scrucca.  MClust tries 14 different clustering algorithms (represented by the different symbols), increasing the number of clusters from 1 to some default value.  It's finds the BIC each time.  Highest BIC is usually the best choice.  You could apply this methodology to your own stable of clustering algorithms.
Answer: Check out silhouette score
Formula for i th data point
(b(i) - a(i)) / max(a(i),b(i))

where b(i) -> dissimilarity from nearest neighbouring cluster
a(i) -> dissimilarity between points within cluster
This gives a score between -1 and +1.
Interpretation
+1 means very good fit
-1 means misclassified [should have belonged to a  different cluster]
After calculating silhouette score for each data point, you can take a call on the choice for the number of clusters.
Code Example
from sklearn.datasets import make_blobs
from sklearn.cluster import KMeans
from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_samples, silhouette_score

X, y = make_blobs(n_samples=500,
                  n_features=2,
                  centers=4,
                  cluster_std=1,
                  center_box=(-10.0, 10.0),
                  shuffle=True,
                  random_state=1)  # For reproducibility

range_n_clusters = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

for n_clusters in range_n_clusters:
    # Initialize the clusterer with n_clusters value and a random generator
    # seed of 10 for reproducibility.
    clusterer = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=10)
    cluster_labels = clusterer.fit_predict(X)

    # The silhouette_score gives the average value for all the samples.
    # This gives a perspective into the density and separation of the formed
    # clusters
    silhouette_avg = silhouette_score(X, cluster_labels)
    print("For n_clusters =", n_clusters,
          "The average silhouette_score is :", silhouette_avg)

    # Compute the silhouette scores for each sample
    sample_silhouette_values = silhouette_samples(X, cluster_labels)

Answer: A clustering quality measure would be very nice to have. Unfortunately, that measure is hard to calculate -- probably AI-hard. You are trying to reduce a very complex thing to a single number.
If it is AI-hard, then you could ask people to rate the clusterings somehow. It's not ideal, and won't scale but you will have a  single number that represents something close to what you want.
Comment: I don't think this is correct. I can simply feed a well-studied text document into the models. Then compare the cluster membership with my expectation.
Comment: Yep. Using "your" expectation is what you do when the measure is AI-hard. You would get a better measure if you include other people's expectations.
Comment: I have an idea. I can try to train classificator and fit it with labels from different models with same number of clusters. The better accurancy_score, the better model.
Answer: Though silhouette_score is a good parameter to evaluate model performance, you can also use davies_bouldin_score. The Davies-Bouldin Score (DBS) can be imported from sklearn.metrics using sklearn library.
Here the minimum score is 0, but the maximum score can be above 1.
I would recommend saving the model-predicted output in excel and evaluating it manually to realize how the model predictions are coming.
Use:
from sklearn.metrics import davies_bouldin_score
dbs = davies_bouldin_score(feature_12.toarray(), model. Labels_)

How evaluate text clustering?


What value is there in using a 'bag glove' during pad work in Muay Thai training?

Question: I see some guys in the gym bring two pairs of gloves to training. If there is a session on the pads, they wear bag gloves which are thin and light. During sparring sessions they switch to wearing a larger glove, eg. 14oz. I understand why the larger heavier glove is required for the sparring activity, but why is the larger glove not used for the bag/pad training as well? What benefits are brought from the bag/pad work by using the thin light glove?
Answer: Regularly hammering the heavy bag with heavy gloves will compress and deform their padding, so they won't provide the expected protection (to your opponent), rendering them illegal to use in competition.
Light gloves still give your skin some protection compared to being bare-knuckled - you can train a bit harder and longer.  Can also help avoid repeatedly slipping off a sweaty bag.  Each to their own though - I prefer bare-knuckle, but do often have to stop before I'm exhausted due to torn or abraded skin.
Answer: Lighter gloves are nicer.  They're quicker, lighter, and easier to put on/off. Unfortunately, they're not that great prolonged striking, and not all that thickly padded.
Answer: I believe everyone has their own preferances but for me personally, I like to use the lighter gloves on pad work as I am looking to improve my precision and targeting. During sparring, the heavier (more cushioned) gloves are ideal protection for the opponent (as mentioned by the above contributor).


Can the premaster secret generated by SRP be used as a secure private key?

Question: It seems like the pre-master secret generated during the SRP protocol would make a good source to generate a shared private key using a secure hash to compress it down into a 128/256  symmetric key.  The random values that get hashed into it seem to make it good for that purpose.
Comment: I recommend that you state the question you want answered in the body of the question.
Answer: From the RFC:

SRP also supplies a shared secret at the end of the authentication sequence that can be used to generate encryption keys.

It seems from my quick look over the RFC that that shared secret is the premaster secret, so you are correct.
Comment: Ack!  I even remember reading that now. I think i was wondering if it was uniform enough, or if I needed to HMAC it to death to be sure.
Answer: There is an explicit RCF 5054 which uses SRP to negotiate a shared key for a TLS connection. There are also hooks for OpenSSL to be able to use SRP to setup an SSL connection without using certificates using the SRP generated shared session key.


Which is a best suitable agile methodology for ongoing products?

Question: We are a product based company. Which is a best suitable agile methodology for ongoing products? Its like we have to keep improving our products to stay competitive. Looks like its never-ending thing.
Comment: There are a lot of factors that influence to the choice of a suitable framework. "Ongoing products" is just one of many. So, there is no canonical answer to your question. All answers will reflect personal tastes.
Answer: We are producing a never-ending SaaS product that actually started life in 2006. We use Scrum and have done for around 5 years. It has increased our productivity immeasurably and in my opinion is ideal for this type of development.
One other advantage is that if a product carries on year after year, your staff will change, however a well disciplined Scrum team makes it easier for new members to slot in fairly quickly.
Answer: Microsoft Solutions Framework is a set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, and guidelines for delivering information technology services from Microsoft. MSF is not limited to developing applications only; it is also applicable to other IT projects like deployment, networking or infrastructure projects.
Comment: Why do you think that MSF is the best solution for ongoing products?
Answer: A good starting point is Scrum and then adapt from there onwards. As long as you hold good retrospectives and follow through on issues raised you will find your feet. Don't be afraid to adapt change and research. Make sure you become or have an Agile champion. Things will go wrong, just learn from them, keep people informed that this is the plan, improve, improvise and get better. (focus on keeping the stakeholder (everyone) informed and engaged)
Answer: As others have said, Scrum is a good starting point. Scrum gives a good structure if teams are new to Agile. Having a designated Scrum Master is pretty essential to getting going. In time, teams can become more self-sufficient, running their own ceremonies, and keeping the backlog in good shape during the sprint (so, outside of a planning session).
As a team matures, it may be worth looking at Kanban too. I've found this works best for teams who are proactive at writing tickets (via just in time planning) and keeping them to roughly the same size.
One approach I've used is to have Scrum for projects, and Kanban for ongoing BAU-type work. There are pros and cons to these and other methodologies. Whatever you do, make sure you have retrospectives so the team has the opportunity to inspect and adapt.


Ubuntu not mounting any external drive

Question: It's not mounting anything, I've tried many USB drives, memory cards etc. So I can't backup my data, its more than 10GB so I'm not thinking of any online backup. At the boot time, while checking for errors in drives, an error message occurs - mnt/sdb not found. User not found
And when I mount the usb drive after the boot it says-'Operation not successful' (automatic mounting). When I change its mount settings, it says "wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb"
When I saw the usb folder inside the mnt folder, it was empty.
If anyone knows which path to choose in the disk drive settings or the command of manual mounting it would be very helpful
Comment: Welcome to Ask Ubunutu! Please try to describe your problem in more detail to get an answer. Edit your question and add information like what commands you used to mount your drives and what were the exact error messages you got upon entering them.
Answer: Ok, I found solution, but seems to be software error. My drive have only 318GB - i take it from eeePC netbook and buy usb sata box for it, so I can plug as external drive later. Actually I buy two boxes - one fron eBuy, other - in local market. First one let me see my drive once, after several plug/unplug - box died, and not responced anymore (power light blinks once). I notice, that wire which was in complect, was with two USB A and one USB B on other side, but box has only USB A port. Then I buyed second one and story repeats simulary, but now I have box with USB B port :) In store seller says to me, that one USB port needed to connect drive to PC, that power supply is enought for such drive. And he was right! At least for ~24h of time when externel drive was connected to the computer. :)
The boxes, whitch I buy from eBuy and local stock are same. They looks indentical, except USB port - one has USB B ( GEMBIRD (R) ) other - USB A ( unnamed 2.5" SATA EXTERNAL CASE with sereal ATA and USB 2.0 logos ).
So, my solution is simple - plug in with additional USB power supply (use both USB A cables to connect your drive)
P.S. Why first time I was able to connect my drive with only one cable, but after while - only with two cables, kernel bug?

Ubuntu not mounting any external drive


Why is there vinegar in the bread recipe?

Question: Yesterday I made bread based on a recipe I found on the flour bag. It contained both rye and wheat flour but also three tablespoons of vinegar. I've never seen it used in bread before, why is it there?
Answer: If it contained a high amount of rye flour, an acid would be needed for the bread to leaven. This is because bread with lots of rye rises due to polysaccharates called "pentosans" (if i remember correctly) being sticky and holding in the carbon dioxide bubbles. With heat, an enzyme in rye called "amylase" will start eating up the pentosans, unless the amylase is deactivated with acidity (wheat flour uses a protein called "gluten" to trap bubbles, and its amylase is deactivated with heat anyhow). The acidity is traditionally lactic acid, produced by lactobacilli bacteria in sourdough, but could be vinegar.
If it's mostly wheat flour (i.e. if you have to knead it), the vinegar would just be for flavour.
Answer: Another reason you can use vinegar in a bread recipe - to produce a sourdough.  Under traditional methods of making a sourdough bread, one keeps a 'sour' (sponge) or a piece of dough from the days previous production, which acts as a starter for the current bread.  In many of todays commercial bakeries (grocery stores, etc.), sours are not kept from day to day, and powdered substitutes are used.  They are normally just a glorified acetic acid (in a powdered form).  So, you can just use vinegar to produce the same results.
Comment: Since there is rye in the dough, I could definitely see the intent being to produce a sourdough-like flavor.
Comment: Yep, that's right.  One thing that most people don't understand is that rye bread is a sourdough bread.  It's always made off of a rye sour.
Comment: This recipe didn't contain any sourdough starter of any kind, just yeast.
Comment: Then there is something wrong with the recipe. You can't leaven rye with yeast, the enzymes in the rye prevent it. Maybe, if it is a mixed recipe with a high wheat-to-rye ratio, the yeast will still work, but I'm not sure why you would need to imitate a sour taste through vinegar then.
Comment: You definitely can leaven rye with yeast. The enzymes in rye cause it's starches to convert to sugar quickly, so it's actually great for yeast. The issue is that since rye relies on gums for structure, it's difficult to retain the bubbles, no matter what's producing them.
Comment: Oh, I never said it did have a sour starter.  The vinegar is used as a replacement for the starter.
Comment: You can't leaven rye with yeast because rye flour contains no gluten. Wheat is the only cereal crop with (high enough) gluten content to facilitate yeast leavening. As I said last year, all rye breads are sourdough breads, the vinegar is used as a shortcut for the 'sour' flavour.
Answer: When I asked this question - Is there anything I can add to homemade bread to preserve it? - Arafangion said that one commercial bread company now uses vinegar as a preservative. This is his answer to my question:

"One commercial bread company has
  switched preservatives... They use
  vinegar (I suspect ordinary white
  vinegar).
Maybe you could give a little bit of
  vinegar a go and see how that works?
  You can still smell it if you sniff
  and sandwiches do have a faint vinegar
  flavour, but it seems to work well
  enough for the company and it
  apparently hasn't sabotaged the
  product line...
Then again, it /is/ commercial
  bread..."
Comment: Thank you for answering. I'd still like to think that there's another explanation. I've never seen homemade bread recipes that contains something which only purpose is acting as a preservative.
Answer: I've found that a lower pH (more acidity) weakens the gluten and makes the crumb less chewey or less rubbery.
Certainly one thing to try before taking the step of adding vinegar to a bread recipe is to replace any bread flour with general purpose flour instead -- it should have the same effect.
Comment: @mrwienerdog: See http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/19577/vinegar-in-pie-crust/19579#19579 with respect to acidity. Also I think you're being way too negative about all-purpose flour. It may not be ideal for breads, but it does work. And if you're trying to weaken gluten structure, well, bread flour's primary difference compared to all-purpose flour is increased gluten...
Comment: @mrwienerdog Acidity is used in bread dough as an oxidizer. It doesn't speed gluten formation, but it makes the links in the gluten stronger (frequently making the dough stiffer). Reducing agents are actually what speeds gluten formation, though they are frequently used in conjunction with an oxidizer.
Comment: Never make a bread with an all-purpose flour.  Big no-no.  Acidity does not weaken the gluten, it serves to speed gluten formation.  This means that a bread will be properly mixed (gluten properly formed) sooner when you are mixing a sour bread when compared to mixing a 'regular' bread.   In turn, the dough will be over mixed if you mix it the same amount of time you would  mix that regular bread.  So the acidity just speeds up the whole gluten cycle.
Comment: You can't tell me that it doesn't speed gluten formation. That's simply not true. If you replace 5 percent of the water in your mix with vinegar, it will DEFINITELY be mixed quicker.
Answer: In making faster no-Knead bread Jim Lahey suggest adding 4 drops or up to 1/4 tsp of red wine vinegar to the basic recipe. Improve gluten development and flavor. See the video with Mark Bittman here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08mini.html?ref=dining
Answer: It might also, in addition to something like bicarbonate soda act as a raising agent for some types of bread - the reaction of the vinegar with the bicarb causing gas release causing rising.
This is only a guess however


How to cache effectively?

Question: I have a client ecommerce portal hosted on a Dedicated server and the issue is as there are concurrent
 search requests from the database, the database access time is getting higher. I am using Apache+ NGINX.
 I am just thinking to cache all the search result pages of a limited set of time so that if second time
 the same search query  is requested then rather than quering the database it would take the data from the cache.
 The pages are in PHP. Kindly suggest a good way to do that. Thank you!
Answer: memcache is a very common solution for this, and is supported in PHP's standard library assuming your PHP setup has that module available. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.memcache.php for the API. You will notice that there is a second standard module that interfaces with memcache too - the newer module is called memcached and may support features that the other does not. See this question and answer for a run down of the pros and cons of the two.
Before you start adding the extra layer of complexity of caching (actually it need not be complex, but it is an extra thing that could go wrong and needs careful thought to implement effectively/efficiently), make sure that you have analysed the queries that are being made to make sure your data is well indexed for them. If there are common search type that are causing full table scans but could be made to use index searches you could reduce your overall load considerably. Also ensure that you have enough RAM - if your DB is being slow due to hitting disk too often because it doesn't have room to keep your app's common working set in its page cache then you don't have enough RAM for memcached to be particularly useful either.
Answer: Apache has a module for caching (mod_cache), it can cache your site's served contents  More info at: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.1/mod/mod_cache.html
You could let recurring requested pages expire at a longer timeframe using Apache's mod_expires, but that's on a client's level.
Nginx has a possibility to cache use proxy_cache and proxy_cache_path.

How to cache effectively?


Is it safe to generate passwords online?

Question: I usually generate strong passwords using various online tools. Some time ago I mentioned it to a friend of mine and he was shocked that I do such dangerous thing. Is it really so unsafe to generate passwords online? Could there be generated some kind of cookie that tracks where I pasted it?
Comment: Given that there's good offline tools like [KeePass](http://keepass.info/) there's no reason to take the risk to use an online tool.
Comment: What benefit do you think you get from using an online tool versus a local one?
Answer: No.  It is not safe to generate passwords online.  Don't do it!
In theory there are some ways that one could perhaps build a password generator that is not so bad (e.g., run it in Javascript, on your local machine, and so forth).  However, in practice, there are too many pitfalls that an average user cannot be expected to detect.  Consequently, I do not recommend it.
For instance, an average user has no way to vet whether the password generator does indeed ensure that the password never leaves your site.  The average user has no way to verify that the web site is not keeping a copy of your password.  The average user has no way to verify that the password generation code is using good entropy (and Javascript's Math.random(), which is the obvious thing to use for this purpose, is not a great pseudorandom number generator).
Comment: @Nemo that's a dangerous proposition. Now you're asking people to trust a site that could go rogue, could be compromised, etc. Better to do it offline.
Comment: All these seem good reasons for security.SE, whose users CAN check those things, to suggest one good website. :)
Comment: @Ohnana I'm not asking anything. And doing it offline isn't any better if one uses proprietary software.
Comment: @Nemo while I wouldn't recommend using proprietary software to generate passwords, I would argue that it _is_ safer than using a website, as the website could choose to send you a backdoored generated whenever it wants. At least with the offline software you aren't updating it every time you run it, so you only have to trust that the version you installed is safe.
Comment: What makes you say it's not safe, when it's just the password and the site has no idea what the username is, what site/app/service it's going to be used with, how to access said site/app/service, etc.?  I understand that the password may still be added to a dictionary or hash table, but without the rest, is it really much of a concern?
Answer: Just because a password generator doesn't use JavaScript doesn't mean it's not safe, however it would be easy for the server to store the password sent out with your IP address. If this is a concern it would be easy to change a few characters in the password. The GRC Ultra High Security Password Generator does not use JavaScript but "this page will only allow itself to be displayed over a snoop-proof and proxy-proof high-security SSL connection, and it is marked as having expired back in 1999". Each "instance" of this page has multiple passwords so even if GRC did log them (which I doubt they do) they wouldn't know which one you've chosen to use. If you still want a JavaScript based generator here is one.
Comment: That page displays just fine when accessed over Tor via the Internet Archive. Some "proxy-proofing" done there. And "the techie details" go to some length to argue that the passwords provide... what work factor exactly? 512 bits? How can a password of 256 bits (like the 64 hex digits one) provide 512 bits of security, no matter how it's generated? Nowhere on the page do I even see what character set is being used for the other two alternatives.
Comment: My god, every new "Gibson Research" password-related site I see gets an even bigger facepalm than the last one. I'm not sure whether he's a master troll or if he actually does *almost* understand a bunch of password concepts and somehow manage to get all the advice he gives subtly wrong anyway.
Comment: Some of the advice on that site seems dangerous, as @Ben noted above me. While the site appears to have good intentions, I am not sure it is reliable. One example: the site claims a user-chosen predictable password ("D0g" followed by some number of "."s) is more secure than a long randomly generated password because it is one character longer.
Comment: @MichaelKjörling It can't. In fact, the secrets (including the "secret IV", and note that IVs are not meant to be secret) are likely generated with the kernel's random number generator, which uses a 256-bit cipher on Linux, Windows, and most BSDs. **I'd also just like to point out the absurdity of _intentionally_ using a certificate expired in 1999 and calling it "high-security".**
Comment: @forest Exactly. It's a lot of impressive-sounding words which appear to have very little or even no basis in reality, and *relevant* information (like which character set is used when generating the passwords) is omitted. Regarding the 1999 though, I suspect that's a Cache-Control header or some of its ilk, rather than being in reference to the server certificate. (Not to say that a simple "no-cache" wouldn't work just as well; if you can't trust a proxy to get *that* right, there is no reason to assume that it gets date-based expiration right either.)
Answer: You can try this tool https://thedevband.com/generate-password.html
This tool works offline, so you can try the following:

Open the tool on any browser.
Disconnect internet.
Use the tool to generate a password.
Clear all cache on your browser.
Connect to your computer to the internet again to continue your work.

By this way, this tool can not collect and store your passwords.
The tool is legit but you can do these steps just to make sure.
Comment: While I believe you are correct that this would prevent them from logging generated passwords, they still may be able to use a generation method that _appears_ random to you, but that they can easily break. This is of course true of any password generator that isn't audited, but unfortunately anything web-based relies on the website to supply you with the code, so you can't even be sure you're running the same code as everyone else that visits the site (which makes it impossible to audit).
Answer: If the password is being generated locally in JavaScript and there is no traffic back to the server, you should be fine.
If the password was being stored in a cookie it would only be viewable from the site that it originated from, due to the same origin policy. You would also be able to detect this by checking your cookies.
Their is the possibility for disclosure of information if you use a bookmarklet such as the one at http://supergenpass.com (JavaScript in a bookmark). The bookmarklet is stored locally, but run in the context of the site you are at, so if there is JavaScript running from that site that is setup to detect your bookmarklet, it could access information that the bookmarklet, uses, prompts for, and generates.
Comment: Like other answers, this overlooks the possibility of a backdoored password generator.
Comment: "_You would also be able to detect this by checking your cookies._" how would you do that?


How do I ask a question that is hard to describe?

Question: I'm new to Blender and I ran into a problem, I'm not sure of how to accurately explain my problem. How can I best explain/show the community the issue I'm having to get some help?
Comment: Your new to blender? Wow.
Answer: Blender is a visual application, words will go a far way but a picture is worth a thousand words or so the saying goes.
The recommended current workflow is to either use as many images as needed to illustrate the issue or to submit the problematic file for inspection.
Solution 1
A well worded question can trump all, provided you describe the steps that are necessary to reproduce your problem or show what you have achieved and where you want to go. The editing text area uses markdown and supports basic html editing so you can highlight your points etc, list any steps and bring your point across as best as you can. If you aren't sure what feature X is or how to explain what a modifier or operation does, just mention that — the chances of someone knowing are high.

Solution 2
Upload image(s) showing the problem(s). See How can I optimize images and screenshots that I embed in my post? for more information regarding this and how you could fit several images neatly in your question without making your post extra long.
At the end of the day, either of these solutions would be good, the ideal solution being a combination of 1 and 2 (for more complex questions). Definitely better than a string of vague words thrown together.

Solution 3
Record a small video/gif of the problem and upload that. Tools you can use are LICEcap or GifCam (preferred), these run natively on Windows but can also be executed on linux under Wine. If the resulting gif exceeds 2MB in size you can upload it to gfycat and then add the link in your post. Otherwise you can use imgur directly from StackExchange as you would with any other image. See How to post gifs on this site? for more detail.
If you are more advanced or have the software readily on hand, Camtasia, CamStudio (free), Open Broadcaster Software (free), Bandicam (free but with watermark), Fraps (free) and recordmydesktop, simplescreenrecorder on linux etc are good for recording your session.

Solution 4
Share your file - people might be working on projects and not want to share their project files, that's fine, but if that's the case, try to recreate the specific problem in another file or edit that scene to isolate the problem. This is usually the fastest way to get help especially if your problem is a localized one, a seasoned Blender user can usually immediately spot whatever the problem is.
Comment: Good reference to point new users to.
Comment: also a site called [ezgif](http://ezgif.com/)  allows for on-line optimization of GIFs, very handy to get the sizes down sometimes.
Comment: I totally agree with the solutions you propose. If people intend to use a 3D creation software, they should be able to make some screen captures and annotate them ;) In the list of utilities, I would add QuickTime Player that comes gratis with every Mac. It has screen recording functionalities that often people ignore.
Comment: I didn't put them in levels but I agree it could be read incrementally.


ScriptAlias makes requests match too many Location blocks. What is going on?

Question: We wish to restrict access on our development server to those users who have a valid SSL Client certificate. We are running Apache 2.2.16 on Debian 6.
However, for some sections (mainly git-http, setup with gitolite on https://my.server/git/) we need an exception since many git clients don't support SSL client certificates.
I have succeeded in requiring client cert authentication for the server, and in adding exceptions for some locations. However, it seems this does not work for git.
The current setup is as follows:
SSLCACertificateFile ssl-certs/client-ca-certs.crt
<Location />
  SSLVerifyClient require
  SSLVerifyDepth 2
</Location>
# this works
<Location /foo>
  SSLVerifyClient none
</Location>
# this does not
<Location /git>
  SSLVerifyClient none
</Location>

I have also tried an alternative solution, with the same results:
# require authentication everywhere except /git and /foo
<LocationMatch "^/(?!git|foo)">
  SSLVerifyClient require
  SSLVerifyDepth 2
</LocationMatch>

In both these cases, a user without client certificate can perfectly access my.server/foo/, but not my.server/git/ (access is refused because no valid client certificate is given). If I disable SSL client certificate authentication completely, my.server/git/ works ok.
The ScriptAlias problem
Gitolite is setup using the ScriptAlias directive. I have found that the problem occurs with any similar ScriptAlias:
# Gitolite
ScriptAlias /git/ /path/to/gitolite-shell/
ScriptAlias /gitmob/ /path/to/gitolite-shell/
# My test
ScriptAlias /test/ /path/to/test/script/

Note that /path/to/test/script is a file, not a directory, the same goes for /path/to/gitolite-shell/
My test script simply prints out the environment, super simple:
#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type:text/plain\n\n";
print "TEST\n";
@keys = sort(keys %ENV);
foreach (@keys) {
    print "$_ => $ENV{$_}\n";
}

It seems that if I go to https://my.server/test/someLocation, that any SSLVerifyClient directives are being applied which are in Location blocks that match /test/someLocation or just /someLocation.
If I have the following config:
<LocationMatch "^/f">
        SSLVerifyClient require
        SSLVerifyDepth 2
</LocationMatch>

Then, the following URL requires a client certificate: https://my.server/test/foo. However, the following URL does not: https://my.server/test/somethingElse/foo
Note that this only seems to apply for SSL configuration. The following has no effect whatsoever on https://my.server/test/foo:
<LocationMatch "^/f">
        Order allow,deny
        Deny from all
</LocationMatch>

However, it does block access to https://my.server/foo.
This presents a major problem for cases where I have some project running at https://my.server/project (which has to require SSL client certificate authorization), and there is a git repository for that project at https://my.server/git/project which cannot require a SSL client certificate. Since the /git/project URL also gets matched agains /project Location blocks, such a configuration seems impossible given my current findings.
Question: Why is this happening, and how do I solve my problem?
In the end, I want to require SSL Client certificate authorization for the whole server except for /git and /someLocation, with as minimal configuration as possible (so I don't have to modify the configuration each time something new is deployed or a new git repository is added).
Update More information: Note that in some cases, https://my.server/project is actually reverse proxied so that a <Directory /path/to/project> directive is impossible. If I want to protect that application with a SSL client certificate, this must by necessity be with a <Location /project> (or more general <Location />) block.
Update 2 I just tested this in apache 2.4.3, with the same result. If this were due to some bug, it's at least present in two versions.

Note: I rewrote my question (instead of just adding more updates at the bottom) to take into account my new findings and hopefully make this more clear.
Answer: According to the current Apache documentation this might be a problem:

In per-server context it applies to the client authentication process used in the standard SSL handshake when a connection is established. In per-directory context it forces a SSL renegotiation with the reconfigured client verification level after the HTTP request was read but before the HTTP response is sent.

What about using the the <Directory> context instead of <Location>. One entry for the root level and the other for the Script-Alias path: /path/to/gitolite-shell/
Update:
I found some advices to this case -> Question/Answer at Stackoverflow
Comment: The server does indeed force an SSL renegotiation, but that in itself is not a problem. I work around the perceived limitation from the StackOverflow question by including the `SSLVerifyClient require` directive in a `` block instead of directly in the server context. This way, the different `Location` blocks get processed and merged, and a certificate is only asked if necessary. In addition, if that were the problem, my exception for https://my.server/foo/ would not work, whereas this currently works perfectly (see the first config block in my question).
Comment: I also just updated my question with a note explaining why a `` block is not a solution in my case.


Techniques and ingredients to make marinara sauce from canned spagetti sauce

Question: My wife dislikes the flavor and thickness of canned spaghetti sauce.  She finds it thin and tasting like vegetable soup.  Can one spice and cook this down to make it the taste and texture of a marinara sauce (say like Prego)?
Comment: Just to clarify: is Prego an example of your target marinara sauce, or is it an example of the type of sauce you want to modify to make it thicker & less like veg. soup ?  I am guessing the latter, but the wording of your question makes Prego sound like a marinara to emulate.... Also I notice "Prego" = a brand name owned by Campbell's soup co. So your wife hit the nail on the head there.
Comment: Just buy a different canned/jarred sauce. My grocery store has an entire isle full of different brands, flavors, textures, etc. Surely you'll find one or more that pleases both of you.
Answer: If for some reason, you only have canned goods available in your area, I would start with canned tomatoes -- either crushed, diced or a mix, depending on how chunky you like your sauce.  (some people would argue that whole peeled have better flavor, but you end up with a can with a lot of juice in it so requiring more cooking (or reserving the juice for minestrone or some other purpose)
If canned spaghetti sauce is all that you have, or you're trying to use up a case, you don't necessarily need to cook it down for a long time.  You can instead pull the pasta early, and finish cooking it in the sauce; the pasta will then soak up some of the moisture thickening the sauce.  You may want to reserve some of the pasta water in case it ends up a little too thick by the time the pasta is cooked through.
As for spicing, yes you can modify things if it's bland, but if it's an off flavor ('tinny') or something too strong, it's more difficult.  Sometimes a little bit of sugar can help if it's a touch sour, but you can also cook down some onions or finely diced carrots and mix that in to get it some  extra sweetness (and texture, and other flavors)
And if the issue is price differences -- If you have a Wegman's near you, try their store brand sauces.  It's like $1/jar (about the same as what a can of sauce costs), and it's quite good.
Comment: Adding tomato paste might help sometimes too, like if it's just kind of thin and not tomatoey enough but is otherwise okay.
Comment: Add dried tomatoes or onions and you get more tomato or onion and it sucks up some liquid. But I just skip tomato-based pasta sauces entirely (pasta, cheese, done - pasta, pesto, done - etc.)
Answer: You can not "spice up" any bottled sauce to make it a marinara, because a marinara is inherently a very simple and basic tomato sauce. It is tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil and a little salt,pepper, sugar. Even if you could take all of the extra crap that is in Prego out it would still be Prego, (any canned or bottled sauce will never equal a freshly homemade marinara sauce).
Get a can of quality whole tomatoes (no extra ingredients, I like Cento brand) empty them into a bowl and then crush them to a fine pulp with your hands. In sauce pan heat some olive oil and ad some (3, 4 or 12 cloves?) crushed or finely diced garlic, gently cook on medium heat until just softened, careful not to get it to hot that you burn the garlic. Add the tomato's and their juice, a pinch of sugar (I like brown sugar), a big sprig of basil, salt and pepper to  taste, bring to a gentle  simmer and reduce until thickened for a least 40 minutes but longer is better.
Take out the basil sprig, it has done its job. Adjust the salt and pepper if needed and freshen it up with a little olive oil. That's it, next time you can make adjustments for your wife's tastes, like some red pepper flakes or a little tomato paste or oregano etc. You will never find a pre-made sauce to equal your homemade sauce.


How do I automatically graph S&P PE ratio moving average VS DOW

Question: Obviously this is a rookie question, I'm simply looking to plot the S&P PE ratio moving averages over different periods of time and plot them vs the DOW. Ideally I would love like something that is fed by data and automatically updated, and can be done online rather than a proprietary piece of software. can anyone recommend a tool for helping me do this? I've already made a spread sheet based on historical s&p data, but again I would like to automate this somehow.
Answer: I have automated downloading of various price data with simple C# console applications that I write with Visual Studio Express (which is free). You are looking for a very specialized task, so I don't think you can get away from programming. I recommend Microsoft .Net for programming. Just create a new console application and use .Net's WebRequest and WebResponse classes to read data from other websites with very few lines of code. Then you can do string manipulations and create price text files (with the System.IO class) that you can use with any charting program (I recommend Ninjatrader, which is free). If you don't have a charting program, just create csv price files and charts in Excel. Furthermore, just add the console applications to windows tasks so you can have them run automatically at a specific time every day.
I get Historical PE ratio data from http://www.multpl.com/table
and I get historical Dow Prices from Stooq: http://stooq.com/q/d/l/?s=^dji&i=d
Here is a piece of code to download data from a website:
<code>    using System;
    using System.IO;
    using System.Net;
    using System.Text;

    namespace Examples.System.Net
    {
        public class WebRequestGetExample
        {
            public static void Main ()
            {
                // Create a request for the URL.
                WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create (
                  "http://WEBSITEHERE/PAGEWITHPRICEDATAHERE");
                // Get the response.
                WebResponse response = request.GetResponse ();
                // Display the status.
                Console.WriteLine (((HttpWebResponse)response).StatusDescription);
                // Get the stream containing content returned by the server.
                Stream dataStream = response.GetResponseStream ();
                // Open the stream using a StreamReader for easy access.
                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader (dataStream);
                // Read the content.
                string responseFromServer = reader.ReadToEnd ();
                // Display the content.
                Console.WriteLine (responseFromServer);
                // Clean up the streams and the response.
                reader.Close ();
                response.Close ();
            }
        }
    }
</code>
Comment: Thanks for the code! I am certainly not opposed to custom coding something as I am a programmer my self, although .net is not really my forte, perhaps I will try to whip something up using node .... I'm just a little surprised given all the cloud platforms / data sources / mashups out there, that there is no web framework to do this .... seems like there is one for every other dat mashup ...
Comment: You are welcome. The code is just a basic example to read data from any website. Each website will require different data formatting, especially for the date fields, which most charting programs like as yyyymmdd. Most price data from websites will come as mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd. Also, you will need to do some regular expression and string manipulation work to isolate data from content from sites like the one that has the PE Ratios. I program in many languages, but I think you can accomplish the most with the least amount of code with .Net.


What is the Difference between Menthol Crystal and Menthol Powder?

Question: I want to buy menthol powder from a chemical supplier but he is selling menthol crystal at half price of menthol powder (he says manufacturing process is the difference) so I am really confused what should I do. Can I buy menthol crystal and just powder them to get the powder form I want it or are crystal and powder menthol totally different things altogether?
Comment: Just powder it.
Comment: You should be able to tell by the CAS number (or similar identifiers) if the chemical is identical. Note that there may be solubility differences between different crystal modifications. As Ivan suggested, powdering it yourself should be possible.
Comment: I suspect so. Powder **is** made of small crystals, after all.
Comment: @IvanNeretin so it means powder form and crystal form is the same thing ?
Comment: Be careful with the chirality. Are you sure that both are l-menthol? One isn't a racemic mixture? That's my bet here.
Answer: Unless there is something bizarre going on (which should be mentioned more or less clear on the website/in the catalogue because no chemist would expect it), menthol will be menthol as there is only one compound defined as menthol. This compound is chiral, so I would expect a stereodescriptor. In its absence, I would not be sure whether I am dealing with a racemic sample (more likely in the case of a chemical supplier aimed at practicing chemists) or a natural, chiral sample (more likely in the case of a supplier selling to the general public).
Chiral menthol crystallises easily and nicely, and because crystals are easily separated from contaminants, they are often the preferred form of isolation of compounds for sale; especially since the crystals themselves very rarely contain impurities. While a powder can be the better choice for several purposes (e.g., weighing small sample amounts into a flask), it may not be as simple to produce. In the case of menthol, I expect the powder to derive from powdering the crystals. This is an extra step and thus costs more money.
Depending on how important the quality of the powder is to you, it may make more sense to buy the powder directly or to buy crystals and grind them to powder yourself. However, as I said above, I am very sure that they contain the same chemical in a comparable purity.
Answer: I believe the major difference is the grade and the purity. powder form is more expensive because it is additionally purified and process where the crystal form requires less processing step, thus cheaper


How does one practice contentment?

Question: Contentment (santosha) is one of the five niyamas in yoga. How does one actively practice contentment? Is it through meditation on certain feelings or something else? The other niyamas (cleanliness, austerity, self-study, prayer) seem more obvious in terms of what actions to do. Contentment almost seems like the opposite of actions. With contentment, what everyday actions does one take to practice this part of yoga?
Comment: The way I interpret contentment means 'Stop Complaining'. There are many things in life that we always feel 'Why did we get this, why not that'. Instead of thinking like that we can think 'Thank God I have got this. I will use this to the benefit of society'. That is contentment. However Absolute Contentment is the one of the goal of Yoga. Upon absolute contentment, one is infinitely happy where He is. He has no desires, no wants, and no sorrows. He is in other words, Liberated. Thus one can view contentment from two levels. Contentment as the Goal Vs contentment as a day-to-day practice.
Comment: `Santosha = 1 / RajoGuna`. Good question; to me even other 4 also don't look obvious, especially prayer.
Comment: It can be attained only by truly believing that what we have is good, necessary and sufficient. This belief can only be obtained through nitya -  anitya vastu vivechana, I think. This is the intellectual approach. Usually, a sense of serenity is attained experientially by introspecting and studying one's experiences, reactions and consequences. There is an element of the rational in this approach also but it can be more prolonged as it is reactive in nature. Please read up on sadhana chatushtayam
Comment: There is yoga mudra, called Santosh Mudra, which is very simple, but I don't know in which exactly book it is explain. To perform that mudra you have to raise the corners of the mouth, until you feel it in your cheeks (yes, is a smile, but performed in this exactly way). You have to feel the cheeks, a little effort, but not to much pain. There are some marmas (confluence of nadhis), and you are stimulating that. Then you have to keep it like that at least 3 minuts. It should go acompanied with Santosh Bhav (effort to feel Santosh).
Comment: If you can practices like this evey day one afeter another, just some minuts each, for at least 3 fortnights,  then you start to get in Santosh mood more easy and confortable. If can keep like this until 6 fortnights, you are natural in Santosh
Answer: As answer to your question, below is an excerpt from Yoga-Vasistha (Discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama to explain the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality). The sage told about four gate-keepers to the realm of freedom. The four gate-keepers are Santi (self-control or quietness of mind), Vichara (spirit of inquiry), Santosha (contentment) and Satsanga (good company). Here (search page 6) are the words of Sri Vasistha about Santosha (contentment):

What is contentment? To renounce all craving for what is not obtained unsought and to be satisfied with what comes unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them — this is contentment. As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will be subjected to sorrow. With the rise of contentment the purity of one's heart blooms. The contented man who possesses nothing owns the world.

Therefore, it is renunciation of powerful desire on one hand and satisfaction with what we have on the other that forms the practice of contentment.

How does one practice contentment?


First nautilus instance not showing / mounting (removable) devices in places pane

Question: Since a number of weeks I am having a strange issue with nautilus. Before when I inserted a CD, I would be prompted for an action, if I inserted a USB stick it would be automatically mounted and shown and disk partitions that were not automatically mounted at boot time were shown under Devices in the Places pane.
Then a number of weeks ago this just stopped working, I have a hunch that this happened when I created an additional account that was activated for automatic login for a while.
I have found out that when I just kill the initial nautilus -n instance started by gnome-session and then restart it from the desktop it will show the available devices (like an inserted CD) and I can then mount them by clicking. (Alternatively I can logout from the desktop and back on again). Still, this is pretty annoying to have to do time and again.
Yes I know about the configuration settings that have to do with this and yes the automount settings are activated.
I thought that there was maybe a relationship with the automatic logon but that appears not to be the case, if I disable that nautilus is still failing to show the devices the first time I login but showing them after logging out and back in again.
This is Ubuntu 11.10 32 bit, fully updated.
Answer: I now believe this issue is caused by gdu-notification-daemon crashing, which is a known bug (#932662).