How does crime start in a settlement

Question: If we think about it, small settlements start with no crime. When someone tries to steal something or kill an innocent person, he would get killed by the rest of the people. So, at what point of growth of a settlement will a large crime net start developing? Even better, when will crime start being a profitable action worth to take the risks for?
Comment: Crime becomes crime when people make a definition for it.
Comment: Someone with an *invaluable* skill commits a crime - a blacksmith say - they can't be killed, doing so would harm the whole community, equally you can't maim him, so you incarcerate him but not for too long, people need tools/weapons... what about the farmer at planting time? Etc, etc. Valuable members of society can't be dealt with the same way in small communities but it's also why politicians tend to get lighter punishments...
Comment: You forget extra-communal crime... "our harvest has been bad and we are hungry, let's raid the town down the river!" Anyway, I agree that "Crime" is a narrow definition that is needed in a big and complex society but has no sense in a small settlement where issues are handled in a more informal way. In that situation, you may be exiled because you killed your brother, but also just because you stepped in the cacique's or priest's shoes.
Answer: At a population of 150 people.
Why 150?
Because 150 is "Dunbar's number". It's the limit of how many people on person can have a social connection to.
There are two kinds of crime.
First there is crime committed for emotional reason. You slept with my wife, I punch you in the face (assault and battery). This kind of crime happens because of social connections, so it can happen in communities of any size. It could happen when we three would be stranded on an island.
But you were talking about the second kind of crime: Professional crime which is committed for economical reasons. I need money, So I go to the marketplace and pick some pockets. This kind of crime is easier to commit on people you don't know personally, because not feeling empathy for the victims of said crime makes it easier to justify it emotionally.
Also, when everyone knows everyone, they also know everyones source of income. It would be impossible to live of crime under this condition. Sure, one could choose to isolate themselves from the rest of the group, but then that person would be suspect just for that. Money keeps disappearing, and that one guy who talks with nobody and doesn't seem to have any job doesn't seem to run out of cash? Something must be wrong about him, better investigate. But when the community exceeds Dunbar's number, you get used to interacting with people you don't personally know, so it might be possible for the lone thief to coexist with the rest of the population without standing out.
Another aspect you should keep in mind is that the biggest catalyst for professional crime is social inequality. It's no coincidence that in any larger society, those demographics of the population with the lowest income are also those with the highest crime rate. People on the lower end of society will turn to a life of crime because of jealousy or out of desperation. So the higher the social disparity in your society, the more likely that organized crime emerges.
Comment: @PeterMasiar Sexual assault is not an economical but an emotional crime, so how does it disprove my hypothesis?
Comment: This is insightful and probably really useful in thinking about the evolution of any group. I'm not sure where stigma and social exclusion would fit into this (e.g., the old woman nobody likes whom we all assume is a witch), since those are a kind of social misinformation that can happen in small groups -- but that's also not directly relevant to crime.
Comment: Very interesting but "Dunbar's number" rule is disproved by population of [Pitcairn Islands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands). With population less than 100 (currently 56) they had pretty bad sexual assaults. Unless you count those as "boys would be boys".
Comment: See [my answer](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/4134/how-does-crime-start-in-a-settlement/6675#6675) with Donner party example. How many counter-examples are needed to disprove any "rule" like that? In math, one is enough.
Answer: I think once the settlement reaches the point where not everyone knows one another, crime would become more of an issue. In a small, tight knit social community, there would be a lot of peer pressure to fit in and adhere to the the socially correct behaviors.
I think criminals being killed is a pretty big assumption to make. Most likely, the greater threat would be exile (murder may be the exception here). For minor crimes, social shaming would be another large factor. In general, how crimes are treated will depend a lot more on the justice system or the religious or moral beliefs of the community.
People will always find crime profitable, it's just a question of how much they can get away with. In cities the opportunities are much greater and anonymity gives you protection. In small settlements, everyone knows each other and there's a lot less trouble you can get into.
I'd also question the assumption that small settlements start with no crime (which also depends on the definition of crime). Ever hear stories about sordid going-ons or murders in small towns? True, if you look at the police report section of small town newspapers, it tends to be mainly people growing weed in their parents backyard or driving while drunk. But a smaller population in general will produce fewer crimes than a larger population.
Also, other factors would play into the growth of a crime net. Look at the Prohibition era in the United States - the ban on alcohol gave rise to the growth of mobs and gangs, who made a tremendous profit. Are there specific laws that large numbers of people want to break? Is there a large demand for an illegal good? Are certain crimes not prosecuted and considered "safe" to commit?
Comment: "and there's a lot less trouble you can get into." Did you mean *more* instead of less?
Comment: No, I meant that there was less opportunity for crime in a small settlement - less to steal, ect.
Answer:
If we think about it, small settlements start with no crime.

I think this is an extremely questionable assertion. I'd accept that it starts with small crimes: stealing the milk, minor bullying, etc. but I doubt you can gather any collective of humans without there being bad behaviour. It tends not to be dealt with through judicial means if it occurs at the lower end and may thus be not considered crime but it's always there.
What happens as the settlement increases is that potential for anonymity, potential for unearned rewards and the potential for factions or individuals within the settlement to come into conflict increase. This increase drives an increase in both the frequency and severity of the crimes.
Answer: This was a comment, but it got a bit too long. I agree with CoolCurry that anonymity is a very likely way this could start; in fact, it was my first thought as well. Just look at people who act anonymously on the internet (or better, don't).
But as a counterpoint to that, you can also have crimes that result from feuds between two rival groups (e.g. Montagues & Capulets). In this case, everyone knows full well who the two sides are, but neither side can let go of some grudge. This could be about literally anything that two people can disagree over: money, property, politics, religion, behavior, a marriage… If you firmly believe that you're "right" about something, and the other guy is "wrong", then you may be willing to do whatever it takes to correct the perceived wrong, even if that means taking action outside of the law. Even if everyone knows who you are.
Answer: Crime does not exist per se...It is a social construct, meaning that it is kind of artificial. And like any other, or at least the most of, social phenomena it is hard to find "math formula" for explaining it.Our society is based on things which are allowed and things which are forbiden.Things which are forbidden become crime. Now the question is how, where and who made list for allowed and forbidden things? This is the point where the connections with settlement size appear. When settlement starts growing everybody, basically have same amount of wealth, everyone are producing goods for personal use, roughly everyone have the same manpower (family members).As the population is getting bigger and bigger new people are behind "old" one, because they have to start from scratch. At some point that is not possible anymore; they are forced to work for earlier established families.Now, not all of the "old" families can afford to pay help, depending on many things, some of them are random.Gradualy, those who can hire help are getting richer and richer, while the others are getting poorer. Now wealthier want to protect their wealth and possition.Thats how the laws were made. Of course you can guess who wrote them? Now that we have law we have a criminal. So short answer to your question is criminal starts when social segregation appear, and when small group of people succeed  to force their interests to whole community.
Trivia: There is a Tibetan legend on how all of evil came to our world, and how crime started: In the beginning people looked like Gods, they were made of light, good and honest. They were eating something like a corn which was growing from the earth. Every person had its own plant, and every day one new fruit would appear on every plant, and one fruit was enough to get them through the day. One day on someone's tree 2 fruits have appeared; he picked both and eat them. Next morning there was no fruit on his plant, (because day before he got 2 I guess), so he went to some other plant and stole a fruit. Since owner of that fruit would stay hungry, and then he had to take fruit from someone's plant. The rest we all know :)
Comment: Those words you're using don't exist *per se*, they're a social construct.
Answer: Means, motive and opportunity.
Means x Motive x Opportunity = Chance of crime

All three factors must exist for a crime to take place. All considerations must be examined through these three factors.

when will crime start being a profitable action worth to take the risks for?

Risk can be mostly assessed as a question of motive. Regardless of the level of risk, is there sufficient motive to deem that risk acceptable?
What influences motive? The pay-off of accomplishing the crime without punishment, and/or the impact of not accomplishing the crime. Carrot and/or pointy stick.
Let's look at a straight-forward pointy stick motivation. Hunger. Is hunger a direct factor of population size? No. It's a matter of the societies ability to feed the masses. In a utopia, you could feed millions, the hunger motive never surfaces. But for a dozen people in isolation with limited supplies, there's pretty quickly motive to steal food from each other, or kill and eat one another.
Population x Chance of hunger x Moral compass factor = Motive

What would I consider to be a moral compass factor? Well there's some people that regardless of motive, just won't do it. It's their up-bringing, it's their morals.
Back to the other factors though, regardless of motivation, a crime isn't going to happen if the would-be protagonist doesn't also have the means and the opportunity. Under incarceration or some other police-state, means and opportunity are closely controlled in an effort to mitigate what may be a high-motive situation for the population.

at what point of growth of a settlement...

If growth is to be simplified as population size, then consider it only (per above), as one factor in the overall calculation.
Answer: Crime starts in settlements of at least 2 people.
Take a two year old with a one year old. Left unsupervised, the two year old will kill the one year old.
Or take another violent crime, assault and battery, but no killings. Practically in every family, children will assault and batter each other. And of course, children will also steal from each other.
The parents will be the ones to either condone or punish such behavior.  So in that sense, the parents decide whether something is a crime, or not a crime.  And that decision is made internally and enforced internally by the parent(s), or babysitter, or teacher/principal.
Unfortunately, parents do not keep paper records of their children's crimes. Plus, it's not like they really need to do that. Those incidents are dealt internally anyway.
Comment: Citation: personal experience.  Except it wasn't "kill the one year old" so much as "steal their toys and pull their hair," which, for all intensive purposes, is criminal toddler behavior ;)
Comment: Could you cite some of the claims you make here?
Answer: I do not know the answer, but...
Both top-rated answers rely on group size to keep members non-anonymous. I don't think that is enough.
I know that social sciences is not a real hard science, but the "Dunbar's number" rule is disproved by the population of Pitcairn Islands. With a population of less than 100 (currently 56) they had pretty bad sexual assaults - worst per capita in whole world. Non-anonymity, or religion, did not prevented that.
Unless you count those assaults as "boys would be boys".
Donner party got stuck in snow in winter on Oregon trail and resorted to cannibalism to survive. Was it crime?
How many counter-examples are needed to disprove a "rule" in sociology as invalid?
So your answer might need better definition of acceptable/unacceptable crime, and cultural expectations.
My guess is that number is as low as two - depending on circumstances.
Answer: I would argue that "crime" already starts with having multiple people around, but then it is not called a "crime", but simply socially inacceptable, and dealt with differently.
For example, imagine there are few families, a member of one family commits a "crime" against someone from another family. As there will be much intermarriage and connection, this will lead to larger family disputes (e.g. aunt doesn't visit anymore, because the guy treated someone in her family badly), and perhaps eventually to feuds.
Only when the society becomes large enough is there a need for a more formal way of dealing with such issues, and only then is a "crime" properly defined and treated as such (in early societies, there was much more often a form of compensation, even for losing limbs or killing someone, eventually, exile or even death).

How does crime start in a settlement


Post wall message on facebook account

Question: I am trying to implement some functionality in a blackberry app, that I saw in other application.
Basically it's a window that has a message, and a Facebook icon. When you click on the icon it launches a new window, this window asks the user for permissions(user and password), and then the message is posted in the user's wall.
So my question is how can I replicate that?. I have been looking at the graph api, but I just can't figure out how to do all of this in one step. I mean just typing the url in the browser, and some post data.
Thanks a lot.
Answer: Have you looked at the Facebook BlackBerry SDK project? Facebook BlackBerry SDK

Post wall message on facebook account


Why doesn't the second chapter of B'reishit begin at 2:4?

Question: Why is the first chapter break in B'reishit where it is, and not a few verses later at the beginning of the second creation telling (where we place the aliya break)?
Comment: @avi yeah, correlation is not causality. :-)
Comment: Because people talk about the "Six days of creation" and not the "seven days of creation"  (cart before horse here...)
Answer: As l' said, the chapter divisions are indeed of Christian origin. This article says that the originator of this division separated Shabbos from the other weekdays for reasons having to do with Christian theology, but doesn't specify how. I seem to recall reading a suggestion that the idea behind it was to downplay our Shabbos in favor of their Sunday.
Comment: I was under the impression that "their Sunday" [has nothing to do with](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/9) "our Shabbos".
Comment: Maybe. I'm not entirely sure if they view Shabbos as holier than the other days or not. But in my mind, "disassociating it from the other days of the week" suggests that it *is* holier than the others. Unless you're saying that they wanted to "hide" the Shabbos passage by placing it in the next chapter so that anyone who just reads chapter one but never gets around to chapter two will never see it. That seems like a stretch, though, and kind of naive on their part.
Comment: @jake: right, that seems to be the idea. To them, Saturday is not the day that Hashem blessed, etc.; since they couldn't expunge those three verses from their Bible, they moved them to another chapter, as if to suggest that the six days of creation - headed by Sunday - stand on their own.
Comment: What I was trying to say was that I don't think Christians disagree with the fact that the Sabbath is blessed by God and holy etc. The reason they don't observe Shabbos like we do is the same reason they don't follow all the rest of halacha like we do. And the reason they pray on Sunday is not because they believe it to be any better that Saturday.
Comment: @jake: they might indeed not *keep* Shabbos because of the considerations you mention (and indeed, the mitzvah to keep it is addressed specifically to "the children of Israel"). But the description in Bereishis simply says that it's a holy day, yet most Christian denominations don't consider it any different than the other days of the week - so in effect, they are disagreeing with the idea that it has any special status. Dissociating it from the other days of the week subtly suggests that idea.
Answer: Many chumashim at the end of each of the five books list the number of pesukim and the number of parshas and the number of chapters in each book. For example, at the end of the book of Bereishis it says that there are 1534 pesukim, twelve parshas and fifty chapters.
But note also that it says וסדריו מ"ג - and the number of sedarim is 43. These sedarim are the original, Jewish divisions of the Tanach handed down to us by the Baalei Hamesorah, and if you look in the Koren Tanach you will see these marked in the wider, outside margin (to give them more prominence). And the second sedra starts at Bereishis 2:4, which is the logical place as was pointed out in the question.

What follows is a summary of the historical background of this topic from the sefer מודע לבינה here, some of which has already been mentioned in previous answers and comments, but he adds more details and brings sources:
R. Eliyahu HaLevi in his introduction to his sefer הבחור writes that the division into chapters is not part of our tradition from the Baalei Hamesorah (the Masters of the Tradition), but are the invention of the person who first translated the Tanach into Latin (according to the Koren Tanach this was an English priest in the 13th century) and saw the need to divide up the books, and so divided them up according to his own logic. Later, in the year 5198 (1458) when R. Yitzchok Nasan came to write his sefer מאיר נתיב which is known as the Concordance, he was forced to use this division since it was already in widespread use in his day, and also because he did not have at that time an alternative division - that of the Baalei Hamesorah.
Later still, when printing presses became available and Sifrei Kodesh started to be printed, they also used this chapter division, and R. Yaakov ben Chaim in his introduction to the first edition of the Mikros Gedolos in the year 5286 (1546) apologized for this, saying that since he made extensive use of the Concordance in his editing of the Mikros Gedolos, he had to use the same divisions as that sefer had used. But he added that if he would have had available the division of the Baalei Hamesorah he would have preferred to use that. And afterwards, when he had nearly finished the preparations for printing, he finally found the division of the Baalei Hamesorah, and he decided to add it to the printing so that it would not become lost forever.
(In addition, the books of Shmuel, Melachim and Divrei Hayamim (Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are not divided into two according our tradition - this was also done by the Christians according to the Koren Tanach)
_
Comment: @MonicaCellio related http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/31437/759
Comment: Thanks!  I did not previously know about the numbering from the Baalei Hamesorah.
Comment: Ezra/Nechemia also is one book.
Answer: According to Wikipedia, the Chapters were divided by Christians, based on their understanding of the bible. Although we use their system, we only use it for reference. Regarding understanding, we have our own division, comprised of setumot, petuchot, aliyot (to some extent), and parshiyot. The breakup of chapters in no way represents Jewish understanding.
Answer: Perhaps, the reason is to distinguish the holiness of Shabbat from the rest of the week, which, in comparison, is more mundane.  Shabbat, being holy, is level two; and the rest of the week, being mundane, is only on level one.
Comment: Because it's both unsourced and very likely wrong.
Comment: Because it is irrelevant to Jewish Life and Learning.
Comment: Why is this a bad answer to the question?
Comment: Why very likely?
Comment: It's very likely wrong, because the likely answer is above. I.e. the christians wanted to reject the idea that any day is more holy than any other.
Comment: @avi – Whose answer?


Alternative for Access+SQL Server for enterprise projects

Question: We're a small software company, developing projects for manufacturing facilities about analysis, traceability, reporting etc. We're using Access for front end, SQL Server for back end. We've quite big customers too and our company is growing. So far it is working fine but I wonder should we move to more influential technologies, such as web based solutions. What do you think about the future of Access?
Comment: Are your software solutions custom built for each customer or do you sell the same product to each customer and then make minor changes once installed?
Answer: Applications written with Access and especially Excel tend to pop up in organizations whenever very specific business problems need to be solved quickly and in an ad-hoc manner with zero to minimal support from professional developers. These are GOOD and POWERFUL tools and this is a perfectly valid way to use them.
The problems start when requirements and problems become more complex and the existing ad-hoc systems based on Access or Excel can no longer keep up either because no one is maintaining them or the scale is just getting too large to handle.
I don't think your organization has these problems. Why? Because you probably have people dedicated to the development and maintenance of this product who presumably have strong control of the application and the way it scales. In the right hands and in the right context, Access is perfectly capable.
I think the real problem is finding people to develop/maintain this application in the long term. Access is just not as attractive/glamorous as other technologies. That alone could be enough to at least consider migrating to other application platforms.
Comment: I have to disagree - The first sentence is spot on & the second I have major issues with.  End users should not be writing mission critical applications and Access makes it so easy they end up doing so.  I have personally had to handle the fallout of poorly written, unsupported Access applications providing business critical functionality.  If I had my way Access would be uninstalled from end users' computers.  Excel is a whole different series of issues because every cell can contain a mini-program and the end users often haven't got a clue of how to test and validate the data...
Comment: I've done the same stuff cleaning up "fallout" from excel "super macros". However, that's just the reality of business. Sometimes things need to be done very quickly without the luxury of a dev team to do it right. That's OK. Many business applications start their life as a zany macro on somebody's laptop. The specific case of the OP is course different.
Answer: Access, the application, will be around for a long, long time.  It has value and a place in the IT world but Access is NOT an Enterprise level solution.  Period.
You need to build a front end in C# or VB.NET (assuming you're keeping in the MS stack).  You have a lot of choices, WinForms, WPF, ASP.NET, Silverlight.  And which one you choose will really depend upon your business, your application and the direction you want move towards.
If you are building your company on this application then it is time for the company to mature and grow up into a mature front end.
Comment: @Kyra sure, if you're a business analyst or sales professional. If you're a professional developer, there are much better tools available.
Comment: While I agree that Access is not an Enterprise solution as a database, it most certainly can be put to good use as an environment to develop the front end to a MS SQL Server database. Yes, there are other solutions to do the same, but the way MS Access is integrated with Office and with other MS solutions for the enterprise, it may be the easiest way to develop applications that need to integrate with all these technologies.
Comment: Great idea - use a general purpose framework and language to write 000's of lines of code to achieve the same result as Access, only it will be 'Enterprise' grade.
Comment: -1 for failure to support your assertion that Access isn't an enterprise-level solution.  There are multiple parts to Access: There's the Access front end, for application design, and the Jet database engine back end.  The Jet database engine doesn't support multiple users well enough to use it for an enterprise-level back end, but there's nothing wrong with using Access to create an application with a SQL Server back end.
Comment: Access is *slow* in some cases, even used as a front end to an MS SQL database. If you're working with large datasets, this is a concern.
Answer: Access will serve you fine as a front end, even for "Enterprise" applications. I'm not sure what you mean by "influential technologies", but more likely than not it is just hogwash. Tons of really massive companies use Access and (shudder) Excel to drive mission critical functionality, they won't balk at it one bit.  Hell, SharePoint is considered way more Enterprisey, and I'd pick Access over that lump of *&$(&$# anyday.
Web, desktop and other front end technologies should be employed when they meet a business need, not imbue your solution with some notion of worthiness. The whole issue sounds like a red herring.
Comment: I'm not a fan of the argument that "lots of people are using it, so it must be ok". Just because enterprises use Access doesn't make it an enterprise-level software development platform suitable for building software intended to be sold to enterprise customers.
Comment: Okay. Let me qualify that. I've seen it used **successfully** in many enterprise situations. There is nothing inherently wrong with the tool, you just have to match the right tool to the right job.
Comment: +1 -"Web, desktop and other front end technologies should be employed when they meet a business need"...end of story.
Answer: Enterprises care about solutions that work, are usable, can scale to their needs, and that the company behind them are responsive to change and can support the product.
General programming languages like C# or Java tend to get picked because they are assumed to be more flexible, but if you already have a solution in Access, it suggests to me that Access is a fine solution.
Here are some things I would consider:

Is the Access code maintainable?
Do you use source control?
How will you handle any customizations they might need?
Can you hire people to maintain it?

There are good and bad C#/Java solutions, and there are also good and bad Access solutions. Personally speaking, I think more of the CRUD/reporting apps we write with WPF/WinForms/Silverlight should be built with Access.
If you are confident your Access solution will meet the needs of your customers, don't let technical biases peer pressure you into rebuilding something that works.
What you may want to consider is how your product will change to meet enterprise demands. Instead of forms and data, would you like to build more intuitive and task-based user interfaces? If there are features you'd like to add that would be difficult or impossible to do in Access, then that may justify a switch.
(I say this as a WPF/ASP.NET programmer by day)
Answer: Access can be a great for inter-office application and small scale production applications but the fact of the matter is it just does not scale to enterprise level.
You mentioned that your company is growing and with that growth you need a better front end that represents the cutting edge of technology, and instills confidence in your clients about the technical expertise that your company provides.
Some options:
1) If you are considering a two-tier desktop based application then look at .NET Entity Framework as a persistence framework for your data access with SQLServer.  Your views can be designed using WPF.  It is one of the best combinations I have seen for two-tier desktop applications.
2) Web-Based, If you are considering the web based approach and you are not too keen on .NET technologies, then look at the J2EE framework and JSF with Hibernate as the persistence framework to SQLServer.  There are numerous component libararies available to create rich web applications with clean minimalist code.
Comment: WPF should only be considered if they are also changing the entire UX. If they are just going to rebuild the existing CRUD+Reports solution with WPF then they will get a slower, less maintainable result than sticking with Access.
Comment: @Paul - what is the difference between "changing the entire UX" and "rebuild the existing CRUD+Reports". It sounds like a rebuild is in order in either scenario. Also, why would WPF be slower and less maintainable if they did a rebuild? IME proper MVVM WPF leads to some of the most maintainable code around. Sure, if you slop it together with terrible design, it will not work well, but Access is no different in that case.
Answer: Microsoft Access no longer supports direct interaction with SQL Server (Access Data Projects) it's been removed from Access 2013- the only option is to go through a SharePoint enterprise external connector license which is literally $60 grand.
OpenOffice / LibreOffice has some great abilities to connect directly to mySQL. I haven't used them for a couple of years, but I'll go out on a limb and say that they're easier to use than Access / Jet / Linked Tables.  Client-Server is a more efficient algorithm, it always has been.. and it always will be.
Also, Microsoft "Visual Studio Lightswitch" is a great alternative to Access. It allows simple web-based data entry.. I've never integrated Reporting Services with lightswitch, but it seems like a dream come true.
Answer: If it is not broken don't fix it. I have used this phrase 2 times this day, and I am not sure it is professional enough but reality proves it is correct time after time...
It is good to anticipate change and be ready for it, but first, you need to clearly define your problem, for example:

Do you anticipate large volume of data?
Is there a lack of expertise in the current application?
Major changes in logic?
Do you anticipate more users?
Need for distributed processing?
Need for web access?
Need to support special devices?
Need to have more secured application?
And so on...

Without answering those questions, you will not be able to pick the right solution for the problem.
Fact: Any technology you pick today will be history in few years time. For example, WPF is now not as fancy as it was promised to be because Silverlight is the new kid in town and even that is being challenged by HTML5+JavaScript and the story goes on and on.
Make sure you add to the above list, the time you anticipate the change is need for and the ability of your staff or your organization to invest in human intellect needed for the migration.
Answer: I'm guessing that you know that your organisation isn't particularly mature and that you want to improve things and become more professional.  So, you will want to ensure you have bug tracking, version control, release control etc.
Given what you have & what you know I'd suggest dropping Access and moving to .NET winforms using VB as the programming language because that will be close to what you have at the moment but will be a lot easier to support - I don't think Access integrates well with version control for example.  Stick with SQL Server, it's a fine product.  Consider moving to C# instead of VB because C# is a better language & Microsoft is developing C# more actively.  It will be harder to make that jump though so you may want to start with VB.


Not remembering past life(s)?

Question: I wanted to ask how Buddhism explains why we don't remember our past lives?
Why bother with the Buddhist path when we will not remember this temporary life in our next? I heard that for example contrary to rebirth in the human realm, beings who are reborn in the Pureland of Amitabha can remember their past life. Why bother practice other methods and not only just focus on reaching Sukhavati?
If I won't remember the temporary "me" of this life in the next, why bother practicing at all? Isn't it better to know about my continuity in the next life for progression?
Comment: You can practice for happiness in this life. Whether you believe in rebirth or not, practicing for happiness in this life is a main concern. Some people attain the ability to recollect their previous births. But this ability comes after decades of consistent, disciplined practice.
Answer: Do you remember what you had for lunch yesterday? We remember only if we are interested in that thing or it is extremely important for us. We continually become because we are not happy with the past or present. The time of the arrow goes only forward.
Answer: Many new to Buddhism are stuck into these matters and created a feeling of discomfort, including myself.
But when I longer study Buddhism, it leads me to study something easier to understand like Karma in current life instead of past life. I.e. how to utilize the SWOT analysis soft skill?
If you are talking about past life, likely it will lead to past life Karma thinking which is very difficult to digest; even Einstein was not able to decode it completely.
So, why do you bother too much on it? Secondly, thinking too much about the past that you are unable to change or back to the future, that is impossible, just simply making you suffer psychologically and it is a negative thought.

Most of us spend a lot of time inside our own mind — worrying about
the future, replaying events in the past, and generally focusing on
the parts of life that leave us dissatisfied

(source)
Here is a so called proven story about incarnation by Mahatma Gandhi that is hardly believed to be false.
Answer: In the essay "To Suffer Is an Active Verb", Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:

This is one of the reasons
why the Buddha doesn't have us try to go back into the past and ask,
"What did I do to deserve an illness, a mental state, a situation in
life?" He said that if you tried to trace all those things back, you'd
go crazy. In fact, he said, you can't trace back and find a beginning
point for the ignorance that underlies suffering. But you can see what
you're doing to sustain it now.

So when things come up in life, don't ask yourself, "What kamma did I
do in the past that's making me suffer now?" or "What is somebody else
doing to me that's making me suffer?" The question is: "What am I
doing right now? To what extent am I actively creating the suffering?
To what extent can I see that it really is true that to suffer is an
active verb, that it all comes from my own actions?" When you see
that, you also see the opportunity not to do those things anymore.
You're not compelled to do them anymore. That's when you're free. As
for where the outside conditions came from in the past, that's no
longer an issue. The suffering you were creating moment to moment was
the only suffering that was weighing down the mind. And now you've
stopped.

The Buddha taught us to cultivate virtues and be ashamed of committing acts of misconduct, in order to avoid suffering in future. But we're not supposed to wallow in remorse over the past. Just learn the lessons of the past and move on quickly.
It's skillful to be ashamed of committing bad kamma, but it is not skillful to feel remorse over past kamma.
From AN 5.57:

"And for the sake of what benefit should a woman or a man, a
householder or one gone forth, often reflect thus: 'I am the owner of
my kamma, the heir of my kamma; I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my
relative, kamma as my resort; I will be the heir of whatever kamma,
good or bad, that I do'? People engage in misconduct by body, speech,
and mind. But when one often reflects upon this theme, such misconduct
is either completely abandoned or diminished.
Answer:
I wanted to ask how Buddhism explains why we don't remember our past lives?

Sabbe Dhamma Anatta. Memory is not me, mine or myself. If so, how do you expect to remember past lives?

Why bother with the Buddhist path when we will not remember this
temporary life in our next?

We do not wish to return. No more rebirths. We wish that this is the last birth of me. Why do we wish so? Because birth leads to suffering. How do we ensure we do not return? By following the noble 8 fold path (or the Buddhist path).

Not remembering past life(s)?


Books/Papers on Macroprudential Regulation

Question: I am looking for some good introductory papers or possible books on macroprudential regulation.
Comment: Let's keep it again again at one paper/book per post, so that users can vote on the individual suggestions.
Comment: In order for this question to be as helpful as the answers it has received, I believe you should include a _definition_ of "macroprudential regulation" , even if it would be only a working one. One-liner answers are not in the SE spirit -nor are one-liner questions. What are the  characteristics of "macroprudential regulation" that distinguishes  it from any other regulation,as you understand it or as you have found in your initial readings?
Answer: It's not really introductory in the sense that it focusses on what Macro-Prodential means (reducing risk at the cost of efficiency), but rather applied: Martin and Philippon (2014) analyze the great recession in Europe and simulate to what end more macruprudential policies would have ameliorated the situation.

We provide a first comprehensive account of the dynamics of Eurozone
  countries from the creation of the Euro to the Great recession. We
  model each country as an open economy within a monetary union and
  analyze the dynamics of private leverage, fiscal policy and spreads.
  Our parsimonious model can replicate the time-series for nominal GDP,
  employment, and net exports of Eurozone countries between 2000 and
  2012. We then ask how periphery countries would have fared with: (i) more conservative fiscal policies; (ii) macro-prudential tools to
  control private leverage; (iii) a central bank acting earlier to limit
  sovereign spreads; and (iv) the possibility to recoup the
  competitiveness they lost in the boom.
Answer: A good historical survey is "The History of Cyclical Macroprudential Policy in the United States" by Elliot, Feldberg, and Lehnert:

Since the financial crisis of 2007-2009, policymakers have debated the need
  for a new toolkit of cyclical "macroprudential" policies to constrain the
  build-up of risks in financial markets, for example, by dampening credit-fueled
  asset bubbles. These discussions tend to ignore America's long and
  varied history with many of the instruments under consideration to smooth
  the credit cycle, presumably because of their sparse usage in the last three
  decades. We provide the first comprehensive survey and historic narrative
  of these efforts. The tools whose background and use we describe include
  underwriting standards, reserve requirements, deposit rate ceilings, credit
  growth limits, supervisory pressure, and other financial regulatory policy
  actions. The contemporary debates over these tools highlighted a variety of
  concerns, including "speculation," undesirable rates of inflation, and high
  levels of consumer spending, among others. Ongoing statistical work
  suggests that macroprudential tightening lowers consumer debt but
  macroprudential easing does not increase it.
Answer: Restoring Financial Stability, a series of essays focusing on policies to address the issues that led to the most recent crisis, edited by Viral Acharya and Matthew Richardson, is good and accessible.


AJAXControlToolkit TabContainer - bug in dynamically adding/removing tabs?

Question: I am using AjaxControlToolkit version 4.1.40412.0, .NET 4.0, VS2010
Using the TabContainer control I want to add/remove tabs dynamically, but it looks like all of my dynamic changes are not persistent. Here is my scenario: I start with a tabcontainer with 1 tabpanel (hardcoded, i.e. added at design time), then dynamically I add more tabpanels and hide the original tabpanel (run time). As expected I see only the new tabpanels on the page, however any time I try to select a different tab the whole control reverts back to its design time state, i.e. only shows the original tabpanel, which was supposed to be gone and the new tabpanels are nowhere to be found. What am I missing? I guess as a workaround I can add 50 or so tabs at design time and then dynamically hide/display rather than remove/add, but this seems clunky, sloppy and unnecessary.
Here is my code if you want to duplicate the issue:
ASPX
<%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="WebForm1.aspx.vb" Inherits="WebApplication1.WebForm1" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" TagPrefix="asp" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

    <title></title>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="ToolkitScriptManager1" runat="server"/>
    <asp:TabContainer ID="tcMain" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true" ScrollBars="auto" >
    <asp:TabPanel ID="tbTab0" runat="server" HeaderText="Tab0"/>
    </asp:TabContainer>

    </form>

ASPX.VB
Public Class WebForm1
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
            For i As Integer = 0 To 3
                Dim ol As New Label
                ol.Text = i.ToString
                Dim oT As New AjaxControlToolkit.TabPanel
                oT.Controls.Add(ol)
                oT.HeaderText = i.ToString
                tcMain.Tabs.Add(oT)
            Next
            For i As Integer = 1 To tcMain.Tabs.Count
                If tcMain.Tabs(tcMain.Tabs.Count - i).HeaderText = "Tab0" Then tcMain.Tabs.RemoveAt(tcMain.Tabs.Count - i)
            Next
        End If
    End Sub

End Class

Note: If you comment out "If Not Page.IsPostBack Then" , i.e. run the code under it on every page load, the tabcontainer works as expected - I can select any tab without problems. In my real project this cannot be the solution though - I will be adding/removing tabs based on user input, so unless I keep a log of all changes ever made to the control I cannot load those changes every time the page loads.
Answer: You need to run your code in the page init or pre init, because by the page load, the page is already built along with the view state.


How can an admin edit questions on questionnaire after it has been submitted?

Question: I'm working on an app where each user has a profile with questions about themselves to fill out. The questions are things like "Tell us about yourself." and "If you could meet one person from history, who would it be and why?"
I would like to make it possible for administrators to add, edit, or delete these questions after users have answered them but I'm not sure how to accomplish this. If 10,000 users have filled out an answer to a question and the administrator edits it to ask something else, all profiles now have an answer that doesn't match the question.

It might be a bad idea to let them have any control over these questions. If that's the case, I'd like some reasons why. Thanks!
Comment: You have to ask if it bad idea to edit the question after you have an answer?  What is the value to an answer that does not match the question?  This is more a data issue.  In the database have a question table and an answer table.  In the question table have an column active - only display the active questions to the user.
Answer: In the described scenario, you should never provide an edit option or you'll have the problem you're mentioning. Basically, you're writing to a database, so let's say I have this question and answer:

Q: roses are red, sky is...
A: blue

And now I edit the question, effectively overwriting the database's value:

Q: Your teacher is...
A: blue

Which can provide some really funny moments, but I assume that's not your intention.
Also, the way you want your questions, they might only need minor changes (enunciation, grammar) or be deleted altogether. There's no middle point, so editing is not necessary at all.
Back to your scenario, it could be a good idea to allow to add or delete questions if your clients really need that option, but unless this is some kind of "open" project, such as a CMS or software you're going to sell, I really don't see a reason to do it. Furthermore, the purpose of UX is to narrow those options to the most effective one, not to let your users do whatever they want (again, unless that's exactly what they need)
Comment: I completely agree that editing the questions is not a good idea. I'm just not crazy about the idea of deleting/archiving a question and losing all users' answers either. This is for software to be sold. We are providing 3 questions in our MVP, but I would like to figure out how to give administrators control over questions in the future.
Comment: but in fact this is what you need to decide. Think about this: let's say you buy a car, and then you customize it. All the changes you apply with that customizations means that something else was lost. Same happens in an UX flow: you follow one path, you won't follow all possible paths at the same time (unless you're dealing with quantum mechanics, ha!), so you need to narrow choices and offer your users a logical UX. This being said, you could always allow edit and make the users aware of what will happen after they do that. But like I said, I wouldn't recommend it at all
Answer: Rather than allowing the administrator to add, edit, and delete questions, consider allowing the administrator to add or archive questions instead. In this way, the administrator could change the questions to be displayed on the profile without the danger of creating nonsensical answers to questions.
Archiving questions also provides for the case in which users' profiles have a required amount of questions, if a user has yet to answer the new question, because the old question has not been deleted but merely archived, the old question and answer can still be displayed, and the user's profile won't end up being empty and incomplete, assuming the answers to the questions are required in the first place.


How to perform homomorphic multiplication in ElGamal?

Question: How can I compute homomorphic multiplication in ElGamal? That is: Given two ciphertexts $(R_1,c_1)$ and $(R_2,c_2)$ corresponding to plaintexts $m_1$ and $m_2$ under some public key; how can I compute a ciphertext $(R,c)$ that is an encryption of $m_1\cdot m_2$ under that same public key?
Comment: Just apply the group operation componentwise to the ciphertexts. No, you dont need the messages. Btw. shouldnt be that hard to find a resource after seconds of searching the web.
Answer: Assume we are working in a cyclic group $G$ with generator $g$ and let $A$ denote the public key in use.
From the definition of ElGamal encryption, we have $R_i = g^{r_i}$ and $c_i=A^{r_i}\cdot m_i$, where $r_i$ is some random number, for $i\in\{1,2\}$. Hence, with $R:=R_1\cdot R_2$ and $c:=c_1\cdot c_2$ (where $\cdot$ denotes $G$'s operation), we have obtained
$$ R = g^{r_1}\cdot g^{r_2} = g^{r_1+r_2} $$
and
$$ c = A^{r_1}m_1\cdot A^{r_2}m_2 = A^{r_1+r_2}\cdot m_1m_2 \text, $$
so $(R,c)$ is precisely an encryption of the message $m_1\cdot m_2$.


Flex: air application update some files

Question: I have 4 projects:
1.- AIR desktop application project (modular app) (app.swf 170kb)
2.- Controls/Components library project (1.2mb)
3.- Core library project (150kb)
4.- Styles/Skins/Assets library project (3.5mb)
2, 3, 4 are linked as RSL in 1
3, 4 are linked as External in 2
4 are linked as External in 3
I want to update only 1, 2, 3 and/or 4... For example, I want to update/upgrade only 1 and 2.
I tried with ApplicationUpdaterUI, building only files I needed, but this replace all folder content and paste the files archived on package.
I try packaging all files, manually extract the files from package and paste them (only files updated) in application folder, but doesn't work... If I paste the 4 swfs, application run perfectly...
I understand that Flex creates a placeholder for RSL libraries, but I think also that registers something like the CLSID of rsl swfs in app.swf.
I tried with ANT also... same results...
What are my options? Using Air Desktop Application...
Answer: I found a solution:
2, 3 and 4 are linked "External".
In AIR application, I build all functions for check remote config (config.xml) file with library, modules and assets versions. The application download and save all swf files has needed to be updated. After that, application load all files with loader.loadBytes(). Default framework linkage is RSL.
Only AIR application must be updated with ApplicationUpdaterUI, but libraries, modules and assets (will be updated constantly) are updated on demand.
Sorry for my english.
I hope this help someone.

Flex: air application update some files


2003 Honda Civic battery won't stay charged

Question: My 2003 Honda Civic sometimes won't start. It will start with a Jump, and then may be fine for a couple of weeks, or a couple of days. This has been going on for a while. The Starter and battery are new, and the alternator tests fine. Everything checks out fine in the charging system. It's like once in a while something drains the battery very fast. Last Friday, I replaced the battery. I drove the car all weekend, I had auto zone check the charging system, and it was fine. I drove the car to school on Monday, and it wouldn't start at lunch until I got someone to jump it. I took it to another auto parts store and everything tested fine. Does anyone have any ideas? Also, every now and then all my gauges stop working for a couple of minutes.I don't know if that is related.
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! If the battery, starter, and alternator check out fine, the only thing left is the wiring. I'd suggest there's a wire which has a poor connection, be it the ground or the positive lead. My '03 Civic did this once. The entire car went dead when I tried to start it. I wiggled one of the main wires to the battery (don't remember which, but think it was the positive) and it started right up. That was three weeks ago and I've not had it do the same thing again (but fully expect it to happen in the future).
Comment: Auto parts store battery and alternator tester are not very reliable.  You're fortunate to get an employee that knows how to configure either a battery or alternator for a test. And even if you do that; as I've seen on 2 occasions, 1 test say alternator is good and 1 said it's failed.
Answer: you have a bad battery cable.  Most likely the ground wire.  The next time it doesn't start, have someone wiggle around on the wiring while you try starting it.
Answer: You seem to have a parasitic draw which is slowly using battery power up when car id off-suggest a parasitc draw test


Why is there gas in oil building up in my airbox tube

Question: Oil and gas in black tube that comes from the airbox to I would say the intake
Comment: please add some details,brand,model and km.
Answer: The engine is producing more blow-by gasses than the PCV system can handle. 3 solutions have been used to remedy: 1. Increase the flow rate of the PCV valve by owner modification. 2. A separator placed in the hose to the airbox ( a can or jar with In and Out hose fittings) 3. The air flowing thru the crankcase needn't be filtered so route the hose down towards the ground as the air source of the PCV system.
Comment: This is common blow-by. What is your oil level like? too much oil will create more as the crank case preasure increases. You can install a 'catch can' inbetween the crank vent and airbox to stop it going into the airfilter housing.
Comment: Or if there is an independent PCV filter in the air-filter housing -- it is saturated and needs to be replaced.
Answer: You should put Car's Year, Model, engine type first in order to respond to your question more accurately as possible.
I have a 2011 BMW X6 Direct Inject engine and it builds up some goo(oil+water+dust)inside of intake pipe. I usually clean up once a year but many people recommend to add OIL CATCH CAN to reduce the oil gunk that flows into the intake to burn.


Mixing in IoC containers in asp.net mvc website project with Sitecore 8.2 and latest glass mapper

Question: We are in the process of upgrading website (sitecore 7.2 + glass.mapper 4.0 + glass.mapper.castlewindsor) to sitecore 8.2 + glass.mapper 4.3. Glass.Mapper.Sc.CastleWindsor has been discontinued and I came across an outdated article http://www.glass.lu/Blog/MixingInIoc. Is there any latest documentation to integrating IoC with Glass.Mapper? Please advice.
Answer: In Sitecore 8.2 the old (good) config-based Sitecore Factory IoC container has been extended and integrated with Microsoft DependencyInjection. Both frameworks are available OOTB now which allows to configure dependencies using either config files or code-based approach.
Before switching back to Castle Windsor (and paying the integration price), you may want to evaluate the Microsoft DependencyInjection capabilities and decide if this functionality is sufficient for the project needs. You can also read more about the new Siteore DI in this article.
Comment: Hi @Serge, I was looking for glass mapper documentation so that i can use the same IoC for glass mapper classes in addition to using IoC for sitecore.
Answer: We could use latest glass mapper without mixing IoC and Request for documentation to mix in IoC has been created here  https://github.com/mikeedwards83/Glass.Mapper/issues/308


Kashruth Issues with Dog Food?

Question: If someone is keeping a vegetarian/milk household, and then they acquire a dog that eats meat based dog food products, what potential Kashruth issues might arise? Would there be difference in Kashruth between wet or dry dog food?
Comment: Does the dog food need to be cooked or stored in the regular dishes?
Comment: @Aaron, sounds like you should be talking to a Rabbi.
Comment: AFAIK, feeding the dog non-kosher meat in a reserved dog dish is OK. However, handling a meat / dairy mizture I believe is a problem. Many dog foods mix meat with cheese, e.g. Passover poses its own separate problems.
Comment: No, it won't need to be cooked, or served in regular dishes, however, there will be instances of pouring the food from a bag to the dog bowl and it spilling onto the counters, or silverware or plateware
Comment: @Yishai i'm not asking for a psak, i believe i have a fair understanding of Kashruth, but i couldn't find much info on Mi Yodeya, and one never knows if there is some unheard of category of rules when it comes to something.
Comment: Generally speaking, in any case, it would probably be best to be careful where you pour the food. The food is not Kosher. This is not really a problem of meat and milk, rather a question of preparing not kosher food in an environment you want to keep Kosher. therefore you should probably designate a separate area to prepare it.
Comment: @Aaron, the question is not asking for Psak. I was commenting on your comment. Once you get into questions of spilling on to counters, silverware or plateware, this is going to depend on some potentially fine points of Halacha and the asker's ability to navigate them.
Answer: Dog food is typically not Kosher. That's OK. One's dog does not need to be fed Kosher (compare with Shemos 22:30). However, that does not exempt the requirement to keep the food away from Kosher dishes. The exact details of "away" are a bit beyond this answer, but it would have to be kept away just like any other non-Kosher food, even though you are allowed to use it.
The exception is anything that one cannot derive benefit from. Feeding one's own dog is a benefit. So that means milk and meat mixtures are forbidden provided the combination is in such a way that it makes them biblically prohibited (see the link for details), as well as anything Chametz on the week of Passover - those are two common problems faced by dog owners in terms of sourcing food.
Comment: So what do frum dog owners do about dog food? Do they have to get kosher-certified dog food just so they know that there's no meat/dairy mixture?
Comment: @Daniel, in general they exclude the possibility of dairy by inquiries to the company and the like, AFAIK. I know at least one Kashrus agency that wouldn't touch dog food certification simply because they didn't want any implication a human should eat it.
Answer: The dog food is not Kosher, and should therefore not be prepared in an area or with vessels that you want to keep Kosher.
Be especially careful, if anything needs to be warmed up.
If it gets on your dishes or counter-top you should probably speak to your local Rav and ask what to do, though if it is cold and you completely remove it, it should not make too big a problem (I would still ask).
Best solution would probably be to cover the area you are going to pour over, or designate a separate dog food area.
Answer: You'll need to make sure that it's not meat and milk together, because it might have the issur of hano'oh (prohibition of having benefit) that applies to it.
For a much more in depth answer, check this out: http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5763/tetzaveh.html
Answer: i had originally accepted an answer stating to prepare this non Kosher dogfood in a separate area away from the area that i prepare my food. After consulting with my local Sephardi Rav, he said that these are the issues to be concerned with:

If the dogfood is never cooked, and always remained cold, then it is unlikely it will absorb into anything. Heat is required to make something absorb. So there isn't need to worry about if this food lands on any countertops, plates, etc. There is worry if bits land into my food, so i should prepare the dog's food at a separate time.
When cleaning, one should be careful to use lots of soap to render any leftover food particles pagul, and to clean any dishes that came into contact with it using cold water only. These concepts are laid forth in the Shulchan Arukh. Being any stricter than this is a chumra, and while beneficial, is not necessary.
The dog food should not have any mixture of meat or dairy in the dog food itself.

Kashruth Issues with Dog Food?


Does this patent mean that I can't create a transition windshield?

Question: Link to this patent.
I did a school project where we had to invent a product and a Photochromic windshield was my idea. So I was wondering if it was already patented by someone else?
Comment: http://www.google.com/patents/US6536828. I had this idea as well & was disappointed to see someone else had already patented it.
Answer: It is not uncommon to find out that someone has a patent related to your idea. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't make the invention or obtain your own patent.

Does the US6536828 patent mean that I can't create a transition windshield?

It depends on the patent claims. Your windshield design may be sufficiently different so that it does not infringe. If it does infringe, it may be possible to modify the design enough so that it doesn't infringe.
If your design does infringe and you are not able to change the design and you still want to import/build/sell that design, you still have a couple of options. You may be able to license the patent or purchase the original patent outright.

Does the US6536828 patent mean that I can't get a patent on my transition windshield design?

Again, it depends on the particulars of your invention.  If it isn't covered by this or any other similar patent out there, and it is not an obvious combination, you still may be able to obtain a patent.
You may also be able to improve upon an existing design and obtain a patent for that.


Keeping DAW separate to your internet PC

Question: What's the best way to keep your DAW separate to your internet/ email PC etc.
I want to keep it completely off the DAW but how do I do software updates and more importantly
what's the best way to receive files like OMF'S and send files to clients between your DAW and internet connected PC?
Comment: We might be able to give better advice if we knew why you wanted to maintain such a separation. Are you trying to avoid malware? Are you worried that internet access might hurt your productivity? Why would you want to do such a thing?
Answer: There is no productive way to keep the DAW away from internet.
I have 2 OS installed, both on a separate harddrive: 1 for Audio and 1 for everything else. But both systems are connected to the internet. The Audio system only by activating WLAN, but it is connected (and has to be).
By the way, i use Mac OS X and Carbon Copy Cloner, in case of software trouble it just needs 28 minutes to a fresh installed, perfectly running Audio System (but it takes some time to keep the images updated and tested).
Answer: Both my work and home DAW's are connected to the internet and have had zero issues, to be honest it speeds up my workflow. If I need an update or a specific application, plugin, etc I just download and install. As Nils points out I think the important part is backing up all your work and constantly mirroring your OS to insure no time lost if something does happen. Good luck!
Answer: Well..you can just keep airport -or similar in other OS- deactivated and activate it when you believe its time for an update?. Safer yet, you could keep airport forever off, and utilize an ethernet cable to connect, again, only when you believe necessary.
You can also connect both computers with an ethernet cable, and they can share files between them.
Usb?
Answer: Yeah, as sort of pointed out in the previous messages, the idea that a computer that's used for "productive" work should be disconnected from the internet is at most psychological, or then it's pseudopractice.
The common concern around has been that software updates (mainly full OS updates or something related to audio/media drivers) may break audio software and then prevent one from completing work. But to avoid that risk, one simply doesn't install any OS updates or any updates at all (unless sure that nothing will break). And doesn't use the newest (non-stable) versions of audio (or any) software. And if the person understands anything about computers then there's a very small subset of programs that may mess up stuff (mostly on Windows systems, or Linux in a beginner's hands).
Another concern is that using internet causes "garbage" to pile on the computer, which is not accurate. Yes stuff is cached, but it has no connection whatsoever to other applications. And the data doesn't take up that much space.
Even computer viruses are predominantly a Windows thing.


Origin of the Mustache Twirling Villain

Question: Whenever someone thinks about silent cinema the image of the laughing villain, twirling his mustache, and tying the hapless blonde beauty to the railroad, pops up in our collective memory. But in which movie (or movies) did that particular image first appear?
Comment: Are you particularly asking about just the villain with the twirled moustache, or also with the women tied to the tracks?
Comment: Both I guess, since they two images are often intertwined. I realize they might be a mashup of several scenes which is why I added (or movies)
Answer: The link in Neil Baker's comment to Luke McKernan's "Tied to the tracks" article also gives a very detailed history of a woman being tied to the tracks, occasionally by the evil villain twirling his moustache.

And all those who do know silent films know that such scenes were hackneyed even before films were invented, and the few films that did show them did so as parody.

Luke traces it back to an  1867 staged melodrama by Augustin Daly called Under the Gaslight, where a woman saves a man from the tracks in the nick of time. Later plays copied this, and at some point it switched to a man saving a woman.
In early film, such stage melodrama was out-of-date -- "so no more twirling of moustaches if you wanted your villain to be taken seriously" -- and instead film capitalised on recreating realism.
However films such as 1905's The Train Wreckers and 1911's The Attempt on the Special played it straight, where an unconscious woman is left on the tracks. But she was left there by a gang rather than the moustachioed villain.

The film that established the parodic idea, and which is often used to illustrate it, is Keystone's Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913), featuring real-life motor racer Barney Oldfield, Ford Sterling as the moustachioed villain and Mabel Normand as the victim.

The black moustache-twirling villain, often enshrouded in black and with a top hat, and the heroine in distress are two of the six stock characters of Victorian stage melodrama:

The Victorian stage melodrama featured, six stock characters: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an aged parent, a sidekick and a servant of the aged parent engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of love and murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the damsel in distress until fate intervenes at the end to ensure the triumph of good over evil.
Comment: Very interesting! The mustachioed villain being a cliche even before film never occurred to me. Makes much more sense now.
Answer: This made me think of an 1913 movie that Mack Sennett made called Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life. If I recall correctly, this film featured not only a mustachioed villain, but a woman tied to the train tracks!
Possibly the earliest version.
Comment: Just did some digging around, and have not only found an image from the film that is exactly what I was thinking of [link](http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/tied-to-the-tracks/), but also discovered a plethora of earlier films starring Ford Sterling, he of the mustache, so maybe it actually appears earlier...

Origin of the Mustache Twirling Villain


Is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) a good measure of my Japanese language ability?

Question: Given that there has been discussion by the Japanese government to use the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) as one of the measures by which permanent residences or citizenship might be granted, how good of a measure of it of actual real world Japanese skill? Does passing the level N1 test mean that you are on par with a native speaker or does it just show that you have advanced knowledge of the language?
Comment: You are optimistic to even ask whether passing the level N1 test means that you are on par with a native speaker. A non-native speaker of any language will almost never be on a par with a native speaker no matter how good they are. Seeing that there are lots of non-native speakers passing JLPT1, it is evident that passing it is not on a par with a native speaker. That shouldn't even come up as a question.
Answer: True fluency is rare, and involves more than passing a standardized test. I will refer you to an answer I gave in EL&U.SE which I quoted from my treasured copy of Jack Seward's Japanese in Action. He is talking about Japanese, but I removed all the specific-language references because it's a good measure for fluency in any language. EDIT: I've just added them back, since I found my copy of the book after cleaning out my office for the New Year. (^_^) The passage is now given as written, with only slight adjustments.

To be accurately judged fluent in Japanese, I believe a foreigner should have the following qualifications:

He should be able to conduct all his daily affairs (business, visits to the doctor, TV-ing, bar-hopping, lovemaking, etc.) completely in Japanese without strain.

His accent may not be perfect, but it should occasion no confusion or merriment among his listeners.

He should be able to read Japanese (newspapers, weekly magazines, and letters in the semi-cursive 行書 style), with only an occasional reference to a dictionary.

He goes on to propose that a test for fluency in the language should require the test taker to:

Translate a newspaper article

Speak in Japanese on the telephone, as a test of accent.

Write a letter in Japanese.

Interpret a taped conversation between two Japanese.

Comprehend a newscast.

Identify five major dialects.

Read a letter written in 行書.

Take a dictation test involving the writing of fifty 漢字 (kanji) from among the 当用漢字 (daily-use kanji) and give the principal readings of each.

Give the meanings of one hundred technical words or phrases (twenty each from the fields of medicine, law, economy, science, and the arts), to be selected by the testing committee as being understood by the average Japanese college graduate.

Walk down the street and read the first twenty signs to be sighted.

Give a ten-minute, impromptu talk about an everyday topic of conversation (sports, politics, travel, traffic, etc.), the topic to be selected by lottery.

BTW, much of the book is dated now, but is still a great source for understanding Japanese culture and language, and it's also very funny.
Comment: @istrasci: Yes, I don't consider myself fluent either. But remember this little caveat: the better your Japanese gets, the less your Japanese acquaintances will praise you for it.
Comment: @Nicolas Raoul: The answer to that specific question is covered here. If someone asks for a glass of water and you give them a barrel of water and a cup, is their thirst not slaked?
Comment: This blurs the concept of "fluency" way into the area of "competency" or "efficiency". The word "fluent" is related to "fluid" and just means you don't have to stop and translate in your head etc. You can be fluent with a small vocabulary and in limited situations. The original question didn't use this word though so was much clearer IMHO.
Comment: Agreed, although if you could do the majority of those things, you might consider yourself fluent.  Which begs the question, "what is fluency?"  I believe it's more of a personal definition.  For example, I don't consider myself truly fluent in Japanese, but many of my friends (Japanese and other) say that I am.
Comment: With that proposed test I wouldn't be considered fluent in my native language.
Comment: @CodesInChaos: Sad but true. A lot of people aren't really fluent in their native language.
Comment: Interesting! Question was specifically about JLPT, though.
Answer: First and foremost the JLPT does not have a speaking component. This means you may be able to recognise and understand grammar when reading or listening, but you may be unable to actually speak the language with any proficiency. This is my case exactly, I can understand far more than what I can express.
Secondly, the entire test is multiple choice. Multiple choice makes things a bit easier for the student and if you can eliminate the two "obviously false answers" you're left with a 50/50 shot of getting it right - I've seen people fake their way through exams with minimal knowledge of the content, but great "test taking skills".
It's very hard to gauge proficiency in language. However, the JLPT is definitely a good way of guiding your study. I've mainly been using the JLPT tests not for the piece of paper I receive for doing it, but as a study guide on where I should be focusing my study. It's a good guide to get you from beginner to advanced in terms of which kanji/grammar points you should know.
However, I guess if you're able to pass the JLPT N1 test, you're more than on your way to being "fluent".
Comment: @YOU - That's only if you make a pure guess, if you can remove two answers as obviously wrong then you are only left with two which is where the 50/50 chance comes from.
Comment: They are not True / False questions, but with multiple choice with 4 answers, so you only have 25% chance to get it right.
Comment: This sounds like the same kind of testing used for teaching English in the Japanese school system. A lot of people have huge English vocabularies but cannot form a sentence.
Comment: @Rob, Hum, I see. Looks like I didn't get that theory.
Answer: I can tell you that N1 is not meaning on par with a native speaker. Actually many japanese could not pass N1 with an high score without studying. That's because of many questions about grammar and kanji usage.
Still the test doesn't measure your active skill (speak and write) but only your passive ones. I know people who passed N1 but are not really fluent in everyday japanese.
Answer: Well i don't know if you will find this info useful, but here goes:
Daniel Levitin claims:

The emerging scientific picture is
  that 10,000 hours of practice is
  required to achieve the level of
  mastery associated with being a
  world-class expert in anything. In
  study after study, of composers,
  basketball players, fiction writers,
  ice skaters, concert pianists, chess
  players, master criminals, and what
  have you, this number comes up again
  and again.

Malcolm Gladwell also claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. (Outliers)
So if it only takes around 900 hours to pass JLPT 1, then we have not even reached 10% of the 10,000 hours requirement to mastery....
Comment: So it's easier to pass JLPT 1 than win an Olympic gold medal at ice skating? That gives us all some hope (-:
Comment: I'm pretty sure Gladwell was citing Levitin.
Comment: Well 10000 hours is a little over 416 days. So it'll take you about 1 year and 3 months to master... Japanese. In theory. Well. If that's all you did and you didn't sleep of course.
Comment: ^ Agree, it's a somewhat meaningless factoid distilled out of the original paper which was over 20 pages and much more complex. Giving you 8hr sleep a night, 20 months is still too short for a language. (On the other hand, I hit basic Japanese fluency after five semesters, which is 24 months; not a terrible comparison)
Answer: There is some useful information on this on the official website http://www.jlpt.jp/:

a summary of what organizers consider required for passing N1, and
a self evaluation of what successful candidates think they can do.

Summary of linguistic competence required for N1

The ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances.
Reading
・ One is able to read writings with logical complexity and/or abstract writings on a variety of topics, such as newspaper editorials and critiques, and comprehend both their structures and contents.
・ One is also able to read written materials with profound contents on various topics and follow their narratives as well as understand the intent of the writers comprehensively.
Listening
・ One is able to comprehend orally presented materials such as coherent conversations, news reports, and lectures, spoken at natural speed in a broad variety of settings, and is able to follow their ideas and comprehend their contents comprehensively. One is also able to understand the details of the presented materials such as the relationships among the people involved, the logical structures, and the essential points.

(http://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/levelsummary.html)
Can-Do self evaluation
The following is an excerpt of what candidates who barely pass N1 think they can do in Japanese:
Listening:

Less than one in four of those who barely pass N1 think they can understand the main points of TV news about politics, economics and similar topics.
Less than one in four think they can understand the general content when joining a conversation on a current topic currently covered by the media.
Between one and two in four think they can understand the general content of speeches in formal situations such as welcome parties.
Two to three in four think they can follow discussions when participating in school or work meetings.
More than three in four think they can understand the general content of small talk.

Speaking:

One to two in four believe they can express their opinion in a logical manner when joining discussions on topics they care about.
Two to three in four believe they can give a brief summary of the plot of a movie they have seen or a book they have read recently.
More than three in four believe they can give walking directions and directions for public transportation to locations they know well.

Reading:

One to two in four believe they can understand the main points in newspaper articles about politics or economics.
Two to three in four believe they can understand the main ideas in scientific and technical texts on topics they care about.
More than three in four believe they can understand the definitions given in a Japanese-Japanese dictionary.

(http://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/candolist.html)
I think this list makes it clear that passing N1 is far from being at native equivalent levels. The Japanese language school I attended considers N1 to be roughly comparable to B2 of the CEFR.
Answer: My opinion: No. Speaking is not tested and the Japanese you're tested on is not stuff you'll encounter in business or in daily conversation.
I've passed JLPT 1級 and received J1 on the Business Japanese Test (http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/). Studying for the latter was much more useful to me professionally and felt like a better gauge of working Japanese.
Background: I've worked in Japan for five consecutive years now. Three years in Japanese companies in a management position. Two years as a host in clubs in both Kabukicho and Minami while attending college here.
Comment: Btw,
is BJT international or Japan-only?
Comment: Inside and outside. But I've only taken it in Tokyo so I can't say beyond that.
http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/english/


Midi/usb interface sends "note on" instead of "note off" when 2 or more keys are released at once

Question: So i tried to setup my keyboard to my computer and some weird things happen. The first thing i did was testing it with midi-ox. Everything seemed to work until i started playing chords or just 2 notes at once. It seems like it only can register one note off at a time, but the weird thing is that it sends 1 note off and the rest note on when i release multiple notes at once, so it does register something. But if i remove one finger at a time works fine as you can see on the second image.
I really don't know what to do, could it be the interface? It was a cheap one from china.
Comment: There is a good reason why "note off" messages are sometimes sent as "note on with velocity zero" messages. It reduces the amount of data transmitted over the MIDI link. Google for "MIDI running status" if you want to know the details. But I don't know what you mean by a "MIDI converter". It might help to edit your question to say *what you are actually trying to do, and why it doesn't work.*  MIDI-OX might be irrelevant to solving the real problem.
Comment: Something cheap could indeed be buggy; one workaround would be to maintain state on what notes are on and ignore new note on events? MIDI otherwise lacks a message for "turn off multiple notes" so there will be individual messages over time for each note off event.
Comment: Can you recommend some converters which isn't "buggy" and not too expensive. I don't have the biggest budget.
Answer: Your USB/MIDI interface is this model:

which does not work: not only does it garble any messages using running status, but it also corrupts SysEx messages.
Buy any other USB/MIDI adapter.
Comment: It's actually exactly that one i have. So you think any other interface could do it? Also i cracked it open... It's missing some important components... I think i will try to solder the missing components and see if it will work. If it doesn't can you recommend any good and cheap usb/midi interfaces?
Comment: The problem is not the missing optocoupler circuit (and you'd also have to remove R11), which would just remove the risk of a ground loop. The biggest problem is the buggy firmware in the CH345 chip, which cannot be changed. *Any other* USB/MIDI interface will work.
Comment: I am seeing a slightly different thing where I am not getting any note off with this model of midi usb cable. I guess I should try another one, will try to remember to post back if that fixes it....
Comment: @ColinD This interface calls itself "USB2.0-MIDI", is that what you see?
Comment: It calls itself something different, it is this model https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017H4EBG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 on aplaymidi -i I get `VIEWCON.. MIDI 1`...it is an old synth dx21 but I have used something like this before...hmmm sorry lot of weird detail to add to the comment thread


Sentient Bomb in a city on the moon?

Question: I would like to know the title of the short story that I believe takes place on the moon.  The setting is a mall or some other very public location and the main character is a police officer.  She needs to talk a sentient bomb out of exploding.  I know there was the John Carpenter film "Dark Star" with a similar plot line but I'm trying to identify the short story and the author.
Comment: A nitpick:  The sentience was a human mind that was built into the bomb, the bomb was a perfectly ordinary uranium gun design otherwise.  It was just a future-tech version of a suicide bomber, I wouldn't really call the bomb sentient.
Comment: There's also a Philip K. Dick story with a similar plot (not happening on the moon or near a mall). And then there's *[The Centauri Device](http://www.zone-sf.com/wordworks/centdmjh.html)*.
Comment: @Loren - now that I've reread the story-it's probably been 15-20 years-I see that you are correct.
Comment: @Gilles - I'd love to know the name of the PKD story if you can recall.
Answer: John Varley's short story Bagatelle has this plot.
Original publication appears to have been 1976. My copy is in the 1980 anthology The Barbie Murders (named after a short story in the volume, for anyone who's starting to get confused).
It opens

There was a bomb on the Leystrasse, level forty-five, right outside the Bagatelle Flower and Gift Shoppe, about a hundred meters down the promenade from the Prosperity Plaza.
"I am a bomb," the bomb said to passersby. ...
Comment: **Aside:** I've often felt that Varley is particularly good at setting the hook in a few words. The opening to *Steel Beach* is a classic that way, and this story is a fine example as well.
Comment: That is absolutely it. Thanks!  Available online at http://web.archive.org/web/20070212114356/www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/varley/index.html
Comment: @stangeland +1 for link, will give it a read :)

Sentient Bomb in a city on the moon?


Synchronize 2 different iPhoto libraries

Question: I need a tool/script to synchronize two different iPhoto libraries between two Mac books. By now I want to have common albums with my mother and myself.
Is there anything to do this automatically via Internet or local network?
Answer: Is it possible that iPhoto Library Manager might be of any use for you in that situation? It's not free and I don't have any personal experiences with this software but from what I've read it seems to work.
Hope it helps.
Good luck.
Answer: What do you mean by "Sync".

The general term means when two Libraries (A and B) are compared and files in Library A are copied to Library B, while files in Library B are also copied to Library A so that both Libraries are identical.

This is bi-directional copying and you cannot do this automatically with iPhoto. No Syncing software is capable of parsing the iPhoto Library in this manner. One or both of your Libraries will be damaged if you try this.

You can have uni-directional copying - files in Library A are copied to Library B - this is essentially backing up. Obviously you can also copy from Library B to Library A.

The nearest you can get to syncing is to use iPhoto Library Manager to move files/Albums/Events plus associated metadata between Libraries. This process cannot be automated.
Comment: Actually I have a family photo library and I want that this library will be stored both on my computer and on my parent's computer.
Comment: The key question is where is this Library updated from. If you always do updates, additions, edits etc on your machine then you can simply back your library up to the other machine.
Comment: I update it from my photocamera. I think copy and overwrite each time photolibrary manually is a little bit complicated and doesnt resolves photo libraries merge conflicts
Comment: Sorry, I phrased that badly. Do you always update the library on one machine. If you add to this library on either machine then what you want to do is impossible. If you always use the same machine for imports, then you can back up to the other. And, incidentally, do simple incremental back ups.


Can we change sim's aspiration?

Question: I made a sim that like to build a family but I've notice that having a wife and kid gave me a hard time building up my career and make money. Can we change his aspiration so he would focus on other daily wants like making money ? Or I have to make a brand new sim ?
Answer: I believe there is an item purchasable with aspiration called the ReNuYuSenso Orb that can change your aspirations, turn-ons, and turn-offs. It's purchasable with roughly 7,000 aspiration points. As with all aspiration rewards, try to use this item with a gold Aspiration level or you might end up with the Grilled Cheese aspiration. This item is  only available in the Nightlife expansion.
Also, after you pass your sophomore year in college, your Sim can change aspirations. Of course, this is restricted to the University expansion.
Answer: Yes, it is possible to change you Sim's aspiration.
There is an Aspiration reward called the ReNuYuSenso Orb available for 6,250 Aspiration points. It will allow you to change your Sim's aspiration as well as turn-ons and turn-offs. It only has 5 uses in it though.
Do note that if you use it with your Aspiration level below gold, your primary aspiration may be changed to "Grilled Cheese", which will make you obsessed with grilled cheese sandwiches.
If you have the Free Time expansion, it can also change your secondary aspiration and your aspiration benefits.
If you have the University expansion, your Sim can change its aspiration after its sophomore year, but that may not be what you're aiming for if you already have a wife and kids.
Comment: I need to have nightlife expansion which I don't have :( and any of the others... Just open for business
Answer: There's also a cheat to do it.
Boolprop cheatsenabled true
And shift click your sim set aspiration

Can we change sim's aspiration?


Why system calls via interrupts are slow and thus we have SYSENTER/SYSEXIT instructions?

Question: As far as I understand we got SYSENTER/SYSEXIT instructions because system calls via interrupts were slow (right? I might be wrong though). Therefore my question is why system calls via interrupts are slow? And how do we optimize them via SYSENTER/SYSEXIT instructions? Thank you
Answer: There is the general rule about interrupts being slow, and the particular case of x86 CPUs.

x86 have had several ways to enter kernel mode : Call gates, interrupts. They are complex, microcoded instructions, requiring many register save operation and protection checks. SYSENTER/SYSEXIT are just optimised methods : For example, since the 80286, 4 protection levels were available, but rarely used (except, IIRC, by OS/2 ?) : SYSENTER/SYSEXIT support only ring 0 (user) to ring 3 (kernel)
On many instruction set architectures, software interrupts are used to enter kernel mode from user code. These instructions can be optimised, but, in the simplest implementation, they are handled like external hardware interrupts or MMU faults. They are slow because the pipeline must be flushed, prefetched instructions must be discarded, before jumping to the interrupt vector.
Comment: @firo : This question dates from 2015... Since last year, with Meltdown and Spectre and all that stuff, we know that Intel did not flush enough the pipeline and prediction hardware across system calls.
Comment: Doesn't SYSENTER/SYSEXIT flush pipeline?
Answer: A software interrupt (or call gate, for that matter) requires pushing a bunch of stuff onto the stack, and popping when the OS returns. SYSENTER/SYSEXIT does not.


"You can only post once every 20 minutes."

Question: Why can I only post once every 20 minutes? I have not posted a question in that last twenty minutes, I've only posted one answer. Does this rule apply to all users or just new users? At a minimum the count for questions and answers should be separated and the dialog box should be clear whether it applies to all user or (as I suspect) only new users. If it applies only to new users, this might be a reasonable rule for asking multiple questions, but penalizes new users for providing answers. Because I answered a question the system is now blocking me from getting an answer to my own question. Futhermore, I answered the question an hour ago. I only edited that answer in the last twenty minutes. Finally, and truly bizarrely, while the answer was on ask ubuntu meta, it still will not let me post a question on ask ubuntu, but it allowed this question here.
Comment: See: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4564/what-are-the-limits-and-restrictions-for-new-users New users also tend to post: "This didn't work", "Still having problem", etc. as answers, so making the restriction applicable to both questions and answers makes sense to me.
Answer: It looks like you are using the same IP as a bunch of other people. At least one of them is suggesting edits that have been marked as spam. These are anonymous suggested edits, so it's not you or any other user on this site; just someone who shares your IP.
Unfortunately, we don't have an easy way to tell the difference between legitimate users and spam users from a particular IP except by reputation. Our automated checks occasionally catch new users who happen to be coming from the same IP as malicious users. So the only thing I can suggest is to wait it out or use another IP to log in.
Comment: Would it be possible to use something other than the site reputation? Michael has an SO account with 700 rep, and only has low reputation here because he gave out a bounty.
Comment: @Gilles: That's a bit of an edge case. The nice thing about using reputation as a threshold is that people who have it generally care about their account enough that suspensions have bite. The other nice thing is that reputation is already denormalized in the database so looking it up doesn't take an extra join.
Answer: According to The Complete Rate-Limiting Guide on the main meta site, users with less than 125 reputation may only post a question every 20 minutes, and may only post an answer every 3 minutes. As far as I know, these limits are per site. In this case, the message should tell you which limits apply.
When you have low reputation (I think 40 is still low), if someone has been sending spam from your IP address, or if someone with a history of low-quality posts has been using your IP address for a while, you may be more restricted than normal. These limits are not documented precisely (to avoid spammers who post spam every X minutes by the clock).
I'm sorry, it does suck if you get caught in the backlash against a spammer, but the current spam filters have been very effective in eliminating a lot of manual cleanup work, so we can't do without them.
I do think that the filters shouldn't apply to you — you have a network account in good standing, and you'd have more than 100 rep here if you hadn't offered a bounty. The filters should probably not count bounties, or take the maximum reputation accross the network into account. Maybe it's too expensive to calculate a better number than the site reputation, however.
Answer: Have the same problem. I guess somebody spams something, whatever, let's just wait out.
First questions in weeks, maybe even months.
Comment: It looks like you are sharing an IP with someone (not @Michael) who is spamming the site with junky suggested edits. If you can move to another IP, you should be able to post again.
Comment: Thanks for the useful information, no idea why someone down-voted your answer (or my question).