Research related questions from industrial researchers to academic researchers

Question: If an academic researcher wants to ask research related question or to start a collaboration etc. with another academic researcher, it is usually a matter of a polite and specific email. I have seem such initiatives from academic researchers towards industrial researchers (e.g., a postdoc asking about technicalities of a paper written by a Google researcher directly to the Google researcher).
Is such research correspondence, without any prior research contracts/agreements between the academic institution and industrial researcher's company, also common from the other way around (i.e., an industrial researcher initiating a correspondence to an academic researcher)?
How about research correspondence between researchers in two different companies?
I am thinking of transiting to industrial research from academia and genuinely curious about this.
Comment: @GiuseppeBiondi-Zoccai, so does the industrial researcher have to ask the academic researcher to sign a form before starting a conversation? From the academic researcher's point of view, wouldn't it be strange to receive an email from an unknown researcher with a research question and also a request to sign a form? Not questioning the system, just curious how it works and how common it is.
Comment: Any type of contact is possible. However, do remember that if you do not sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement, anything discussed might be used and exploited. Accordingly, it is always best to have one signed beforehand if you wish to discuss something original and important. Anyway, collaboration between academia and industry, if well conducted, is truly beneficial for the advancement of knowledge.
Comment: Even academic researchers may have confidential projects or may consider filing a patent application. It depends on the risk that your idea is exploited by someone else. In my experience, if people ask me to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) it means they want to talk seriously about something new, so I am actually impressed favorably.
Answer: Disclosure: I am a researcher working in industry.
I think that the rule of thumb is: make it as simple as is wise, but not simpler (paraphrasing Einstein).
Always make it clear who you are (name, company, etc), and what your intent is (e.g., better understanding of a paper, creating your own implementation of an algorithm in a scientific publication for research purposes only, developing a new product based on a scientific publication, writing a patent, etc).
Be open and honest (e.g., do not claim that you just want to understand something, when in reality you want to use it in the development of a product).
If you are asking about quite generic technicalities (e.g., something you might also publicly ask to a speaker in a conference), you might just drop an email and ask. As long as you do not disclose any confidential information, and you do not expect so from the researcher, you just can ask the question.
When you do need to disclose confidential information (e.g., specifics about a product your company is developing), you will need to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
Also be aware that if you are asking the academic researcher to do work for you beyond just answering an email, or provide you with something of value (e.g., working code belonging to a scientific publication) a monetary reimbursement is in place.
For the latter two items it is quite likely that you will need to involve other people within your company (the legal department, a budget holder, your boss, ...) before reaching out.
Comment: thanks for the answer. How about industrial researcher to industrial researcher communications/collaborators?! Is it still possible though I am sure legally would be more involved?
Comment: @John: it depends about the specifics. Suppose you (as an industrial researcher) want to contact another industrial researcher regarding one of his/her publications. If he/she works for a direct competitor, it becomes difficult. If not, then it is similar to contacting an academic researcher.
Comment: FYI (re: paraphrasing Einstein): http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/
Answer: I don't think there is that much difference between academia and industry except that in industry you probably have to clear it with your boss and/or IP lawyers before you mail ideas out of the company.  I have received "cold" contact emails from industry, sure, not that many I've been able to act on though.  I think the problems are pretty much the same: how much time does someone have, do they even read their email or not, etc.  You will get lots of variation both inside and outside of academia on this.  If you have enough money to pay for a PhD student for at least a year, then you will probably have not too much trouble getting someone's attention in academia wherever you are coming from, if you've done enough work to be sure you're approaching the right person / someone actively researching the area you need.
The other easy way to get an academic to collaborate with industry is to hire them as a consultant.  But again, it has to really be their area, and they have to have time available, so you need to do research.  But if you get the wrong person, they may be able to suggest someone else or at least something to read (if the problem's already solved so no longer of academic interest.)


Where in the world does Tor provide the highest degree of anonymity?

Question: As we know, Tor hides users amongst the other users on the network, so the more populous and diverse the user base for Tor is, the more everybody's anonymity will be protected. So, in which part of the world is the Tor network most dense? Where is my identity least likely to be detected?
Comment: see also: http://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/203/in-what-manner-is-risk-of-loss-of-a-tor-users-anonymity-affected-by-the-geograp
Comment: multiple questions should be posted separately
Answer: If anonymity in a country had a single parameter, the average number of Tor users, then it would be sufficient to take a look at the top-10 countries with directly connected users as shown in here : https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html
But one should take in consideration the surveillance capabilities and resources of each country. For example although United States appears to be first in the list of directly connected users, it is widely known that domestic surveillance in US is increased and sometimes sophisticated.
Remember that by design onion routing, the protocol Tor implements, cannot protect against a powerful adversary and one could say that some of US or other countries' surveillance services can easily graded as powerful.
In addition the parameters that lead to Tor user density in a specific area may vary with time.
Answer: As an addition to alaf's answer...
It also depends what you are doing. Depends, whether you are just reading things, posting things and add Stylometry attacks to the mix or are a hidden service.
In very small countries, where there are less than 100 Tor users at a time, which have their own local language, I believe you have little anonymity.
Also depends who your adversary is. Since the most Tor users come from United States, I'd suppose you have good anonymity when it comes to commercial (not state-sponsored!) advertising and tracking companies.
Comment: Don't refer to another answer as if this is a running conversation.  Answers may be reordered, and readers may be unable to find that to which you referred.
Answer: Probably you are looking for this map.

The Internet service providers from the chart are the top 25 with the
  highest concentrations of Tor exit nodes.

You can use every time a middle hop: VPN or VPS or even free socks5 proxy.
See Japanese's project for anonymous vpn: www.vpngate.net
Answer: It depends on several factors.
The first and most structural factor is the number of people in the country you are in who also use Tor. For example, the USA has many more users than El Salvador, meaning by default there is more anonymity in the USA.
However, the governments in some countries are far more digitally restrictive (ex, China) than others are.
Also, the type of activity can lend some extra anonymity as well. If you are torrenting/downloading over Tor (which you shouldn't be doing anyway...), that type of traffic takes up much more bandwidth, "space" in Tor if you will, meaning you will be much more noticeable doing that, than you would be if you were browsing the Web innocently.


Is there a color scheme for Tweetdeck fitting the Radiance theme?

Question: Tweetdeck is nice, but it doesn't fit to the look of the Radiance theme …
Comment: Have you found a solution to this yet?
Answer: There doesn't appear to be, but if you can edit the colour scheme of the current theme, you can quickly put your own together. You can find the radiance colours by going into System -> Preferences -> Appearance and selecting the Radiance theme (if you're not already running it, and press customize. Select the colours tab from the menu that appears then select the colour you want and a picker will appear with the HEX value of the colour, which you can copy into the appropriate field in Tweetdeck.


Force Omniauth login via popup when certain links clicked and then friendly forward

Question: Following this Q&A thread, I've got it so that a user can log-in via Omniauth Facebook strategy using a popup.  Here's my code:
view:
<%= link_to("Sign in with Facebook", "/auth/facebook", :id => "signin",
:data => {:width => 600, :height => 400}) %>

application.js:
function popupCenter(url, width, height, name) {
  var left = (screen.width/2)-(width/2);
  var top = (screen.height/2)-(height/2);
  return window.open(url, name, "menubar=no,toolbar=no,status=no,width="+width+",height="+height+",toolbar=no,left="+left+",top="+top);
}

$(document).ready(function() {
  $('a#signin').click(function(e) {
    popupCenter($(this).attr('href'), $(this).attr('data-width'), $(this).attr('data-height'), 'authPopup');
    e.stopPropagation();
    return false;
  });
});

sessions_controller.rb:
  def create
    user = AuthProviders::FacebookUser.find_or_create_user_from(auth_hash)
    session[:current_user_id] = user.id
    @return_to = origin || root_url
    render :callback, :layout => false
  end

  protected

  def auth_hash
    request.env['omniauth.auth']
  end

  def origin
    request.env['omniauth.origin']
  end

views/sessions/callback.html.erb:

This works great and all, but I need the code to be able to handle two additional scenarios:
(1) User clicks on a link and controller action renders a plain old html response, but that page can only be viewed when there's a current_user (i.e., signed in). When the link is clicked, the user is forced to sign in via Facebook using the popup.  Once authenticated, the user is forwarded to the original request page.  For example, a user clicks this link and because he's not logged in he's prompted to sign in via Facebook and then is returned to requested page:
<%= active_link_to("Your Stuff", user_stuff_path(current_user), :wrap_tag => :li) %>

When you're not using a popup, this is pretty easy to do using Hartly's Friendly Forwarding chapter.
(2) The other scenario is similar to (1), but instead of html, the controller action renders javascript, which then opens up a (Twitter bootstrap) modal dialog. The user must be signed in to view this modal box, so the app needs to present the user with the Facebook auth dialog and then forward him/her back to the modal box. Here's a sample link in my app:
<%= link_to(event.home_pick_path, :remote => true, :class => "#{event.home_button_class}", :rel => "tooltip", :data => {:placement => "top", "original-title" => "#{event.home_bet_tooltip}"}) do %>

<%= event.home_team_nickname %>

<% end %>

The request URL looks like this: /picks/new?pick_line_id=1&pick_num=1.
So I imagine whatever the solution is to these two scenarios, there's some plumbing involved, so I appreciate your time to respond in advance.
Comment: Let me get this straight: in (1) you want the controller to render a Facebook popup before an html response and in (2) you want the controller to render a Twitter popup before a js response? Is that it?
Comment: (1) yes and (2) see updated question.
Answer: I think you are over engineering.
I'd go for a much simple approach, but of course it depends on your business logic.
If there is no current user i'd render in the same url "a 401" template with a "login" button, wich would trigger the Fb login button.
in the callback (not tested)..
def create
  if session[:redirect_to].nil?
    session[:redirect_to] = origin
  end
  user = AuthProviders::FacebookUser.find_or_create_user_from(auth_hash)
  session[:current_user_id] = user.id
  unless session[:redirect_to].nil?
    redirect = session[:redirect_to] || root_url
    session[:redirect_to] = nil
    redirect_to redirect
  end
end

Of course there is no template to handle it as you don't need it.


Should I stretch before exercising?

Question: Should stretching be done before exercise? Does the type of exercise (running, weight training, swimming) affect the answer?
Comment: @Ivo: Incredibly detailed and useful answer, although that question is asking about stretching _after_ exercising, not before. But feel free to close if that's covered in that question.
Comment: @Ivo: StackExchange is all about creating a database of useful answers to specific questions.  This question is distinct - considering the very specific title of the other question.  In addition, your other answer is very long and broad.  A focused, well-supported answer to this question would be a valuable addition.  Bottom line: not a dupe IMHO.
Comment: [Please have a look at this answer of mine](http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/455/should-i-stretch-after-exercise/470#470), because I'm tempted to close this one as a dupe. Please change your question based on what you've learned from my answer there.
Comment: This question would be even more distinct if "or after" were removed from the title.
Comment: @Jrdioko, actually the whole point of my answer was to show that there's no proof stretching helps at all. Before would be worse, because it negatively affects your muscles, but afterwards has no proven advantage towards preventing DOMS. Besides we already closed exactly the same question as your as a dupe of that one before :-)
Comment: What about stretching as a standalone exercise, such as yoga? Surely yoga has *some* benefits.
Answer: It really depends on what you are doing.  I don't have any links, but Ivo's detailed answer about stretching after exercise alludes to the fact that stretching cold muscles is a bad idea.  However, with some activities you need to get a good stretch in so you can avoid injury before you begin.
For example, when I do squats I need to get to a certain depth (below parallel) so that my whole body, including my knees can be strengthened.  When I'm cold I just can't get that deep due to a natural lack of flexibility.  To warm up, I'll do a set of five empty bar squats, followed by some stretching to get to the right depth.  I continue to warmup this way, increasing the weights until I get to my work weight.
Flexibility is important any time you are doing something technically challenging and requires a full range of motion.  That includes martial arts, gymnastics, certain lifts (like squats and cleans), etc.  You won't be able to stretch properly until your muscles are warm.  You can do a quick jog, jumping jacks, or the basic motions you will be doing while you exercise without the same amount of resistance you would normally use.  After that, you can stretch appropriately.

Pre workout stretch should be short, with the goal of getting you limber enough to do your exercise with good form
Post workout stretch should be longer, with the goal of increasing your flexibility for next time.  It can also be a good cool down technique.

NOTE: not all exercise activities benefit from stretching, and Ivo's answer is coming from the perspective of a runner.  You have a lot less requirements on your range of motion to run than you do to execute a flying kick.
Comment: It is worth mentioning that dynamic stretching for any activity is good as it prepares the muscles for what you are about to endure as you have stated above. However, it has been proven that static stretching actually reduces the maximal power output for the session by up to 30% (obviously the amount will affect what you are doing and what build you are etc)
Answer: I think Ivo has described the lack of known physical benefit in his response to a prior question (and above in his comments): Should I stretch after exercise?  and for the most part I agree.
and from what I have read static/dynamic stretching does not enhance or hurt the body, if anything it could be considered as part of the workout routine.  My typical workout consists of 5 minutes of warm up (rope jumping, jumping jacks, etc.) and 5 minutes of stretching (including some yoga stuff) - and I've found that to be sufficient enough to warm my body up and MENTALLY prepare me for the workout.
So - my opinion - I think it prepares one mentally by giving you some time to think about the workout and what your trying to accomplish and a time to adjust your body to the movements your about to make.  Make the stretching relevant to the workout (don't do static stretches if you're about to do kickboxing and don't focus on your arms if it's a heavy legs day).
Answer: If it is bodybuilding/weight-lifting that you are doing, it is probably best to do a quick (1 exercise) stretch after the warm-up cardio, and then do some stretches in between exercises.
What this does is stretch the fascia of muscle, therefore giving it more space to grow. This is heavily used in the FST-7 training method.
Answer: For weightlifting, it is not only unnecessary, it is actually detrimental.
For other sports, it may or may not be beneficial, depending on the sport. E.g. I could not have conceived any martial arts training session, back in the day, without very thorough stretching beforehand. I would have pulled a muscle, or worse, if I didn't stretch before.
Comment: I thoroughly disagree with your first statement.  Many of the compound lifts build a stretch into the movement such as squats, bench press, etc.  In order to execute the technique properly, and to position the bar properly, you need to be limber enough to do it.  I'd like to see some backup material for that statement.  For my argument, I've got the Starting Strength book as well as several articles a Google search away.
Comment: According to 6 time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates, you're supposed to do dynamic stretches before a workout. Static stretches will cause microtears, which weakens the muscles. He explains it in [this video](http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dorian-yates-blood-guts-5.htm).

Should I stretch before exercising?


Fresh pasta noodles in lasagna

Question: When making lasagna noodles from scratch, do you need to cook the noodles first? If I was making it the regular way, layers, I wouldn't think it would need to be cooked. But I'm rolling the noodles around the cheese mixture and so I was wondering if that was going to make a difference.
Comment: See also: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/8885/can-fresh-unboiled-egg-pasta-be-used-for-lasagna
Comment: Do you mean [cannelloni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannelloni)?
Answer: Whether the pasta is rolled for cannelloni or flat for lasagne won't make a difference, just make sure that the tops of the rolls are covered with sauce, too, or they will dry out and taste not nice.
For the pros and cons of fresh vs. dried pasta in "al forno" dishes, see the almost duplicate lasagne Q/A.
Answer: I'm going to give a different answer than the one I gave in the question that Stephie referenced:
Yes, you (most likely) need to cook the fresh pasta.
The problem is that for the other case to work, you need to at the very least dry the pasta first before you use it.  If you don't, the moisture will just turn the pasta into paste.  For typical lasagne, you're working with flat noodles, so you can get away with it (if you're also using hot sauce, so the noodles cook quickly after being laid out).
As you're going to be rolling the pasta around the filling, you're going to need the pasta to be flexible -- that either means cooked or before it's been dried.
If you really want to try making them from just-having-been-rolled-out state, I would make sure that I had my sauce as close to boiling as I could get it (without letting it get to that spatter-all-over-the-place stage), and immediately after wrapping the bundles get them smothered in the hot sauce.  This might allow them to cook fast enough before they turn into cheese + paste.

Fresh pasta noodles in lasagna


How to search Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum for words?

Question: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) is a large corpus of Latin inscriptions.
The Wikipedia page contains some links, but none of the tools linked there seem to allow me to make a text search.
For example, I might want to search for all inscriptions containing the word senatus spelled out in full or those containing the name Agrippa.
Is there a way to do this?
An advanced search tool is not necessary; it would be enough to have a sufficiently large chunk of the corpus in searchable form.
I feel that I must be missing something obvious, but I couldn't figure this out.
Comment: Perhaps http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi.php?s_sprache=en (publication: CIL)?
Comment: @Rafael I did, and I synonymized them immediately. I thought it would make future use easier. We haven't had many inscription questions yet, but I hope there will be more.
Comment: @Joonas Ilmavirta I don't believe that it's possible to search yet, but digitization seems to be under development. This might help in assessing the situation: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/?q=en/node/291
Comment: @AlexB. That looks very promising after a quick trial! Can you post it as an answer?
Comment: Did you just create two tags for that? Hahaha
Answer: Hathi Trust is a large database of digitilised texts from universities all over the world (kind of an academic version of archive.org). Everything (as far as I know) is searchable. For "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum", there are many results. The first page shows volume 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.


Is it a bad idea to use multiple analytic packages?

Question: Is it alright to use multiple analytics packages (Google, clicky, mixpanel, etc) at the same time on the same site?  Would it be more beneficial to just use one package?
Answer: I'd certainly only use one client-side analytic package (i.e. one that uses JavaScript to communicate hits to a third party website like Google Analytics). There's a performance hit with these, as the user has to first load all the JavaScript and then, possibly, have to wait until the package has communicated back to the server (if it's synchronous). Multiple ones can slow page loads and possibly conflict with each other or give erroneous results.
However, it doesn't hurt to also have a server-side analytics package that analyses your webserver log(s). These can give you info that you don't get in a client-based one (for instance, info about bots and other crawlers and also stats for things like images views and other files that aren't page hits).
Answer: I've yet to find a single third party analytics that comes close to agreeing with my server side statistics. I can't imagine the confusion of trying to reconcile two third party analytics to my local logs.
Its not as bad as it used to be, but google-analytics still slows down pages from time to time. I've yet to meet a service that didn't.
I can't imagine the benefit of using two, but I would venture to say it might be sometimes problematic.
Its a bit of a pain and sometimes time consuming, but reconciling Google Analytics with my local stats usually gives me a very clear picture. I'd recommend trying that first.
Answer: It's both common and legitimate to use more than one analytics package, but as previously mentioned, reconciling the (supposedly) same reports is a lot of work, so it's best to either choose complimentary analytics packages, or at the very least work out the differences between the packages, then choose the combination of reports you like best from the packages and don't look at the other reports.
Using complimentary packages is often a good idea - choose a general marketing-information package such as Google Analytics or Coremetrics, and then supplement this with packages for particular purposes. For example, you might need use a heatmap/form analytics product such as ClickTale or CrazyEgg, or specialized tracking for affiliates or advertising, or some form of realtime/lead tracking system - I'm not totally sold on these unless you're both prepared to look at and act on these all the time.
You can also run operations-level packages, to determine server load, bandwidth used, robot traffic, etc - these serve different purposes to the JS-based marketing-info packages such as GA or Coremetrics or Omniture so I think that they should be considered separately.
Answer: It depends whether you really need the extra features from a mixture of different packages.
Anything that has a client side payload will erode some speed (and depending on the perspective) privacy for the user.
Generally you will just use one analytics package that has everything you need in it - cross comparing between packages is often difficult so you will normally just stick to one.


Do the prayer times change throughout the month? If so, is it bad to pray too early or late?

Question: I'm new to praying and i'm still learning how to, and the fact that when i look up prayer times it comes up with ones for that particular date only confuses me. i just want to pray but i dont want to do it incorrectly. Thank you.
Comment: Prayer times depend on day times: noon, sunset, sunrise etc. so yes they change within times in almost all places on earth
Answer: Muslim prayer times in fact change every day, although by a small amount (maybe a minute, or less).  Over the course of a month, these increments add up.  The salah times are described on Wikipedia, and they're based on the position of the sun, which is seasonal.  For example, for fajr:

The time period within which the Fajr daily prayer must be offered (with loud recitation of the Qur'an) is from the beginning of dawn to sunrise.

There are many mobile apps and websites that can remind you when to pray (e.g. IslamicFinder).  However, it's best to wait a few minutes afterwards, in case they're slightly inaccurate.
Generally, scholars encourage praying punctually (e.g. IslamWeb, MuftiOnline.co.za).  And there's ahadith such as the following which suggest this praying punctually is worthwhile, e.g.:

I asked the Prophet "Which deed is the dearest to Allah?" He replied, "To offer the prayers at their early stated fixed times."
Sahih al-Bukhari 527

Muslims are meant to pray within the alloted times:

And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.
Qur'an 4:103

Praying outside these times goes against this verse, and may result in the prayer not being accepted (but Allah knows best).  There's debate over catch-up prayers (qada); see Does a Muslim have to pray all the prayers that he left out?
Answer: I'd like to add that the prayer times are quoted in the Qur'an and they are clearly related to special times of the day such as sunrise, sunset, noon etc. see also Does the idea of praying 5 times a day come from the Qur'an? were you may find some quotes from the Qur'an.
Moreover all the times of the five prayers are quoted in the Qur'an in different verses. Some calculation methods for these timings are mentioned in Figuring out right calculation method of prayer time and you should know that each prayer has a specific time (as already mentioned in Rebecca's great answer also read verse 4:103) and one shouldn't delay a prayer or miss to pray it on time without a valid excuse (Somewhat relevant: Can we offer salat before it's time?)
This basically means that you should do your best to pray each prayer between the two limits: Beginning of the time for the actual prayer and the beginning of the time for the next prayer. Ahadith actually recommend praying the prayers at the beginning of the time and not delaying it to until the end. There's however one exception: The preferred time to delay praying 'Isha' till -close to- the first third of the night, based on ahadith like:

Once Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) delayed the 'Isha' prayer till 'Umar informed him that the women and children had slept. The Prophet (ﷺ) came out and said, "None except you from amongst the dwellers of earth is waiting for this prayer." In those days, there was no prayer except in Medina and they used to pray the 'Isha' prayer between the disappearance of the twilight and the first third of the night. (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Scholars added in their interpretation and made a distinction between a time of recommendation/choice وقت الاختيار (waqt al-Ikhtiyaar) and time were praying is necessary وقت الضرورة (waqt ad-Darourah) -note that the definition of both is different between the madhhabs-. For example: if one waits too long (until the time of necessity), one will pray at a time were the call for the next prayer might be too close and risks to miss to pray on time (again here the definition on what counts as prayed on time differ).


Video tearing and stutter - Help with drivers?

Question: So I installed Elementary and updated everything. My problem is videos on YouTube have tearing and also videos at 60fps are not fluid all the time, they would have kind of "mini-stutters" quite often. I was wondering if this has to do with the drivers. As far as I know they are installed and (assume) the latest version (even if the information screen has messed up information - see picture below). I'm using Firefox web browser. Found here someone saying to change to "true" some command named gfx.xrender on Firefox, that didn't work (so I put it back as it was before). Is there anything I can do about this? Thanks in advance. PC hardware is also shown on the picture.
Comment: Have you tested this in any other browsers? I used to experience this in Epiphany. Chrome always worked.
Comment: @PretzelJones Sorry for the delay. Yes, I tried Chromium and Epihany besides Firefox before posting here. Same issue.
Comment: @PretzelJones I just tried Chrome again. The issue is still there but a bit less. Epiphany doesn't seem to have it but the video quality doesn't look as good (and other things don't work that well either). I tried disabling smooth scrolling and/or hardware acceleration too, but no solution. It bugs me because this doesn't happen in other distros but I really like Elementary (specially the mail client, I love it) and watching videos is all I'm gonna do.
Comment: Let's see what driver are you currently using. Post the Terminal output of `lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3`
Comment: @PopVlad this is what I got:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Curacao XT [Radeon R7 370 / R9 270X/370 OEM] [1002:6810]
 Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Curacao XT [Radeon R7 370 / R9 270X/370 OEM] [174b:e271]
 Kernel driver in use: radeon
 Kernel modules: radeon
Answer: There are many suggestions online and I'm sure you've already seen many of them, but most are either impractical (modifying Chrome paramaters, only to have them reset by an update) or even, in my opinion, too risky (patching and installing the unsupported amdgpu driver).
Fortunately the open-source radeon driver got A LOT better since kernel 4.4 (currently run by elementary OS), so there isn't much else to recommend, except a kernel upgrade. Keep in mind kernel upgrades are usually discouraged, especially when it comes to production environments since they can lead to data loss and unstable, sometimes unresponsive, systems. Still, a newer kernel usually brings improvements
If you're willing to test it, notable improvements to the radeon driver have been made beginning with kernel 4.9.
If you run in any trouble booting a newly installed kernel, you can always reboot and select the older functioning one from the grub menu (press and hold Shift key while booting).
Instructions (run the following commands in Terminal, one line at a time, input your password when prompted; lines beginning with wget are long, make sure to copy them correctly):
mkdir tmp

cd tmp

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.9.25/linux-headers-4.9.25-040925_4.9.25-040925.201704270431_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.9.25/linux-headers-4.9.25-040925-generic_4.9.25-040925.201704270431_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.9.25/linux-image-4.9.25-040925-generic_4.9.25-040925.201704270431_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

sudo reboot

To see the currently running kernel use uname -r in Terminal.
Comment: This did not work. The issue still there. It's noticeable when watching on Fullscreen. If I don't fullscreen it's ok. :S
Comment: Thanks a lot for this! Can't upvote due to low rep, so sorry for that. Will mark as answer after trying this out if it works.
Comment: I'm sorry it did not work, thank you for trying. Just to clarify: does this happen only in Firefox? If you open a local HD video  (from your HDD) in Videos or VLC and go full screen is the issue still there?


Can i use Spring on GAE?

Question: Can i use Spring Webflow/MVC and Spring Security and Hibernate on Google App Engine?
Is there a list/summary of java frameworks that can be used on the GAE?
Answer: Will it Play In Java lists frameworks, languages and libraries that work (or not) in Google App Engine. At present, the information listed is:
Spring MVC
Version     2.5.6
Status  COMPATIBLE

To see Spring's MVC framework running on App Engine, check out the autoshoppe sample application. If you're using Spring forms (e.g. using the spring-form.tld tag library and subclassing SimpleFormController), you will need to register custom editors for your properties. This is covered in http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java/browse_thread/thread/d93fd7385bf85bf7.
Spring ORM
Version     2.5.6
Status  COMPATIBLE

To get Spring working with the App Engine-provided JPA interface, follow the instructions at http://objectuser.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/spring-jpa-in-google-app-engine/, which discusses a workaround to the dependency on javax.naming needed for @PersistenceContext. A more complex workaround is available at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java/browse_thread/thread/187d41712ec1d394.
Spring Security
Version(s)  ?
Status  SEMI-COMPATIBLE

To work around a ClassNotFoundException, you can use a re-compiled version of the library which adds a StringInsensitiveComparator class -- the download is provided at http://www.google-app-engine.com/blog/post/Spring-security-fix-for-google-app-engine.aspx. See http://www.dotnetguru2.org/bmarchesson/index.php?p=1100 for tips on how to get Spring Security running with App Engine and GWT (in French). See http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java/browse_thread/thread/964e7f5e42840d9c for discussion on the integration.
Hibernate
Versions     All
Status  INCOMPATIBLE

You cannot currently use Hibernate directly. The differences between the App Engine datastore and SQL were too great to get the standard Hibernate up and running under App Engine. App Engine does support JDO and JPA, so you may be able to convert your Hibernate code to use one of these ORM interfaces.
I suppose that it should work with Spring 3.0 too, I will try soon and share the results.
UPDATE: I tried a Spring MVC Hello World with Spring 3.0.6 with Google App Engine and it worked perfectly, both locally and in the cloud. The drawback though, is longer load time when a new  instance starts.
Answer: As far as I know, no third party libraries are supported (at least none are listed), and JRE classes are limited to this list. But I guess if a library only makes use of the listed jre classes, they should be fine. However, finding out if they do would have to be based on trying it out.

Can i use Spring on GAE?


Does that make me a bad designer if I don't care about the business model of the client?

Question: Does that make me a bad designer if I don't care about the business model of the client? I am talking about something like interaction design.
Comment: Can you add more context to your question,its too theoretical
Comment: Please be specific. I know you asked a yes/no question, but I don't think anyone can give you a good answer like this. Perhaps give an example and ask if the business model should be taken into account.
Answer: A client says to the designer, "Design me a great website".
The designer builds this most amazing website. I mean it is just truly fabulous!
The client looks at the website and says 'It just won't do'.
The designer is outraged. 'What on earth is wrong with it? It's great!'
The client sighs and says 'It doesn't work on mobile; It's only in English and 60% of our users are in Asia; and it doesn't align with our company values. It's difficult for our support team to use all day every day, and there's no way we can easily update it without calling you in again'.
The designer is aghast, "You never mentioned any of that before!".
"You didn't ask", says the client.
Comment: I really liked the story aspect to this one.
Comment: A user story has become a designer story ;)
Answer: Well, it depends.
As a User Experience designer, your primary focus should be on the user I guess. At least I'd look at your work from the perspective on how it benefited the people who actually used the systems designed by you.
On the other hand, you're an employee of your client.
If the needs of your users and the business objectives of your client are strongly connected, and you don't care about those, then yes, you're a bad designer I guess. Design is about satisfying needs in constructive ways.
If user needs and client objectives aren't strictly related, then it depends. I guess you still have to respect the enterprise of your employee, while of course you have to persuade her/him to do something which is actually needed by people. Of course you also have to persuade users a bit, as far as it doesn't get annoying.
It's called "creating demand": it was said, for example, that noone needs a camera in a cellphone: a cellphone is to call other people. Try to find one without a camera nowadays. Of course, it's not necessarily important to have a camera, but I doubt if it actually hurts. It sure hurt some people's wallet. But I still think it was perfectly OK to press people a bit towards phones with a camera, even through the interaction model of the device. Fortunately, noone is actually required to buy them...
That said, the line ther is thin: you can easily fall to the other side of the horse, and employ so-called dark patterns.
If the needs of your users and clients are downright opposite, I'd cancel the partnership.
At least, understand the business model fully to decide which one is the case. I think that's pretty important.
Comment: Ha - nice answer. I just saw this after I submitted mine. It depends indeed.
Answer: Though you still need to update your question, I'd like to point out that the business model doesn't always really matter that much, depending on the situation.
Take, for example, the ATM. Do you really care how the bank is making money with the funds in your account? Probably not. You probably just want money from your account. In this case, it could be argued that the business model doesn't really affect the interaction design aspects of the experience.
But the business model always affects your designs indirectly. Their model helps to determine what you're designing in the first place, but not what you're designing specifically.
As with all good design answers: it depends.


Do trade ports with freight rail terminals still transport by truck?

Question: If I build a freight rail terminal in my trade port, does the rail terminal provide for more freight added to the one already delivered by road, or does it replace the road deliveries entirely by train deliveries?
Answer: Adding a Rail Terminal or Ship Dock will not replace your Trucks. The Trade Port was not designed to function like this, but if you delete your exporting/importing truck bays, all of that work will be offloaded to trains or ships. Read this if you're interested in doing that.
It simply provides more frequency of your cargo importing/exporting. There is a limit to the amount of resources trucks can handle (not to mention traffic problems), so adding a Rail Terminal or Ship Dock to your Trade Port will greatly increase the amount you're able to export or import.
enorl76 is correct in stating goods move intracity via trucks.
Answer: The trade depot will attempt to resolve the need via network type, so when you add a freight terminal, then you can additionally ship out via rail.  In "real life", rail is significantly more efficient than by road, but rail doesn't go "the last mile".
Trucks will still be used to ship to destinations that request the resource within the city.
When you enter construction mode, you can see on the right, "Road Sea Rail".  When you hover over with the mouse, you can see the amount of traffic via each network type.


Packaging and adhesive covers

Question: What is the name of the packaging style where the box isn't printed and instead they place a sticker. What type of sticker is this?
Comment: I think your best bet it to put in some telephone calls to packaging suppliers and ask them. -- I've always referred to it as a "Box Wrap" and in some cases a "Shrink Sleeve".
Answer: It's a paper wrapped rigid box. Sometimes referred to as a gift box because they are often used to contain premium gift products like perfume. Compared to something made out of a single piece of relatively flimsy folding box board they are pretty expensive to produce.
They are created by making a rectangle of fairly thick board for each side of the box and then wrapping paper that has been coated with glue around it to hold everything together. If you're interested then finding one that you don't need to keep and pulling it to pieces is a good way to see how it works.
I also found this page with quite a nice little explanation of the manufacturing process: http://www.paperbox.org/rigid
Comment: I believe the link is broken...is it this? https://paperbox.org/the-luxurious-rigid-box/?highlight=rigid%20box
Answer: This type of packaging is called a rigid box, or turned edge, or set-up/set box. It's a heavier chipboard with a paper wrap or label. They are most often encountered in luxury packaging.
Source: https://thedieline.com/blog/2014/5/21/how-to-design-boxes-from-a-manufacturers-perspective
Answer: Tossing a few different terms at The Google, I came up with packaging sleeves as a suitable term. Adding in "color printed packaging sleeves" narrowed the results, but both sets of terms provided product services which meet the photo provided.
One of the terms that popped up in the above search was "bulls-eye printing" but that seems to be a niche name, perhaps one company's terminology rather than a more encompassing description.
Answer: It's printed paper that is glued to cardboard. It's not a sticker. There are different names for this in different productions (i.e. in box production it will be called different than in hard cover book production) but in general it's the same.

Packaging and adhesive covers


Evolution- Variations, adaptations and selective advantages

Question: I am trying to understand Variations, adaptations and selective advantages  and how they are all related.
Feel free to add or correct me if I'm wrong- Variations are structural, functional, or physiological differences between individual's within a species that result from mutations.  If the variation provides a selective advantage (genetic advantage) the organism's chances of survival in terms of both survival in a changing environment and reproduction increases. The variation is then considered an adaptation. So basically adaptations are variations which provide a genetic advantage and give some organisms within a species a better chance of survival than those without the adaptations. This survival advantage allows those organisms to reproduce and pass on their adaptation more frequently than those who do not possess these adaptations.
Comment: I think you should think about/define the terms more clearly - from what you write I would label your "Variations" as *traits* (or rather differences in traits between individuals). "Variation" is close to the techical term *variance* (as in *phenotypic trait variance* and *additive genetic variance*), so you risk misunderstandings.
Answer: I would define variation as something a little less specific. When talking about evolution I would consider it to mean any phenotypic variation that exists. I say phenotype because that is what selection "sees" but there can be genetic variation without phenotypic variation (see synonymous mutations). The trait could be physiological, morphological, behavioral or a life history trait (a trait which, all else remaining constant, affects fitness e.g. Lifespan or development time). This is also not necessarily just within species too, comparing homologous trait between two species could reveal between-species variation. For example, in one species every individual might day at exactly 100 days old, in another it may be 102 days, there is no variance within species but there is variance between. The phenotypic variation can be a result of genotype, environment, or a genotype-environment interaction.
If a trait positively affects fitness it is an adaptation, it is a trait that offers some kind of benefit over other current or previous incarnations of the trait. The variance for that trait can be zero - a highly adaptive trait is likely to spread rapidly and variation for that trait would zero if it was entirely genetically defined and fixed in the population but that trait would still be considered an adaptation. I would define fitness as the lifetime reproductive success of your evolutionary unit, commonly thought to be the gene. If a variant of a trait increases relative fitness it provides a selective advantage, and any genes (alleles) causing that trait should spread through the population at the expense of other alleles.
It is important to remember that not every biologist will define these in the same way, there is some debate about definitions in biology.


Is it possible to only install keosd on ubuntu?

Question: I need a solution for signing transactions sent with HTTP API (RPC) from a .Net webserver. EOSjs works fine for signing transactions in the browser - but some transactions must be sent from the server. My plan is to install keosd on a minimal cloud service Ubuntu installation - just for using wallet functions and signing transactions. Is it possible? Or do I have to use the full installation with eosio_build.sh?
Comment: There are no official docs that I'm aware of for just installing keosd, so you'd likely need to get creative.  If there were docs on this, they would be here: https://developers.eos.io/  If you're concerned about the 7GB build requirement, then see my post on building with down to 4GB of RAM.
Answer: What I did to get eos working on an AWS free tier instance was I temporarily opened up a large ubuntu instance with enough RAM to install it, and I ran the install. Once it was done you can scp the eos/build directory to a free tier AWS instance and that's all you need to run nodeos/keosd/cleos.
Answer: It is possible to run keosd executable file alone in a system. It worked for me in local system without building the whole EOSIO. Upload the the executable file to the cloud.
Then run in CLI,
cd <directiory>

./keosd

Answer: You no longer need to compile the executables, Block.one now publishes binaries for many platforms, including Ubuntu, with each release.  Check the assets listed at the end of each release.  For example, see https://github.com/EOSIO/eos/releases/tag/v1.7.1 which has the following assets:
eosio-1.7.1-1.el7.x86_64.rpm 15.1 MB
eosio-1.7.1-1.fc27.x86_64.rpm 14.9 MB
eosio-1.7.1.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz 18.5 MB
eosio-1.7.1.mojave.bottle.tar.gz 18.5 MB
eosio_1.7.1-1-ubuntu-16.04_amd64.deb 14.3 MB
eosio_1.7.1-1-ubuntu-18.04_amd64.deb 14.7 MB
Source code (zip)   Source code (tar.gz)


Does using Bernoulli's equation for a region of zero mean flow violate mass conservation?

Question: Let's say I have a pressure reservoir with zero mean flow connected to a pipe with mean flow. So for the reservoir we have $p_1>0$ and $v_1=0$. For the pipe we have $p_2,v_2>0.$ Bernoulli's equation says $p_1=p_2 + (1/2) \rho v_2^2$. Why doesn't this violate mass conservation? It seems like there is no flow into the pipe, but there is flow coming out of it. What's happening physically?
Comment: There is usually an mgh term on the left-hand-side as well, as you need a pressure 'head' to drive the flow through the pipe. Basically, gravitational potential energy in the reservoir is being converted into kinetic energy in the pipe.
Answer: It does not violate mass conservation. As @Time4Tea suggested, $p_1$ will have a contribution of the form $h\rho g$. Let us consider the simple situation of the pipe opening to the air. In that case, $p_2$ at that end will be $p_a$, the atmospheric pressure. Similarly, $p_1$ will be $p_a + h\rho g$ at the point where the pipe starts from the reservoir. Applying Bernoulli equation, you will get $v_2 = \sqrt{gh}$. As the fluid is drained out, $h$ drops and so does $v_2$. Eventually, as $h$ drops to zero, so will $v_2$.


Sharing Bandwidth and Prioritizing Realtime Traffic via HTB, Which Scenario Works Better?

Question: I would like to add some kind of traffic management to our Internet line. After reading a lot of documentation, I think HFSC is too complicated for me (I don't understand all the curves stuff, I'm afraid I will never get it right), CBQ is not recommend, and basically HTB is the way to go for most people.
Our internal network has three "segments" and I'd like to share bandwidth more or less equally between those (at least in the beginning). Further I must prioritize traffic according to at least three kinds of traffic (realtime traffic, standard traffic, and bulk traffic). The bandwidth sharing is not as important as the fact that realtime traffic should always be treated as premium traffic whenever possible, but of course no other traffic class may starve either.
The question is, what makes more sense and also guarantees better realtime throughput:

Creating one class per segment, each having the same rate (priority doesn't matter for classes that are no leaves according to HTB developer) and each of these classes has three sub-classes (leaves) for the 3 priority levels (with different priorities and different rates).
Having one class per priority level on top, each having a different rate (again priority won't matter) and each having 3 sub-classes, one per segment, whereas all 3 in the realtime class have highest prio, lowest prio in the bulk class, and so on.

I'll try to make this more clear with the following ASCII art image:
<code>Case 1:

root --+--> Segment A
       |       +--> High Prio
       |       +--> Normal Prio
       |       +--> Low Prio
       |
       +--> Segment B
       |       +--> High Prio
       |       +--> Normal Prio
       |       +--> Low Prio
       |
       +--> Segment C
               +--> High Prio
               +--> Normal Prio
               +--> Low Prio

Case 2:

root --+--> High Prio
       |        +--> Segment A
       |        +--> Segment B
       |        +--> Segment C
       |
       +--> Normal Prio
       |        +--> Segment A
       |        +--> Segment B
       |        +--> Segment C
       |
       +--> Low Prio
                +--> Segment A
                +--> Segment B
                +--> Segment C
</code>
Case 1 Seems like the way most people would do it, but unless I don't read the HTB implementation details correctly, Case 2 may offer better prioritizing.
The HTB manual says, that if a class has hit its rate, it may borrow from its parent and when borrowing, classes with higher priority always get bandwidth offered first. However, it also says that classes having bandwidth available on a lower tree-level are always preferred to those on a higher tree level, regardless of priority.
Let's assume the following situation: Segment C is not sending any traffic. Segment A is only sending realtime traffic, as fast as it can (enough to saturate the link alone) and Segment B is only sending bulk traffic, as fast as it can (again, enough to saturate the full link alone). What will happen?
Case 1:
Segment A->High Prio and Segment B->Low Prio both have packets to send, since A->High Prio has the higher priority, it will always be scheduled first, till it hits its rate. Now it tries to borrow from Segment A, but since Segment A is on a higher level and Segment B->Low Prio has not yet hit its rate, this class is now served first, till it also hits the rate and wants to borrow from Segment B. Once both have hit their rates, both are on the same level again and now Segment A->High Prio is going to win again, until it hits the rate of Segment A. Now it tries to borrow from root (which has plenty of traffic spare, as Segment C is not using any of its guaranteed traffic), but again, it has to wait for Segment B->Low Prio to also reach the root level. Once that happens, priority is taken into account again and this time Segment A->High Prio will get all the bandwidth left over from Segment C.
Case 2:
High Prio->Segment A and Low Prio->Segment B both have packets to send, again High Prio->Segment A is going to win as it has the higher priority. Once it hits its rate, it tries to borrow from High Prio, which has bandwidth spare, but being on a higher level, it has to wait for Low Prio->Segment B again to also hit its rate. Once both have hit their rate and both have to borrow, High Prio->Segment A will win again until it hits the rate of the High Prio class. Once that happens, it tries to borrow from root, which has again plenty of bandwidth left (all bandwidth of Normal Prio is unused at the moment), but it has to wait again until Low Prio->Segment B hits the rate limit of the Low Prio class and also tries to borrow from root. Finally both classes try to borrow from root, priority is taken into account, and High Prio->Segment A gets all bandwidth root has left over.
Both cases seem sub-optimal, as either way realtime traffic sometimes has to wait for bulk traffic, even though there is plenty of bandwidth left it could borrow. However, in case 2 it seems like the realtime traffic has to wait less than in case 1, since it only has to wait till the bulk traffic rate is hit, which is most likely less than the rate of a whole segment (and in case 1 that is the rate it has to wait for). Or am I totally wrong here?
I thought about even simpler setups, using a priority qdisc. But priority queues have the big problem that they cause starvation if they are not somehow limited. Starvation is not acceptable. Of course one can put a TBF (Token Bucket Filter) into each priority class to limit the rate and thus avoid starvation, but when doing so, a single priority class cannot saturate the link on its own any longer, even if all other priority classes are empty, the TBF will prevent that from happening. And this is also sub-optimal, since why wouldn't a class get 100% of the line's bandwidth if no other class needs any of it at the moment?
Any comments or ideas regarding this setup? It seems so hard to do using standard tc qdiscs. As a programmer it was such an easy task if I could simply write my own scheduler (which I'm not allowed to do).
Answer: If I understand htb correctly, then the rate is "guaranteed". This means you have ideas about the rate of the "realtime" traffic. Only if this rate is exceeded, it will borrow. If several classes want to borrow, the prio should kick in. The guaranteed rates should add up the physical limit. Otherwise it's too much of a hassle.
IMHO, Case A will never really work since you need to have priority or rate-limiting at the root level. The priorities/rates in the different segment don't know anything of each other and will be handled equally.
The thing you probably want is: Put the "rate" for low and normal prio to 0 or close to it and add "ceiling" for the rest of the bandwidth, for high prio you guarantee a rate of 100% of the physical.


Why do I need to tune an antenna?

Question: I've heard that when an antenna is set up, it needs to be tuned to reduce reflective power back into the radio. Is this always necessary, and if so how would I go about tuning it?
Comment: Well, technically you can't tune an antenna electrically only mechanically (shorten or lengthen it).   Antenna "tuners" are really impedance matchers to make the make the radio happier with what it "sees" as the antenna load.
Comment: @Bill I doubt a 470 Ohm resistor would be 1:1 SWR against 50 Ohm coax :) Though it'd definitely meet the criteria for *resonance* of having no reactive component...
Comment: That's true, Peter, but mechanically tuning an antenna will improve the SWR ratio at the desired frequency, assuming it is off to begin with (i.e., resonant somewhere other than where desired).
Comment: @Bill Resonance and 1:1 SWR are two very different things. See my answer.
Comment: @Michael Yes that's true; that's why an antenna analyzer is a good tool for mechanically adjusting an antenna to resonance, assuming it gives R+J. I guess it's too complex for a short comment, given all the kinds of antennas, etc. Dummy loads are always 1:1, for example.
Comment: Similar questions:  https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/9044/what-is-an-antenna-tuner-why-bother-with-resonant-antennas-in-the-first-place and https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/8963/antenna-tuner-design
Answer: There are two different parts to antenna tuning: transmission line impedance matching and resonance.
The antenna is at resonance when it presents a purely resistive load to the transmitter. That is, the reactive component of the load is 0: there exists no inductance or capacitance in the load.
However, resonance says nothing about the value of the resistive component of the load. Usually, you also want to reduce the impedance mismatch, because an impedance mismatch causes power to be reflected at the point of the mismatch. Most amateur radio equipment is built to expect a resistive load of 50 ohm impedance, which is the characteristic impedance of most coaxial cables used in radio applications.
An antenna tuner or ATU doesn't actually tune the antenna; it provides a matching network. On one side the transmitter sees a nice, orderly, purely resistive 50 ohms. On the other side is an unwieldy antenna, the impedance of which at the given frequency can be anything from purely resistive at 50 ohms to some odd-ball combination of weird resistance and either inductance or capacitance.
This is done by introducing either capacitance or inductance into the feedline, to cancel out the corresponding part of the load impedance. For a fixed antenna installation on a single frequency, you can even determine appropriate component values and use fixed-value components to make up such a matching network, but that lends itself poorly to the applications in which one wants to move frequencies, antennas and so on. As a matter of fact, that is the approach taken by many electrically short antennas and it comes at the cost of reduced antenna bandwidth (because the fixed matching network can only compensate, with an acceptable SWR, within a limited range of frequencies).
The SWR or Standing Wave Ratio is related to the (mis)match in impedance. This means that your perfectly resonant antenna which happens to present a nice, clean, purely resistive 150 ohms (pulling a number out of thin air here) at the feedpoint and at a given frequency will give you a 3:1 SWR against 50 ohm coax, despite being at resonance.
Also, even with an ATU, it's important to remember that the reflected power must go somewhere, and in this case, at least some of it is being dissipated as heat rather than radiated as RF. While you aren't likely to do much harm with some reflected power from an over-the-counter 100W transceiver, this can be a serious consideration if you are running a high-powered transmitter and/or a large amplifier.
Comment: Peter, what you are saying is a common myth. Burning up the transmitter by mismatch happens because the transmitter overdrives the finals by allowing too much current into them due to the non-resonance, not because of the reflected power. The only time you get fires from pure RF is when you arc due to high voltage potential. See [SWR and Finals](http://www.hamuniverse.com/wc7iswr.html)
Comment: @Bill Thank you. I don't know for sure what effect moving the feedpoint off-center would have (intuitively, it would *seem* that it would also introduce a reactive component to the load, which would have to be offset by something else), but I suspect a question about off-center-fed dipoles would clear up a thing or two about that.
Comment: And, an important factor to remember: the extra power coming back from a poorly matched antenna is diverted from the radio. This diversion has to go somewhere: in the tuner it goes into some component that dissipates it as heat.  While a tuner can present a VERY bad antenna as good to the radio, all the bad goes somewhere.  This can result in a LOT of heat and possibly fire, so it's best to try to start with the best antenna you can up front.  "You can tune up a bed spring, but you might set the sheets on fire."
Comment: Michael, this is a really good answer. Is it not also true that the resistive load is sometimes adjusted by moving the feedpoint off-center? Can you edit to address this if you know?
Comment: @PeterKB1AVL In the tuner, some of the reflected power is dissipated as heat, but *most* of it is reflected back at the antenna, where some of it will be reflected back at the tuner. A parcel of energy might reflect between the tuner and the antenna many times, and unless your tuner or feedline is really bad, most of it is eventually radiated away, and just some is lost as heat.
Comment: @MichaelKjörling an off-center fed (but still resonant) dipole has an increased, but still purely resistive feedpoint impedance. Ever see those graphs of current vs. voltage distribution? You can stick the feedpoint anywhere on the antenna, and the feedpoint impedance will be the voltage divided by the current at that point. Lowest in the middle, highest at the ends, for a half-wave antenna.
Comment: @PhilFrost I'm not sure what exactly you are referring to with your comment. Is there some particular part of my answer here that you feel is inaccurate or in need of clarification? Or is it perhaps about [the above comment about OCF dipoles](http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/55/why-do-i-need-to-tune-an-antenna/76?noredirect=1#comment61_76) in which case it probably should be incorporated into your answer to [the question of the effect on impedance of feeding a dipole off-center](http://ham.stackexchange.com/q/95/29) that Bill asked a few minutes later.
Comment: @MichaelKjörling It was directed at the comment. I forgot about that question, but it's good that we have a link to it now.
Answer: Your transmitter has something called an "output impedance" and expects to be loaded with this impedance.  The standard is 50 ohms.  You don't need to look up the output impedance, it was standardized and anything made in the last 50 years will expect 50 ohms.
The 50 ohms the tranmitter expects is measured at RF frequencies.  Many antennas look like short circuits (a loop) or open circuits (two independent wires, like a dipole) at DC, but change at radio frequencies.
Modern transceivers often include an SWR meter.  SWR, or standing wave ratio, should be 1 when there is no reflection.  Many transceivers will tolerate an SWR of up to 2.0, but the closer this number is to 1.0, the better.
You can also buy an antenna analyzer as a stand alone instrument to measure impedance and SWR.
A dipole antenna (two wires, each 1/4 wavelength, travelling opposite directions) is between 50-70 ohms for its center frequency and can often be used as-is.  But you should still check it with an SWR meter or the SWR meter in your radio.
Antennas that do not present 50 ohms require a circuit to transform the antenna impedance, whatever it is, to the 50 ohms expected by the transmitter output. This circuit can sometimes be made by adding funny shaped parts onto the antenna -- not just any funny shaped parts, though -- this is a matter for serious engineering.  Other times the transformation is solved by a box called an "antenna tuner", which remains permanently in place.  You can find both manual old-timey antenna tuners and automated tuners for HF.  For VHF and up, the antenna usually has an adjustable component like a slider.
Comment: I seem to recall that a SWR of 3:1 means that half the power is being reflected back into the transmitter. A cross-needle instrument or an antenna analyzer will give you (more or less) accurate figures for both forward and reflected power, as well as the resultant SWR.
Answer: Every location in which you install an antenna will be slightly different. For example there will be different characteristics of the soil, different nearby structures and plants, different heights above ground, different numbers of radials installed, and so on. Each of these factors affects the performance of the antenna, so final adjustments must be made at the site of installation. For the very best performance it is necessary.
The best tool for this is an antenna analyzer, but you can get by with the SWR meter on a transmitter. The important part of this process is to have the antenna in its final operating location when tuning, which might involve raising and lowering it multiple times.
Comment: I guess a better answer would have included all kinds of exceptions for autotuners, longwire or other specialized antennas, etc., etc., and/or gone into a detailed explanation of the tuning process, but I thought this answered the original question, i.e., why tuning is required.

Why do I need to tune an antenna?


How do we mix down a feature film?

Question: I am wondering, once I get the dialogue nailed throughout the film and do all the foley and sound scape, what is the procedure to mix this down and master? Do I need to work with smaller scene files (5 to 10mins) or do I only have one long feature length file for my dialogue foley, sound scape and score ?
Comment: Notice that if you plan to have chemical film prints of the feature (instead of DCP or file only), you might be required to deliver as several 'reels', with some tricky short overlapping between reels for the optical sound printout. (due to the mechanical distance between projector's lens and optical soun d reader)
Answer: You would create stems Dialogue, Ambience, Foley, SFX for the entire length of the film
Answer: Like Pierre de Fermat comment in the margin in regards to his "last theorem", it may be difficult to do justice to a question such as this in the size of this text box... However, we'll try.
To summarise,

Work on a reel-by-reel basis. All your editing and premixing should be done on reels no more than 20 minutes long. This one trick will make editing and conform much simpler. Re-conform of a Locked Edit (there is no such thing any more) is much easier if you have shorter reels to manage.
Edit - Premix - Final Mix. Your process should be Edit all your sound, Premix to Stems - final mix. You should probably premix reels, but perform your final mix with a fully conformed film as there is likely to not be gaps where you would like there to be reel changes. Premix as much as you can at a reel level and then final mix once you have conformed all the reels together.
Maintain consistent plugin changes across the premix and final mix using templates. Make sure you maintain consistency with all the processing across all the reels that you have.
Keep all elements separate. Don't mix up SFX with Foley, ATMOS/BG and Production effects. These are separate elements and should be kept separate for final mix. Definitely keep all dialogue separate as this will become critical if a "Music and Effects" mix is required for international dubbing.
Room tone is not ATMOS. Room tone is simply used to smooth dialogue edits. ATMOS is very different to this. Try not to get them mixed up or confused.
Mixing for Cinema is different to mixing for TVC or TV or even Short films. There is a significant difference as to what constitutes a good mix across these platforms.
Mix for emotional impact. Don't mix too loud as you may well find it difficult to recover enough dynamic range or headroom when you need it for effect - for instance gunshots. Gunshots should have a significant emotional impact that cannot be obtained if you are constantly mixing at a high level.
If you're mixing for 5.1/surround, make sure you premix for 5.1 as well. There are situations where you can upmix certain elements from stereo to 5.1, but don't rely on this as being your first choice. Ensure you have enough panning in your SFX elements across your 5.1 mix. Don't be afraid to put elements in rear channels or play with phasing - these are all valid choices.
Comment: I agree with everything apart from premixing stems. It's seems a pointless step. I buss all my tracks to sub groups/vca's which is essentially the same thing, but I don't bounce them to audio tracks. If your doing the final mix yourself and not passing it along then I don't see the point. And even then in today's Pro Tools world if the mixer is using Pro Tools which they will be, you may as well just send the session across. The only time I would bounce stems is for an M+E. Correct me if I'm wrong but...
Answer: Depends on what software your using and how good you are at Micro Fades when Placing Audio into the timeline of the Video Track .
I do smaller Bites of audio to keep things clean in the timeline but Lock each piece of Audio to the Section of Video before bouncing everything down to a final out put .
Conversely if you are working in a DAW , with just a Time track then render whole files to keep everything synced up properly .
Answer: You simply bounce it down to either a stereo file or If it's surround you need to run it through a surround sound encoder so the resulting wav will know its multiple panned channels. You only need to do stems if it's required for being redubbed in a foriegn language.

How do we mix down a feature film?


is ubuntu unity compatible with kde (ubuntu 12.04) ?

Question: ^^ because I want to try KDE and am using unity launcher for lots of apps and don't want to make loads of short-cuts.
Answer: I have had no problems with running them along side each other. You will select which environment you wish to log in to on the login screen at start up by clicking that little white circle. Assuming you have no other environments installed the list should just consist of "Ubuntu" and "Ubuntu 2d". When you install KDE you will see the two "Ubuntu" environments and the KDE Plasma Workspace. Click on the KDE option and input you password and you should be ready to go.
One side effect of doing this is that you will have programs from both environments listed. For example, you might have gedit as well as kde's text editor list under programs. You might also have KDE's settings manager and unity's settings manager both listed, which can get confusing. Other than that I have had no problems running KDE,mate,gnome,xfce, and unity all on the same machine.
In fact right now I am using a new install of xubuntu with Unity installed with it! Everything works just fine.
I would highly suggest reading this:
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/kde


Transportation in Miyazaki Japan

Question: I'm going to Miyazaki City in Japan next month. I would like to see around the prefecture but I can't seem to find enough details about "trains" (assuming there are trains) or busses on google maps as it only shows directions by car. I wonder if any of you could direct me to a preferably English website where I can find more details with a map of famous attractions. For example I would love to go visit Takachiho-cho but not sure if there are trains to there. I'll be staying at the Grande Sheraton in Miyazaki.
Comment: Well Google Maps shows me train stations and some inter-city lines, mainly the Nippo Main Line which runs along the coast north of Miyazaki.
Comment: Yes you are right thanks. I think the reason I'm not finding routes is because of the time I'm searching. Setting the time to 10am on google maps shows it takes around 2 hours to Takachiho Cho
Comment: Is hiring a car an option for you?
Comment: I would if turns out to be the only option. So no trains in Miyazaki?
Comment: Takachiho is a popular destination and is well documented even in English...
Answer: There is some information that looks useful on Wikivoyage: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Miyazaki
The Miyazaki train station is served by JR Kyushu: http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/
The Miyazaki City Tourism Association has links to information about transportation including bus companies: http://www.miyazaki-city.tourism.or.jp/en/access/index.html
Japanese sites that offer an English language selection usually do it one of two ways:

Actual edited English language content
Translated through Google Translate from Japanese

For the machine translated ones, you have to be a bit careful about interpreting the exact information you are getting from the site.
Answer: I've used the HyperDia app as an essential part of my kit for travel planning in Japan.
*Pro: It is up to date, and provides exquisitely detailed train routing and fare results. In my experience, it provides more options than google maps. If you are using JR Pass, which is often economical, it has a switch to avoid trains & routes not covered by the pass.
*Con: Phone app is a paid service. Not map-based, so you need to know the station names, which may differ from place names. In practice I'll use it alongside google maps to get correct station names.
In your specific case, it will be limited as there is no train station in Takachiho (Nearest one is Nobeoka), so bus or train+bus may be your only public transport options.
Specifically, the best bet might be the Miyazaki - Takachiho bus line, for 2500 Yen. You can have fun with google translate trying to puzzle it out, but hotels and excellent tourist information offices located in train stations will be able to help if you do not speak/read Japanese.
Comment: (You raise an excellent other question about using a smartphone in Japan that I have experience with. I'm new here, but I think the gist I get is that it might be better dealt with as another question? Regardless, look into "Pocket WiFi" rentals--a personal hotspot for your phone/laptop. Depending on the company, you can have it delivered to you before you leave, pick it up at the airport, or have it delivered to your hotel. It's great because you never have to worry about finding free WiFi, which is scarce, though improving. Your mobile company may also offer an international roaming plan.
Comment: PS Also, I believe it is the voice sims that are hard to get, but you can find data-only sim cards at the airport. With that or hotspot, you'll probably need to use WhatsApp/Skype/GoogleVoice to make phone calls without costing a fortune!
Comment: Welcome to the site. Nice answer (+1) with some personal experience to back up the links you give. Although it has been a while since I was in Japan, I had the same positive experience with Tourist information office and actually all staff who spoke (some) English anywhere.
Comment: Thanks for sharing your experience that's very helpful. When you say using google translate did you use the offline version or did you get a sim-card with internet access? If the latter I would really appreciate it if you could tell us how you managed to get that as when I went to Tokyo few years ago they didn't allow me to buy one as they wanted me to have a Japanese bank account.
Comment: Great! To clarify--I meant google translate on my laptop browser over WiFi--not sure about on the phone!

Transportation in Miyazaki Japan


Mobile application to turn smartphone into wireless microphone

Question: I am lookin for an app (iOS or Android) that turns any smartphone into a wireless microphone for any kind of event. For example I can talk in my phone and sound is broadcasted in real time to the speakers. I don't want to buy dozens of mics.
Comment: Try Crowd Mics.
Comment: Have you tested it ?
Comment: @Tetsujin - Crowd Mics isn't a Google program.  It is there own company.  It also isn't particularly cheap.  It is $1 per person per week from their online price list.
Comment: I meant it as a verb, not a noun ;-) Someone edited it from 'google' to 'try' anyway.
Answer: Don't, just don't. Using smartphones as microphones for live sound is really highly ill-advised.  You will have all kinds of network latency issues, feedback issues (as they are generally designed to be omni-directional), quality issues, etc.  You can do it in a pinch for a recording maybe, but if you are using it for reinforcement, you are majorly asking for trouble.
If you really, really want to continue down that path, any voice chat client will do what you are looking for.  Just setup one device on the call to be plugged in to the sound board and it will play the audio through the PA, but don't be surprised when you have major issues.
If I absolutely had to do something like this, I'd probably use something like TeamSpeak 3 which is designed for multi-person voice communications.  It has a mobile client and allows for a lot of control over volumes of individual speakers and can even enable certain speakers to automatically make other speakers more quiet.  It is free for non-profit use (up to 512 users) or can be licensed for more than that.  Alternately, Mumble could be used for free, but the platform itself isn't quite as flushed out as TeamSpeak.  Again though, I can't emphasis enough how much I would advise against this.
Answer: As an experiment, use skype or hangout because everybody has it installed already, and you can hook it into the PA with some real soundcard. If you want to go further, use some sound server as Jack on iOs with seperate recording app and streaming app. That would be the only way around the noise reduction and echo cancellation algorithms mandatory in telephony applications.
The sound of the mic will alwys be horrific compared to a >50$ PA mic.


C. elegans are either male or hermaphrodites, but why aren't there any females?

Question: From my understanding C. elegans are mainly hermaphrodites but are occasionally males to increase genetic variation. Why is it that random females aren't born instead to achieve he same goal (genetic diversity)?
Answer: The evolution of self-fertile hermaphrodites is thought to be a specialization that occurred several times in the nematoda. For example, most of small, free-living soil nematode species related to C. elegans are male/female. C. briggsae, which last shared a common ancestor 80 myr ago is also male/hermaphrodite, but I believe their ancestor is thought to have been male/female.
At the developmental level, the first germ cells to mature in the somatic gonad develop as sperm and then the Germline switches over to make oocytes.
Comment: Re: the origin of spontaneous males in a culture. This occurs due to non-disjunction during meiosis of the XX Germline. About 1/700 times a nullo-X germ cell is randomly generated. Fertilization then results in an X0 embryo, which develops as a male. To get an actual female C. elegans you would need a genetic mutant that interrupts spermatogenesis.
Answer: C.elegans makes use of an X0 sex determination system, so there is only one sex chromosome (X), which only allows for two sexes (XX and X0) as 00 is not viable.


Parameter optimization in probabilistic models

Question: Task: Suppose we model a variable $y = Wx + \mu$ as a linear transformation of $x$ plus some Gaussian noise $\mu\sim\mathcal N(0,\sigma I)$. Our aim is to minimize the estimation error of $x$ given $y$ in terms of $W$, i.e. we want to minimize the entropy $H(x|y,W)$ as a function of $W$. Suppose that, during learning, we know $x$ for every observed state $y$: what is the optimal supervised update of the model parameters $W$?
The problem is: I can't wrap my head around the question how I come - in a rigorous way - from the estimation problem that I want to solve to the parameter updates that depend on the variable I want to estimate. It's probably a standard procedure but the problem is hard to nail down to Google-friendly buzzwords.
Thanks in advance!!
blue2script
Answer: I dont have answer to your question but i am interested in knowing what exactly does this statement in your question mean :
"Our aim is to minimize the estimation error of x given y in terms of W, i.e. we want to minimize the entropy $H(x|y,W)$ as a function of W"


Extract frequency data from MP3 file

Question: I want to do frequency analysis of audio data, basically trying to figure out what the notes are in a song algorithmically.  The standard approach is to decode the MP3 into PCM data and run it through an FFT.  However, notes below around middle C require too much precision for an FFT to work well.  Since the MP3 already has frequency information in small time increments, is it a) precise enough to identify frequencies within about 2 - 5 Hz, and b) is there any code out that there does this conveniently?  Most code (unsurprisingly) seems to convert it to the time domain, but I'd like to have just the frequency data.
Comment: Hi! There's a lot to unpack here: 1. figuring out what notes are in a *song* takes a lot more than just a frequency analysis – as far as I know, this is a problem so complex that there's not an even remotely acceptable machine-based method; start with identifying individually played notes of a single instrument under perfect clean recording methods. Identifying the note from that is hard enough.
Comment: Then, as you notice, methods where the spectrum is sampled at equal distances don't work well. Also note that your 2 Hz resolution requirement is also unrelated to your tone identification problem in general, but only applies to the lower frequencies. Kudos if you can tune a high violin string to 2 Hz accuracy!
Comment: Don't let the difficulty of my task distract from the question, though, which is how precise are the frequencies in an MP3 file, and is there an easy way of extracting it. This thing doesn't need to spit out sheet music, just having the notes in the chord is very helpful.  There isn't really a problem identifying the actual note:  just check if the amplitude of the frequency bin for that contains the note's frequency.  This only works if the bins contain one and only one note, which is my problem for low-frequency notes.  High frequency notes can tolerate wide bins, so no problems.
Comment: OK, I'll try, but seriously, finding the notes in a chord is **hard**. A string plucked to produce a single note doesn't emit a single frequency, but a whole set of harmonics – that's why your approach of "finding the frequency bin with the tone" doesn't work.
Comment: I'm now working on the same project previously done by prewett i.e. extracting notes from a given music. My question is: is it possible to do so, if yes then what are the ways ?
Answer: The MP3 encoder works on batches of 576 time-domain samples and converts them to 576 frequency-domain samples. That means that you get a frequency resolution of $\frac{f_\text{sample}}{576}$, whatever your sampling rate is.
Notice however how short that is at usual sampling rates, for example 44.1 kHz: that's a bare 13.something milliseconds. That makes a lot of sense – the frequencies produced by an excited string, membrane or air volume change over time after the excitation.
So, no, your approach won't work: this resolution won't work to resolve your 2 Hz!
Also, not going through the MP3 route and directly FFT'ing your audio signal can't work, either:
To get a 2 Hz resolution in a linear frequency transform, you'll need 1/2 seconds of audio, no matter how you do it!
Do the math: if you have a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, and you want to resolve 2 Hz, you'll need to transform 44.1 kHz / 2 Hz = 22050 samples. These take 22050 / 44.1 kHz = 1/2 s to accumulate at that sample rate. It's the same for every other rate, too, because the sampling rate in the equation
$$T_{\text{recording}}=\frac{\frac{f_{\text{sample}} }{f_{\text{resolution}}}}{f_{\text{sample}}}$$
always cancels.
Now, you'll notice that a note lasting half a second in its pure form rarely happens.
Furthermore, as I tried to explain in my comments:
Your hypothesis that playing a note inserts power at but a single frequency is false.
Instruments playing a note don't produce a single tone, but a mixture of multiple harmonics dampened by a changing envelope, also exposed to a drift in frequency over time. It's really not like you can go into a FFT and say, "OK, this was this and that chord played, easy to see".
Things get even more complicated since you said you wanted to detect notes played in a chord: Since the individual oscillating elements (e.g. guitar strings) mechanically couple, you typically get further frequency components and a changed temporal behaviour.

Extract frequency data from MP3 file


If a batsman get bowled on free hit and ball goes to boundary, will 4 runs be added or not?

Question: If a batsman get bowled on free hit and ball goes to boundary, will four runs be added or not? Is there any rule about this?
Comment: The cricket tag is enough. [Creating tags](http://meta.sports.stackexchange.com/questions/312/grounds-of-tag-creation) for every little characteristic within a sport will result in hundreds of useless tags over time.
Answer: No-ball delivery
When a bowler over-steps, resulting in No ball, and the batsman's wicket has been disturbed with the ball going to the boundary, then 5 runs are awarded to the batting side. Five runs is split as one for overstepping and four for the boundary. All these 5 runs go into the extras (No ball) column. However, if the ball touches the bat/glove before hitting the stumps and then goes to the boundary, 1 run is added in the extras column for the No ball and 4 runs are added to the batsman's score. Either way, the batting side get 5 runs.
More details, including the excerpt below, can be found here and here.

13 - Runs resulting from a No ball - how scored
  The one run penalty shall be scored as a No ball extra. Any runs completed by the batsmen or any boundary allowance shall be credited to the striker if the ball has been struck by the bat; otherwise they shall also be scored as No ball extras.

Free hit delivery
The delivery that immediately follows the No ball for overstepping in limited overs cricket is a free hit. This means that the batsman cannot be dismissed in any way apart from a run out, handling the ball, hitting the ball twice or obstructing the field. So, if the ball hits the stumps and goes to the boundary, the batsman is not out. Instead the batting team get 4 runs as extras (byes) for the ball reaching the boundary. If the batsman has nicked the ball before it hit the stumps on its way to the boundary, then all 4 runs are added to the batsman's score.
Long story short, if a batsman gets bowled off a free hit and the ball goes to boundary, then yes, 4 runs will be added to the batting side.
Comment: @Bogdanovist The rules for the no-ball are very clear and I don't think it needs any further explanation. For free-hits, I am not sure if it has happened in international cricket, but found this link which states it happening in domestic circuit. `On five occasions he clean bowled batsmen, only to hear the dreaded cry of "no ball" from the umpire, and three times he hit the batsmen's castle with the free hit that followed each no-ball. Two of those raced to the boundary off the stumps to give Greerton easy runs`. [Read here](http://is.gd/bDmaH8)
Comment: This doesn't seem right, however I've scoured the rules and I can't find anything contradicting it. At best the rules are in my view vague on this as they don't explicitly state what you can and can't do once a batsmen has been 'bowled' off a no-ball (or free hit). Are there any recorded examples of this happening in a match?
Comment: To be clear, I mean examples of additional runs being scored after a batsmen is clean 'bowled' off a no-ball or free-hit ball.
Comment: @Bogdanovist Yes, there are quite a few instances of batsman getting bowled off a no-ball, and scoring runs. One of the more memorable ones (for me, anyway) was from the 2005 Ashes when Michael Vaughan was bowled off a no-ball and the ball raced to the boundary. The rule is quite simple. In case of a fair delivery, when a batsman is bowled the ball is dead immediately. In case of a no-ball, the ball remains in play even after hitting the stumps, so if the ball doesn't reach the boundary, the batsmen can run and score runs (and of course, the fielding side can effect a run out).


Mailed My Passport to the US for Renewal

Question: I permanently live abroad with my spouse. My passport was due to expire, so I sent it, along with the necessary renewal form, picture, etc, back to the US to be renewed. I'm planning on having my family send it back to me. Since there is no exit stamp from the country I now reside in, will this cause an issue for me? What will happen with my passport and renewal that I already sent in?
Comment: I wonder why you sent to to your family to have it renewed rather than use the services of you local embassy or consulate? You know you can get the old passport back (with a corner cut or a whole punched through to mark it as invalid), though I don't remember whether that's automatic or if you have to ask for it.
Comment: @Chi Welcome to TSE. This purpose of comments is to ask for clarification, so there is no need to be curt to jcaron. I strongly encourage you to take the site [tour] and review the [help] for a better understanding of how Stack Exchange operates.
Comment: Firstly, it was a mistake on my part, but your response still doesn't answer my question or provide a response to what will happen now. I'm looking for some constructive, and helpful, information at this point. Are you able to answer my initial query?
Comment: Although you don't ask about it, I would be concerned about your passport arriving in the mail at the US processing center. If it doesn't, you would want to report it stolen. The other concern: mailing it abroad to you. If it's not too late, you might want to see whether it can be sent to your nearest US consulate. Such materials go by secure courier from the US to its missions, not through postal service systems.
Answer: When the State Department issues you the new passport, they will also return the old one (with some holes punched through it to invalidate it). In most instances, you can simply show the stamp in your old passport, along with your new passport.
IIRC, though, there are a few places that require stamps to be transferred to the new passport. So you may want to contact the immigration service of whatever country you're in, just to make sure.
EDIT: RedBaron suggests in a comment that you might be concerned that the US won't properly process your renewal because you don't have an exit stamp. If so: Don't worry. The US does not care about exit stamps, certainly not while processing a passport renewal. (In my own passport, which has since been renewed, I had about three missing exit stamps.)
Comment: I think OP is more concerned about the fact that when state (or whatever) department receives his renewal request with existing passport, there won't be an exit stamp on it for the country where OP currently resides in.
Comment: Thanks guys (RedBaron and Sneftel) this was helpful.
Comment: @Chi, if you think this was as good an answer as you are going to get, please accept the answer. (The tick under the op and down votes.)


Screen becomes black after pressing dash or alt-tab

Question: I did an upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10. Unity 3d becomes a black screen after pressing the dash-button or after pressing alt-tab to switch between open windows. I can see the panel on the top(lock,sound,..) and the panel on the left (launcher) but the rest is black.
It looks like a maximised black window. The open Windows are active but I cant see them. I logout by pressing logout in the right top corner and pressing enter (because logout is default focused on the dialogue screen) and leave unity3d.
Unity3d worked with 11.04 very good. If I press the dash button the dash looks like an 16-Bit or 8-Bit window and buttons for maximise, minimise and close are displayed and looks inverted.
I have rebooted my notebook just now and log in to Unity 3D and tested some features of Unity and everything works well. The black thing is only a layer. I can use my desktop but cant see anything because of the layer, but everything works. It seems so, that a layer appear when pressing dash or alt-tab and does not disappear when close dash or choose a running app with alt-tab. you will see the necessary info related video problems:
Unity support:
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

OpenGL vendor string:   X.Org R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RC410
OpenGL version string:  2.1 Mesa 7.11-devel

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

xorg
glxinfo

lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M] [1002:5a62]

Comment: Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! We need more hardware information to help you, can you look at [this question](http://askubuntu.com/questions/14008/i-have-a-hardware-detection-problem-what-logs-do-i-need-to-look-into) and then edit your question adding the information?
Comment: set dash blur="no blur" in ccsm /unity plugin/ experimantal  solved my problem. Alt+tab and dash are working very fine now
Comment: Don't forget to post this as an answer so we can vote you up!
Answer: set dash blur="no blur" in ccsm /unity plugin/ experimantal solved my problem. Alt+tab and dash are working very fine now


How to opt out viewing doc files in Gmail through Google Docs?

Question: When I want to view a doc attachment in Gmail, I am automatically sent to  my Google Docs to view it. How to stop that and use a default viewer (Word, Foxit, etc.)?
Answer: To view the file on a desktop application you'll need to download the file first. At present there is no way to set the action of the View button within Gmail.
The closest thing to what you are describing (assuming you are using Google Chrome) would be to download the file, then right click on the downloads progress and select Always open this file type. Then whenever you click download on a <code>.doc</code> file, Chrome will download the file and automatically open it up in Word for you.