What does "I am married with three kids" mean?

Question: Where did this come from? It sounds nasty to me (I am not a native speaker). But it seems correct. Can somebody explain this?
Comment: It comes from Al Bundy. He's [Married... with Children](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married..._with_Children).
Comment: ...which in turn got it from the IRS. See my answer below.
Answer: If you're talking about you and your spouse, it's not possible to be "married with" anyone; you can only be "married to" someone.
Hence there is no ambiguity in saying "married with three kids", as the "with" cannot be associated with "married".
Comment: Prepositions are always the trickiest part when learning a language (that has them). Master them and the rest is smooth sailing. In German, one is actually married *with* someone; "married to" would be ungrammatical. In Russian, I am married *on* my wife, while she is married *behind* me. Go figure. (The list goes on, but you get the idea.)
Comment: @RegDwight: Little details like that are what make languages so fascinating to me - though also hard work. And don't get me started on grammatical gender... :-)
Comment: @RegDwigнt, I guess the implication, then, is that Russian men lie on their backs on top of their wives?
Answer: Did you hear it or read it?
If you heard it, you may not have correctly heard the comma, which de-nastys to:

I am married, with three kids
Comment: The comma is redundant. A native English speaker understands it without, and would not say it out loud with the pause that's implied by the comma. Some writers and editors would insert a comma; others would not. It's a matter of personal style, not correctness.
Comment: I read it,a quick google search shows it,too.
Answer: It means the speaker is married, and has three children (generally living with them as dependents).
Perhaps it isn't the best grammar. It certainly isn't the clearest way of putting it. However, it references the IRS (USA tax) code, in particular someone who is filing a joint return with a spouse and has other minor dependents. Several examples of this construction can be seen here. As such, any person who fills out a USA tax form is liable to know immediately what it means.
This terminology also was used in the name of a hit TV series.
Answer:
I am married with three kids.

can safely be resolved to

I am married, with three kids.

at which point the context & the meaning become completely clear. I don't think the sentence sounds nasty, as nobody would ever want to imply what you are referring to.
Comment: A comma, rather than a semi-colon, would be better, as "with three kids" is not a separate clause.
Answer: Great!
As a non-native English speaker from another place of the world, sometimes you just don't figure out some of the rules for translation-that should obey the side of the foreigner language and not your own. This case is a good example.
In Spanish you say: "Estoy casado con Tania".
The wrong translation is: "I'm married with Tania".
The OK translation is: "I'm married to Tania".
In the question there's obviously a mistake which has its origin in a wrong translation.
Clearly, the punctuation helps to give a satisfying connotation, but the problem isn't there.
"I'm married to three children" is what "Estoy casado con 3 niños" means in Spanish and is totally wrong, mainly because the word con means with most of the time. In this case, the translation should become not word by word but understanding the meaning of the phrase. Much of the time the Spanish speaking people fall into this kind of mistakes out of the logic that Spanish language has implicitly, but to learn English as well as other idioms, you most open your mind to break those language barriers.
"I'm married with three children" is "Estoy casado con 3 niños", nothing wrong, but "I'm married to three children" is the nasty meaning you were seeing.
In case of a translation, the fix for it would be to add the comma. Simple.
Anyway, this has to do with a wrong conception of the verbal form and how it is used.
My two cents, I'm new here and love idioms. I'm always learning something new and this is an excellent place for doing that.
Answer: Without seeing/hearing it in context, this statement appears to be a completely neutral statement of fact - no implications, nasty or otherwise.
It's possible that we're missing some important detail. You may need to provide more information about the context in which this phrase was used if we are to spot any hidden malice.


When using feature-linked annotation in ArcGIS 10, can I create multiple annotations from one feature?

Question: I have a road that I want to create multiple annotations for. Is it possible to attach more than one annotation to the same feature?
Comment: I don't see why not. Define labels export to annotations, turn on the dynamic labels again, edit as needed and export to another annotation class.
Answer: I'm not sure what the setup is for ArcGIS 10, but in 9.3.1 on the Properties>Label tab you can define more than one label class for labeling.  Change the "Method" option to "Define classes and features and label each class differently."  You can then define a different field, placement properties, and expression for each class.  Alternatively, you could just only label one class, but concatenate multiple fields within the expression option (see example below).
[FIELD1]&" "&[FIELD2]
After you have your labels setup and labeled you can then convert them to feature linked annotations.
In addition, the ArcGIS Resource Center has much more literature on labeling and annotations.
Answer: You can control pretty well every facet of annotation behavior (placement, font, color, add symbols, rotation angle, multiple labels per feature, etc, etc .....> ).
....and yes, create your different annotations and organize them in a geodatabase.
Better explained by ESRI actually.  Everything you could want to know here


Using ArcPy to zoom to selected feature?

Question: Is there a way to zoom to the extent of a selected feature using the ArcPy module in ArcGIS Desktop 10.
Answer: I've got a piece of code that works.  I found it here on the ESRI website.  Add it as a script to a model, then connect the output of a select by attribute tool to it.  It does exactly what I want.
import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument('CURRENT')
df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd, "Layers") [0]
df.zoomToSelectedFeatures()
arcpy.RefreshActiveView()

Comment: +1 `df.zoomToSelectedFeatures()` Is how I do it. You may wish to set scale with `df.scale = yourscalehere` as well.
Comment: Most scripting functionality that handles document (mxd) management, display, or output is going to use the ArcPy mapping module. http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Geoprocessing_scripts_for_map_document_management_and_output/00s300000032000000/
Answer: As you've already surmised,
df.zoomToSelectedFeatures()

will change the extents of the data frame to all selected features in the map frame. If you're interested in just zooming to a selection set for a specific layer then use lyr.getSelectedExtent(). I also adjust the map scale factor so my code either looks like this:
df.extent = lyr.getSelectedExtent()
df.scale *= 1.5
arcpy.RefreshActiveView()

or this:
df.extent = lyr.getSelectedExtent()
df.scale = 12000 # 1:1,000
arcpy.RefreshActiveView()

Answer: I'd say yes. The layer class has a getSelectedExtent method, and the Dataframe has an extent property.  Haven't tried it though.
Answer: So, to add to this, I've been needing to keep track of the broadest extent across multiple layers with no features selected. The following code will track the furthest extent in each direction. extent_object stays constant across all calls to the function and should be initialized to one of the layers you are including. The argument "layer" to track_extent is an arcpy.Mapping.Layer object. When you are ready to save your map, just set your dataframe's extent via something like data_frame.extent = extent_object
extent_object = initial_layer.getExtent()

def track_extent(extent_object,layer):

    l_properties = layer.getExtent()

    # each of these essentially says that if this layer is further out to one direction than the current setting, change the setting
    if l_properties.XMin < extent_object.XMin:
        extent_object.XMin = l_properties.XMin
    if l_properties.YMin < extent_object.YMin:
        extent_object.YMin = l_properties.YMin
    if l_properties.XMax > extent_object.XMax:
        extent_object.XMax = l_properties.XMax
    if l_properties.YMax > extent_object.YMax:
        extent_object.YMax = l_properties.YMax


Wheel spacers don't fit

Question: I ordered a set of 4 pcs wheel spacers online for my 2017 Honda Rancher 420 4x4.
Got spacers in today,they don't fit my wheels.The wheels don't fit over the rim that is sticking up inside lug nuts.

Is there any way to make it fit ?
Any advice ?
Thank you.
Answer: Do not machine that lip off, it is there to locate the wheel correctly.
You need to get the correct adaptor, better yet, get a set of wheels with a different offset that will resolve the issue.
Answer: Seems they are aluminum wheel spacers.Where did you get these wheel spacers? Why not return for refund directly? I think modifing will cost you much time and effort.
Comment: Bought from Hexautoparts last monday.I live in Canada and contacted this seller yesterday,they told me these wheel spacers fit 2007 Honda Rancher 420 not 2017.My bad,I bought the wrong year,just as Ukko said,I should take correct measurement of center bore size .I like these honda rancher wheel spacers and they are protected well and very strong.If I return to them,the shipping fee is not a small expenditure.So I asked such a stupid question here and wonder anyone whether have experienced before.
Answer: The measurement that you need to be looking at is the center bore size of the wheels, the hub, and the spacers.
The first thing I would do is look at the wheels themselves.  If they are aftermarket often they will have a larger bore with the idea that you will need to use hub centric rings to make things fit.  The wheels I use for snow tires are like this and the hub centric rings have stuck to the wheels, if this is your situation you might just be able to take the rings out of the wheels and be good.
If that is not the case you will need to get the correct wheel spacers.  Measure the center bore on both the wheels you want to use and then order the correct ones.  If they are too small at the wheel interface you can always add hub centric rings to even things out.
In all of these cases be aware that all of this is increasing the forces the hub will need to handle while cornering, so just give your suspension a little bit of extra love and attention when doing maintenance.
Comment: @iDriveSidewayz no offense taken.  I feel like the fact that the OP did not know about the importance of the center bore on spacers made me feel like they also may not know about the downsides to them.  That may not be 100% included in the text of question, but it is included in the subtext of having asked the question in my opinion.
Comment: I would elaborate a bit on the additional forces the hub encounters when cornering due to spacers.  OP doesn't understand hub bore, so I assume they also do not understand suspension geometry and the like.  That or remove it as it's unrelated to OP's actual question. (no offense meant)
Answer: If they were ordered legitimately from a reputable company, there shouldn't be any issue in returning them for spacers that fit your hub diameter and center (unless you have aftermarket rims in which case you may need to take measurements and have custom spacers made).
If you're only looking for a way to modify the spacers you now have, I'd question the legitimacy of how you "acquired" them.
Comment: How does this actually answer the question? For example, I have ordered a set of custom spacers from a machinist, and he absolutely wouldn't take them back as he barely makes enough profit on each set and doesn't have large enough volume of orders to keep them stored for reselling later .

Wheel spacers don't fit


Building an AI that generates text by itself

Question: Now I know this might break some StackExchange rules and I am definitely open for taking the thread down if it does!
I am trying to build an AI that can write it's own book and I have no idea where to start or what are the appropriate algorithms and approaches to go with.
How should I start and what do I exactly need for such a project?
Comment: OK, make up some alternative but similar purpose like the one you suggest and add it to your question. I think that what you want is beyond current AI techniques, especially if you expect anything the AI produces to many any kind of *sense*. So it may help to understand whether your purpose is in the question to really make such an AI (an impossible task for 2020) or to better understand the technologies that could be involved in such a project and why it is hard to do
Comment: Text generation has a long history in computing, and there are plenty of AI areas that might help. This question might be on topic if you explain more about your project goals and where you are stuck. I thnk some details on the nature of the book and its purpose are important, because state of the art language algorithms can generate text with certain stylistic forms, but which is usually vacuous nonsense. Take a look at https://talktotransformer.com/ perhaps - is that the sort of text generation you had in mind?
Comment: something like that but not quite exactly, I want to do something like feed the AI some history books about a country (this is just an example because I can't disclose the purpose of the AI) and it generates an alternate history for that country
Answer: There have been many methods proposed for text generating, but recurrent network dominates natural language processing with a key component: the perception of time.
Many networks have been tried for text generation, with notable examples such as Markov chain. However RNN have been proven to work the best and is dominating the field of language modelling (text generation).
How text generation works
A neural network that generates text is commonly called a language model. It is trained on large amount of text with labels being the next token. The text generation process uses several random token as the starting phrase and then the network predicts the rest. However the network does not just predicts the most probable word, instead it randomly chooses one of the few most probable token, hence the generating part.
Why RNN work best on language modelling
RNN have a perception of time built into the architecture of teh network. LSTM, a popular RNN variant used, is composed of "memory units" that "remembers" past text, thus the "time" part. RNN process input according to the sequence of time, so the network can naturally understand time, thus the superior performance compared to other networks.
Architecture of language model
A language model consists of the encoder and the decoder. The encoder compresses word one-hot representation to a smaller sized vector representation. The smaller sized representation is then passed through the decoder, which maps the encoding to the words one hot vectors again.
State of the art results for language modelling
Language modelling is an actively researched field in the AI community, and recently the model GPT-2 have achieved a breakthrough in language modelling accuracy, producing almost human like text with a special component added, the attention layer. Attention basically maps the "memory states" of the encoder and feed it as input to the decoder. The data teh model is trained on is also very large, with over 20GB of web scraped data from sites like Reddit.
Limits of language modelling
One limit of language modelling is the size of generated text. As GPU don't have unlimited memory, language model usually limits the input token size to a specific number, padding or trimming to this number. The number is usually 500-1000, which includes a paragraph or two, but not an entire book. You can only generate short paragraphs and essay with language modelling. For long text it is much harder.
Resources to help you get started
GPT-2 open AI blog: https://openai.com/blog/better-language-models/
GPT-2 online interactive site for text generation: https://talktotransformer.com/
How to train and fine tune GPT-2 in python: https://minimaxir.com/2019/09/howto-gpt2/
Hope I can help you
Comment: So what to do when I'm trying to generate large texts that for sure will exceeds 1000 words? should I do it piece by piece?
Comment: In short, you simply cannot. The training data of the model is just not a piece of continuous long text, so at the end the AI is going to predict the end token and the sentence/paragraph is going to end.
Answer: Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have been applied to generate text. In this blog post you will find a couple of interesting text examples (the author also has made his code available on github), e.g. their Shakespeare-like texts generated by an RNN:

PANDARUS:
  Alas, I think he shall be come approached and the day
  When little srain would be attain'd into being never fed,
  And who is but a chain and subjects of his death,
  I should not sleep.
Second Senator:
  They are away this miseries, produced upon my soul,
  Breaking and strongly should be buried, when I perish
  The earth and thoughts of many states.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
  Well, your wit is in the care of side and that.
Second Lord:
  They would be ruled after this chamber, and
  my fair nues begun out of the fact, to be conveyed,
  Whose noble souls I'll have the heart of the wars.
Clown:
  Come, sir, I will make did behold your worship.
VIOLA:
  I'll drink it.

As you can see the RNN is able to somewhat mimic the "flow" of the texts it has been trained on but some sentences (like at the very end) do not make much contextual sense.
Moreover, RNNs have been trained to generate other content, e.g. drawing numbers (see here) or creating music (see here).
Comment: Well, that depends on a number of things: what you define as "large amount", your computing power, the amount of data needed to learn the respective task etc.  In the linked blog post the author used up to 100MB to train his Wikipedia article writing RNN. Using a rough ball park figure 100MB of pure text equals about 100 books with 500 pages each.
Comment: is it a good approach to train the RNN on a large amounts of data (sentences, paragraphs...) ?
Comment: okay, I got you! so the best approach here is using RNNs and go there! Thank you for your time!


How can I get programmers to work together better on shared code with tests

Question: We keep repeating "you have to pull first" (this is git and github by the way).  Then you code a little, then get your tests to pass, then commit, then pull and push again.  We give tutorial links, try firm / hard.  The latest changes broke 2 dozen tests. We document everything. What other things can we do to help folks.  We require passing tests.  Right now we are tempted to rollback all of todays changes which wouldn't be popular.  I'm not a big fan of that harsh an approach to management but perhaps a 'final' warning that we will do that next time is now required. Failing that it's clear they need to fix broken tests, right?  We fixed them last time so that didn't 'take'...
Comment: Just fire them ;-)
Comment: cattle prods?...
Comment: I agree with zerkms if it's that bad, you need new programmers
Comment: Is this a corporate environment or a open-source project to which amateurs contribute?
Comment: You have a continuous integration server?  It can tell people when their commit was broken
Answer: Get your team to solve the problem and give them the autonomy to do so. Gather your team and do your best to state the problem or situation and goals clearly. State it like  requirements, defining what needs to happen without specifying how. Developers are problem solvers so make this a problem to solve. This means you will have to listen and may have to give up on your ideal solution, but it your team owns the solution in they will be more likely to follow the solution they came up with.
Your requirements may be something like
1) Automated build runs each night a 9:00, so all tests have to pass by then. Ask the team how to enforce this (maybe if you break the build you have to bring in doughnuts :)
2) Builds are deployed every Wednesday, if tests do not pass by Tuesday then we miss the release and delay until the next window. How can we enforce this?
Whenever I do this with my team I find that they come up with a better solution than the one I've been dictating and they enforce it with each other which allows me to focus on more important things than enforcing the rules.
Comment: Well, if a broken build means donuts... then I'd be breaking builds all days. ;-)
Comment: You would have to buy them every day ;)
Answer: If the problem is that your team constantly break the build then you should all sit down and discuss the problem.
As a manager you should make it clear that if you don't have a buildable artifact at any time in the build server then you are not delivering anything. What would be the effects of not delivering anything? Then let the team try to solve the problem with what processes, practices and tools your team needs in order to have everything deliverable by the end of the day. Also make sure the team does not have any other pressing issues during this day or else those will take precedence by default.
There are multiple ways of doing this, but ultimately the team has to do it, so give the team enough time (like a day or two) to do this on their own.

... and if they still suck you need better programmers who have the discipline to do this kind of work.
Comment: Terminate the worst developer with the most lack of discipline. You should be clear that you won't tolerate breaks in build.
Answer: Have you tried making failures more visible? A public build radiator? E-mail committer/team/company (well, the last one maybe isn't such a good idea unless you have a pretty small company..) when a build breaks, describing the commit contents and committer?
Try to make feedback loop as short as possible. If developer knows that she broke the build 15 minutes after the commit vs tomorrow, there is huge difference in terms of being able to react.
Comment: Agree with this. You should have a monitor that can tell you whether a build break / success.
Answer: Sounds like you are doing it wrong - I mean the general git workflow. Here's a couple of suggestions:

We keep repeating "you have to pull first" (this is git and github by
  the way). Then you code a little, then get your tests to pass, then
  commit, then pull and push again.

Why is everyone committing into the same branch? That's so svn :). Let them develop in their own branches, specific for developer or feature. Don't worry about what they break in there, but demand that everything must pass tests and be top-notch in general once they merge their changes to production branch.
That way a programmer can develop isolated code in peace (even for a couple of days when working on a feature) and worry about integration and tests later, when he decides to put changes into production.
You can take it one step further - don't allow developers to push directly to production at all and give them a script instead which will allow them to push changes only if all tests pass. Simple.

Right now we are tempted to rollback all of todays changes which
  wouldn't be popular. I'm not a big fan of that harsh an approach to
  management but perhaps a 'final' warning that we will do that next
  time is now required.

Again, what are branches for? In this case you can:

create a "bugfix" branch from "production" branch
delete broken code from "production" branch
fix broken code in "bugfix" branch
merge "bugfix" back into "production"

What's so harsh about it?
In general, try to improve your version control workflow (perhaps hire a git consultant to help you with that?), that should stop programmers from committing broken code into production.
Of course, bad workflow isn't an excuse for committing broken code, but take it from a developer's perspective - it's very easy to break code when several people are working on the same app at once and everyone's committing to the same branch. Especially if they do a huge commits and tests are brittle, but I don't know if that's your case.


Calculating coefficient of generating function with Coin

Question: The problem I'm currently looking over requires use of generating functions to solve the following:
If a coin is flipped $25$ times with eight tails occurring, what is the probability that no run of six (or more) consecutive heads occurs?
I know that you need to designate $H$ (heads) and $T$ (tails), such as $H = 1$, $T = x$ and this would give you the binomial expression $(1+x)^n$, but I'm not entirely sure how to handle the constraint of tails already occurring and then find a probability of six (or more) consecutive heads from that.
I appreciate the help!
Answer: Hint: the 8 tails partition the heads into 9 (possibly empty) runs.
Comment: Thanks, i'll take a look using partitions


Rules - anonymous users redirected to user/login prevents request new password link from working

Question: I'm using the rules module with drupal 7 in order to redirect anonymous users to the login page.
Events: Drupal is initializing
Conditions: User has role(s) - Parameter: User: [site:current-user], Roles: anonymous user
NOT Text comparison - Parameter: Text: [site:current-page:url], Matching text: user/login
Actions: Page redirect - Parameter: URL: user/login
My problem is I need the "request new password" to work. How do I tell Rules to ignore clicks to user/password?
This is the current setup for the Actions but it doesnt work.

When a user gets to the login page I want them to be able to click Request New Password and not be redirected back to user/login.
Answer: Try adding a condition to your redirection rule like this :

Path has url alias
Value : user/password
Negate : True

Edit :
It must be something like this :
Comment: Could you clarify Negate:true. Should Negate be checked or unchecked?
Comment: negate true = checked
Comment: I've edited mu answer. Check the screenshot


Accurate Polynomial Evaluation in Floating Point

Question: What are the most accurate algorithms for evaluating a polynomial using floating point arithmetic? The internet seems to suggest that Horner's method is commonly used. In particular I have a cubic polynomial of the form f(x) = a x^3 + b x^2 + c x + d, which I am evaluating in the naive way with floating point arithmetic, and was curious whether some recursive approach or some refactoring would give a more accurate result. That is, a result closer to what I would get if I were to evaluate the polynomial exactly or with a metric ton of precision in Mathematica.
Comment: A key question, also, is: what is your input? Sometimes you get coefficients in different "bases", for instance you may want to evaluate the polynomial such that $p(0)=0$, $p(1)=5$, $p(2)=3$, $p(3)=5$ in $x=10$ (interpolation).
Comment: Are you dealing with piecewise cubic splines?
Answer: Horner is indeed the most stable way to evaluate a polynomial (and you get the bonus of evaluating its derivatives with not too much extra cost). Higham presents a nice error analysis of the algorithm (Accuracy and stability of numerical algorithms, 2nd edition, p.94). He also presents an algorithm that includes a running error bound so you have an idea on the difference between the real value and what Horner calculated (Algorithm 5.1 on p.95).
If your case is limited to cubic polynomials and you're worried about loop overhead, you could unroll the loops by hand. But I doubt you will gain much. Stick to the tried and tested.
Comment: The accuracy of the Horner scheme can be improved by using compensated arithmetic. See: Philippe Langlois and Nicolas Louvet. "How to ensure a faithful polynomial evaluation with the compensated Horner algorithm." In 18th IEEE Symposium on Computer Arithmetic (ARITH'07), pp. 141-149. IEEE, 2007 ([draft online](http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0610122.pdf)); Stef Graillat, Philippe Langlois, and Nicolas Louvet. "Algorithms for Accurate, Validated and Fast Polynomial Evaluation", Japan J. Indust. Appl. Math., 26 (2009), 191–214 ([online](http://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.jjiam/1265033778))
Answer: The stability of Horner can be improved by subtracting a constant from each $x$ in the Horner form.
This is described in "Stable Evaluation of Polynomials" by C. Mesztenyi and C. Witzgall, JOURNAL OF RESEARCH of the National Bureau of Standards - B. Mathematics and Mathematical Physics Vol. 71 B, No. 1, January–March 1967.
Answer: As an alternative you may use the barycentric Lagrange basis which has the same evaluation complexity as the Newton basis. The barycentric formulation is also used in the MATLAB Chebfun implementation. For details see papers of L. N. Trefethen.


Learning to program a Cell Phone

Question: Somebody wants to develop applications for his cell phone in Java. He does not know programming and he does not know Java. Should he start learning Java on his cell phone or would he better off learning how to program Java on his PC?
Comment: ... or start with a different language?
Answer:
Should he start learning Java on his cell phone or would he better off learning how to program Java on his PC?

These aren't your only options.
IMVHO, Java, especially Android, has a pretty steep learning curve. I would recommend starting with something like Processing to learn the fundamentals, and then I would use those fundamentals to transition to core (desktop) Java. When you have a good grasp on that, then I'd move to more advanced topics like mobile development.
Since you've tagged your post with curriculum-design, here's how I would design a curriculum. I would split it up into at least 3 different courses:

Course 1: Intro to Programming. Use Processing to introduce the fundamentals: functions, variables, loops, control flow.
Course 2: Advanced Programming. Use Java to introduce OOP, inheritance, data structures, algorithms. (In the US I believe this is the standard AP CS class?)
Course 3: Mobile Development. (After course 2 you can branch out into many topics, not just mobile development.)

That's my two cents, but I know other people approach it from other directions. For example I know many folks teach web development first. And Google has at least one curriculum that uses Android to teach the fundamentals.
The question of how to learn the fundamentals of CS has been asked here a few times before, so I'd recommend starting with a search. Here are a few posts to get you started:

How to teach a person to enjoy programming?
Programming language for teenagers
Order to Teach Topics in an Intro Programming Class
Explain to someone that programming isn't just all "if"s and "else"s
Programming languages specifically designed for beginners
Using Processing as an entry point in an Introductory Course

There are many potential paths through computer science education, and I think the best thing you can do is try a few out and see which one works best for you.
Also, like Buffy said, you probably don't want to program on a cell phone. Even if you're programming a mobile app, you're almost always programming on a computer, and then exporting the app to a phone.
Shameless self-promotion: I've written a series of tutorials that take you from Processing all the way through core Java and onto web development and Android, available at HappyCoding.io.
Answer: I don't see any particular reason that using a mobile device API would be any worse than learning Java on a PC. But an environment on a desktop that uses simulation of the mobile might be a good way to work. Note that programming for the phone is different from programming on the phone. The latter is probably restricting (small screen, terrible keyboard, ...).
A more direct, rather than a more circuitous route to a goal might be good, actually. But if the goal is Java generally, with its wider API, then programming on a phone would be limiting.
Also, programming on the desktop with emulators may ease the porting problem so that the code runs on more than one phone. The iPhone doesn't support Java, for example, but a desktop environment might, in principle, be able to translate for that device.
But note that I don't do this myself.
Comment: Even using ssh with Bluetooth kind the *environment* for programming on the phone is restrictive.
Comment: as intended. Samsung and your mobile carrier own your phone, you just give it a purpose and pay for it.
Answer: I presently teach an app building course at high school.  I did a lot of research as to what platform to use to build the apps.  For Android Android Studio is the big gun.  It uses Java.  AS has a killer learning curve and requires nice computers.  I am not good at Java (I teach Python) and the school has junk for computers.  Keep digging.  I found Thunkable.  Flat learning curve and runs great on junk.  The kids can actually build decent apps for both iPhone and Android.  If your goal is to teach Java then building apps is the hard way to go.
Answer: In my opinion learning to develop apps as a first step seems to have a quite steep learning curve. Maybe start with console applications first and get into programming slowly but steadily! Don't try flying to the moon when you don't even have a paper plane!
And of course Buffy mentioned a lot of important points as well.
Answer: I think there is a subtle point missing from the concept of programming. When you stop to think about it, teaching someone to write an app for Android or iOS is not just programming in Java.
Small steps make long journeys. Writing apps may be the goal but first you would need to have a foundation in Java. Then you can build on that by learning the Android API. In reality, what you are really doing is writing an extension to the android OS. Here is how I see things…
<code>"APP" EXTENDS "ANDROID"
      EXTENDS "JAVA"
      EXTENDS "C"
      EXTENDS "ASSEMBLY"
      EXTENDS "MACHINE CODE"
      EXTENDS "HARDWARE"
      EXTENDS "HUMAN"

</code>
To learn Java I think it would be easire to start someplace that does not require the odd (to a new person) expanation to take a bunch of steps not related directly to Java in order to learn Java.
Comment: IIRC, Java was written in C++, not that that detracts from your point at all. But are you suggesting that OP begins by studying `"HUMAN"` or `"HARDWARE"`?
Comment: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1220914/in-which-language-are-the-java-compiler-and-jvm-written
Comment: learning to be human is something that is done when you are young but learning how the hardware works, atleast a basic level is required to understand what the practice of programming is in general.

Learning to program a Cell Phone


Ford Fusion Check Engine Codes

Question: On Saturday the check engine light came on.  This is a 2009 Ford Fusion.   My daughter had just gotten gas so I figured it was gas cap related and did not panic.  On Monday we had it checked at a car parts store and the codes were:  B1318    P0841   P0410  and P049   The light had stayed on in spite of gas cap tightening and driving quite a few miles.  Today (Tuesday) the light has gone off.  Is is possible that all those codes were "false" or have cleared on their own?  I have an appointment to get this checked but was wondering what your thoughts would be. This is a "new to us" used car that we bought on Saturday.
Answer: B1318 is low battery voltage
P0841 is a code for the transmission fluid pressure sensor (TFP)
P0410 is a code for the secondary air injection system (pump malfunction)
P049 is not a valid code, they are always Ptxxx.  The first digit 't' (type) is always a 0 (generic) or a 1 (OEM specific).  Perhaps you meant P0449 which is EVAP vent valve/solenoid.
NONE of these codes bears any relation to the gas cap, although the '4' series codes are emissions including the evaporative system (gas cap included).  But P0449 is not a small or gross leak.
It sounds like the battery voltage got low, perhaps scrambled the ECU a bit.  The fact that all codes cleared in a few drive cycles is a good indication that they were phantom.
Monitor to see if they come back, but they appear to be random phantoms and not even related to each other - unless the one "real" code was the battery voltage, and the other codes are a result of the ECU fainting for a moment.
Perhaps get the battery load tested to eliminate that possibility.

Ford Fusion Check Engine Codes


What is the current status of Joomla 4.x?

Question: With the new release strategy in mind, what is the current status of Joomla 4.x? Has the development already started? Is there something on Github? Is there a google group especially for 4.x?
Comment: This question appears to be off-topic because it does not have a specific problem. It seems more like a chit-chat and any information / answers offered here may be valid for a very short period of time.
Comment: Yes @ValentinDespa maybe you're right.
Answer: The development strategy for the Joomla CMS is currently being revised. There is going to be at least a 3.3 and a 3.4 and probably more incremental minor versions at irregular intervals. This is different from the previous pattern where we'd go 3.5 and then 4.0 six months apart. It's not known when 4.0 will be released but my guess is it's not going to be necessary to think about until at least the end of 2015.
Development hasn't started on 4.x at all and there is no Google Group specifically for that version.
Comment: @mickmackusa I'm all Node.js these days. Haven't coded in PHP for many years now. Would be happy to talk about that if there are people interested in that and/or enterprise microservices.
Comment: Are we ever going to see you attend one of our Brisbane JUG Meetup nights?
Answer: As far as I know there is no official information about Joomla 4.x. But there is Joomla CMS Distributions project which potentially could be the base of Joomla 4.x.
Comment: Joomla distributions has been put on hold (more or less) until the decoupling of some lesser used core extensions (Weblinks, Banners, etc) is finished.
Answer: I think there's some idea to develop Joomla Framework first, and re-write everything on Joomla Framework to build a new CMS.
http://issues.joomla.org/ is already based on Joomla Framework.


what to do if a computer gets a blue screen when trying to install windows xp

Question: What might be the reason why I get blue screen when I try to install windows xp. on a laptop. Specifically an Acer aspire laptop with AMD Processor.
What do I do to make it work. Its probably not the Cd, because I've tried it on other computer and it works.
Comment: Have you been able to read what the BSOD says?
Comment: Are you upgrading or doing a clean install?  Are you installing while in a current windows install or booting from the CD?
Comment: @daisetsu:booting from the Cd, trying to install xp with windows 7 RC installed.
Answer: At the top of the BSOD you will usually see a specific STOP message in all caps.  Google the exact wording of it. Also maybe look up the STOP code.
Answer: blue screens are often (but sadly, not always) informative.  Posting what the error is can help us resolve the issue.
Most frequently I see errors due to controller driver compatibility.  I would suggest visiting the manufacturer web site and downloading the controller driver and then slipstreaming it into a new install CD using a product like nLite - www.nliteos.com
It could also be hardware issues - defective RAM and the like.  But I would first let us know what the BSOD says and probably try slipstreaming the drivers second.
Answer: I've seen BSOD's caused by malfunctioning USB devices, overheating processors, bad memory, and bad hard drives. Your BSOD is probably caused by hardware malfunction since it happens during the installation of windows.
The Stop codes can be useful... sometimes... if not, try this:
Make sure the CPU fan is spinning freely.
The BIOS sometimes has a health monitoring section that shows CPU temp and hardware error logs that can give you some hints to the problem.
Unplug all non-critical usb devices.
Test your RAM with Memtest (comes with most linux live CD's)
Check the S.M.A.R.T status of your hard drive
Answer: Try to incorporate fresh drivers into installation disk using something like http://driverpacks.net/


How big a factor was the failing economy to the downfall of the Roman Empire?

Question: How large a factor was the economy failing and Rome facing bankruptcy to their downfall when you compare it to the likes of political corruption and the rise of Christianity?
Comment: The answer is hotly contested and will be opinion based no matter how much evidence is introduced. The relative impact of various factors in the fall of the Roman Empire is one of the big questions of history. It is the [Fermi Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox) of the past - a question which is endlessly fascinating for speculation, but which we'll never have enough question to transform speculation into education.
Comment: I think the barbarians had something to do with it.
Answer: Economy of the period is analysed in the book by Bryan Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome and the end of civilization (Oxford UP, 2006).The author gives abundant evidence that the fall of the empire was accompanied
by a collapse of economy, material production and infrastructure in general. The evidence is based on contemporary accounts and archeological data.
However it is not completely clear whether the collapse of the economy was the reason or a consequence of the fall of the empire. My impression from the evidence presented in this book is that it was rather a consequence. The reason for destruction of economy was apparently collapse of administration, as a result of civil wars and invasions.
EDIT. Another recent book on the subject, Adrian Goldsworthy, The fall of the West. The death of the Roman superpower, (US title: How the Rome Fell), 2009 attibutes the fall of the
empire to the constant internal struggle for power. It was so intense that the emperors cared more about their own survival than for the survival of the empire. The result was invasion of the tribes, which in turn led to the collapse of the central government and of the economy.
Answer: There is no consensus among historians as to what exact reasons lead to the downfall of the Roman Empire. There are varying different theories on this matter, but at least Edward Gibbon in his 1776 book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, gives a well-researched and more importantly, well-referenced account. According to him, barbarians from the outside were majorly responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire:

Significant events include the Battle of Adrianople in 378, the death of Theodosius I in 395 (the last time the Roman Empire was politically unified), the crossing of the Rhine in 406 by Germanic tribes, the execution of Stilicho in 408, the sack of Rome in 410, the death of Constantius III in 421, the death of Aetius in 454, and the second sack of Rome in 455, with the death of Majorian in 461 marking the end of the last opportunity for recovery.
Comment: This is rather too summary a verdict - *why* exactly were the barbarian incursions so devastating in the 5th century? Recall that Rome took many blows (from barbarians and even more self-inflicted) in the 3rd century yet survived that crisis very much intact. The barbarian invasions/sacks/etc brought down (Western..) Rome because they contracted the tax base which limited sharply the ability of the government to raise Roman troops which then brought along more incursions - vicious cycle. So the economy is a major factor, once you take a careful stock of the situation.
Comment: I think the major blow to the economy of the West was the removal of the East by the de-facto separation starting in the 400s. Many times, the resources of the East financed the armies of the West to restore the entire empire. In the 400s, the East more often looked to itself.  The West, poorer from the start and without reserves, could not rob Peter to pay Paul enough to avoid the fatal death spiral. If all the resources of the East could have been wielded by the Master of the West...it might have been different.
Answer: Economics were better than ever. Both the Imperial Romans and their successors, the Byzantines, were very wealthy. Unfortunately for them, it takes more than wealth to keep an empire together.
The thing to remember is that by 450 Rome did not really exist anymore in its original sense. All of the old families were gone or dispersed. There were no Cornelii, no Julii, no Scipii, all the old gens were gone. The city was full of Greeks, Africans, Germans and Judaeans. Nobody was even Latin anymore. The original Latins were a very serious, austere, strict people. The Romans of the 5th century were all on public welfare and wasted their time going to games, theaters and prostitutes. The army was a joke, mostly populated with foreign mercenaries. There were all sorts of wierd religious cults like the cult of Mithras. Economic activity wasn't the problem; the problem was that Rome was not a coherent group of noble people any more.
Comment: Sorry, -1. This explanation is completely wrong. First and foremost, it fails the Eastern Survival Test: the Eastern Empire was just as ethnically diverse than the Western (even a bit more so, actually) but yet it did not fall and continued strong. And there are more problems with your argument: the Cornelii etc were all gone already by 100 CE or so (more like by 69 CE). And there was *nothing* very bad for the empire about that - a continuous rejuvenation of elites is not a bad thing for the survival of a state, it's a good one. The new senators from Gaul in the 1-2 centuries were
Comment: just as good Romans as your Cornelii of old. And the Pannonian military emeperors of the late 3rd century (from Valerian to Dicoletian) who restored and reassembeled the empire as best as they knew were pretty good Romans too. And come to think of it, what are exactly "the original Latins"? Do you count only the guys who allegedly built Rome in 753 BCE with Romulus & Remus or also their half-Sabine children? And what about Samnites and Etruscans who were conquered and integrated into the Roman elite? Or the other peoples of Roman Italy? "Originality" is actually quite an arbitrary label.
Comment: economics != wealth, although it pains me to say so. You can be incredibly vastly wealthy, but if you continue to debase the coinage and invent bizarre non-convertible currencies, you don't have an economy, you have a hot mess.


Can bad karma be created and paid back in the same lifetime

Question: My father was mentally very unwell. As a result my mother worked to support her children. We grew up embarrassed by my fathers behaviours and effectively excluded him from our lives even though he still lived in the house with us. To be fair though, he was not capable of interacting, mostly staying shut in his room during the day, and living nocturnally.  My mother who was a very kind person found solace by having a relationship with a married man whilst my father was at home . On leaving home, marrying and having my own children, I became reflective and angry and confused so for a short while I cut my mother out of our lives. Now, my own children grown, have done the same to me. Am I witnessing Karma in action? Does Karma that's played out in the same lifetime mean that you won't have to carry the consequences into you next lifetime? I see so many examples of direct cause and effect in my own life that I hope that if I deal mindfully with my feelings as a result, that I am paying Karmic debt now .. not in future reincarnations. Is this possible?
Answer: Sue. While I am not suggesting you write an auto-biography, your post is lacking in information. However, making assumptions based on what you wrote and offering mere speculative examples based on what you wrote:

Your mother was probably lonely and without support.
Having an affair with a married man was possibly a way to have a relationship or gain some companionship and physical affection without the perceived threat of a committed relationship that impinged upon her family and a duty of care she felt she had towards her disabled husband.
If you cut your mother out of your life because she had a affair with a married man, this can be perceived as both reasonable and unreasonable.
HOWEVER, IMPORTANTLY, you should list or define (to yourself) the reasons why you cut your mother out of your life because these are the actual causes of why you cut your mother out of your life.
You should then list or define the reasons (to yourself) why your own children cut you out of their life.
These reasons could be related to the mental attitude you had for cutting your mother out of your life; such as you having a lack of forgiveness, a lack of tolerance, being demanding, having a lack of understanding, being morally overzealous, etc.
Or the reasons for your children's decision could be due to their own unwholesme mental attitudes.
The point is the reasons & causes are either your mental tendencies, your children's mental tendencies or a combination of both.
Buddhism teaches various mental attitudes & behaviours are either: (i) wholesome; or (ii) unwholesome.
If you get angry a lot or criticise a lot, this can be unwholesome. Therefore, others may reject or avoid you for this.
In summary, its all about current attitudes, habitual tendencies & behaviours rather than past & future lives.
Therefore, if you have habitual unwholesome qualities that are not changed; the same rejection from others may occur in the future.
Comment: There is merit in much of what you say. To be fair to myself I am very open to learning through helpful critiquing. I have not written a 'biography' because I see both sides of everything much of the time so it could have become too complex to read. I appreciate your time
Comment: I will sit and thoroughly work out why I cut my mother from my life for a time. It's a very thought provoking exercise.
Comment: Ok. Best wishes.
Comment: Thank you. I did what you suggested. I discovered. I did not judge my mother, but her affair ( she was working nights till 7am with a Chinese family who accepted my mother as second wife and loved her very much) stopped me from being protected from the madness of my fathers night excursions. On marrying very young, my husbands family offered me normality . I bought into their judgement of my own unusual family. Interestingly, my husband subtly turned my own children against me to elevate himself and put me down. I believe I've witnessed karma in action on this occasion and many more.
Comment: We practise Buddhism to develop a heart of pleasant emotions. Old karma is merely something we use various methods to resolve; so we come to a heart of peasant emotions. With metta
Answer:
Now, my own children grown, have done the same to me. Am I witnessing Karma in action?

The Buddha specifically warned against trying to speculate about the workings of karma:

"There are these four inconceivables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them. Which four?
  [...]
  "The [precise working out of the] results of kamma.…

AN 4:77
So it is futile and unhelpful to speculate about karma.

Does Karma that's played out in the same lifetime mean that you won't have to carry the consequences into you next lifetime?

Yes, according to the Buddha in AN 3:100:

"Now, a trifling evil deed done by what sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment? There is the case where a certain individual is developed in [contemplating] the body, developed in virtue, developed in mind, developed in discernment: unrestricted, large-hearted, dwelling with the immeasurable. A trifling evil deed done by this sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.

In short, karma may manifest quickly, in the same life. Such manifestation will necessarily mean that you won't carry it to your next rebirth.
The earlier caveat still applies: you can't know with any certainty or precision whether that has happened. To wit, you don't know if what you experienced is the result of karma gained from ignoring your mother, and whether it is manifestation of all the karma you might have gained from that action. In fact, you can't know how much karma - if any - you gained from those past actions.

I see so many examples of direct cause and effect in my own life that I hope that if I deal mindfully with my feelings as a result, that I am paying Karmic debt now .. not in future reincarnations. Is this possible?

I recommend you read the entire Salt Crystal sutta. The Buddha taught that people who are more advanced in their practice will experience karma more immediately, and in that sense "purify" their karmic burden more quickly.
This may or may not apply to your situation, and it's inadvisable to contemplate it too much, much less to get attached to such notions.
Regardless, according to the teachings of karma, if some karma manifests in any life, it is thereby extinguished. Therefore, indeed, if you experience a karmic result, that karma has dissipated.
Comment: Laozi, this has been a very skilfully explained answer.i will read the Salt Crystal.
Comment: Laozi. I read the Salt Crystal and whilst I will not pay to much attention to it by either feeling elevated or put down, I feel great hope and caution at the same time . In my life I am constantly experiencing, bizarrely intricate replications of my own bad deeds, thoughts and words, happening back to me. It's very thought provoking.
Answer: It can be a result of many factors:

Consequences of how you treated both your mother and father
If you raised your children merely with food but without taking the time to instill moral values in them.
Your current and past behavior with your children
Children becoming genuinely busy in life after getting jobs or getting married
Consequences of Karma in a past life

What you can do about it?

Ask forgiveness from your mother for how you treated her in the past. Whether she cheated on your father is not really your business. It's her Karma. She is still your mother in any case.
Treat both your parents well and with respect as much as you are able
Without getting into emotional arguments try to talk to your children nicely and ask if there is a real reason behind them cutting you off
Practice Upekkha(equanimity) like all parents should when their children leave them after growing up
Practice Satipatthana mediation to counter your sorrow and expectations. It  is the best meditation if you are interested in depleting Karma(Vipaka) and reducing the making of new bad ones within this life itself.
Answer: Nope, it is just the result of being born into a mixed up family.  You were coping as best you could and that may not have had the best effects on you.  At least you can see your problems and try to do something about them.  See everyones point of view and try and make amends.  Of course I would say that as I don't believe in reincarnation.
Comment: An equal possibility. Fortunately I am content to sit with this without concern. Probability has shown itself too many times in my life to need to choose the answer. It chose me.
Comment: Possibly it's this passive response to problems that has caused the situation in the first place?  There aren't many problems that can be solved by waiting for them to sort themselves out.  Just a thought.
Comment: Very insightful. But it's served me well . I'm happy in the face of what others would call adversity.
Comment: I should clarify that. I am very capable of seeing both sides of the situation very clearly. In the case of my children cutting me out of their lives I struggled for a long time wanting them to connect. I sent many messages of love and openness ( and still do) to listen. It was a struggle until I realised that the best thing I could do was be happy in myself, and hope that their choice to not have me in their lives was a positive thing for them. I have learned to master my own feeling of 'need' and reconciled myself to learn to be content without them in my life.
Answer: I think I understand "kamma" as having two meanings.
One is that it's description of how the present situation (as you see it) came to be -- it results from a (vast) lot of different factors, and not only from your own intentions but other people's too -- for example, whatever your parents' intentions were at the time, had effects and side-effects on you and what you learned from them.
In English there's a phrase "unintended consequences" -- there are, also, "intended consequences" -- so I think of the law of kamma as a law of consequences. It's a very general law? I think it's said that kamma is so complicated than only a Buddha can really understand how it has worked in particular cases.
The other defines kamma as "intentional action" which I think means that we're not helpless to affect the future. The future -- what will happen, how we might feel about and react to that, what we'll do -- is something we have some effect over.
So for example you can intend to be harmless and so on, altruistic, be kind to the people around you -- that is "intention" -- and, acting on that intention should have good (kammic) result.
I think that the four brahma-viharas are recommended as a 'right' way to interact with (a position from which to interact with) people socially.
Answer: Sue Hamilton
What you called Karma is actually result of Karma ..or the response recieved from commiting a Karma.  Karma  is a verb not a noun this is a century old mistake ..o k   now
What you did is  DEED
Response you recieved ..is REACTION
Now I ll explain
 When you do something you pay then and there not later not in next life
How
Whatever you do,  would intensify your habit of doing that
Next time you would commit the same crime with much ease ,  not so difficult.
That is the price you pay for a bad deed.
That is ...it becomes  easier to repeat


Java 2D Game looks like 3D

Question: i have fair experience with java game programming,
i already made a simple mario game (side-Scrolling)
i'm wondering how can i make a "Java" Game like that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utwtXEYW1L0
or that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqz4dunlhX4
the main problem is that i don't know how to make a 2D game looks like 3D
i just need a tutorial or the idea behind such things.
Thanks in Advance :)
Comment: The idea behind is to use "pre-rendered" sprites to make it look like 3D, and some tricks to create the perspective and relief illusion.
Comment: i guess that i need some explanation :D
Answer: To elaborate on Valkea's comment, the trick is to use 2D sprites just as you would in a "true" 2D game, but shade and style them to give a sense of depth.  The game feels 2D because your character has realistic shading that appears 3D, and because the map is constructed so that your character can go behind objects. This is achieved by making your character walk on a 2D space, but partially obscuring your view of him when he goes behind a wall (such as the wall transparency shown from your first link).
Dynamic shadows like those shown in your second link are trickier and uncommon. I would look into the "Sunburn Engine" mentioned in the description of that second video for more details.
Answer: If your serious about making proper games with java then you need to stop using stuff like Swing, AWT and Java2D and pick up a proper OpenGL binding, e.g. LWJGL or use a games library built on top of an OpenGL binding, like Slick2D, Ardor3D, jMonkeyEngine, jPCT, Xith3D or LibGDX.
Comment: This doesn't answer OP's question at all; you're just telling him that he is doing it wrong because you say so.
Comment: This should be a comment not an answer.

Java 2D Game looks like 3D


Which Christian churches have an entirely unpaid/lay clergy?

Question: Of those Churches what is their form of governance that allows them to run smoothly lacking fulltime ecclesiastical professionals? How does one ascend into a leadership role in the Church?
Answer: Quakers and Mormons have no paid staff in their local assemblies.  In the national bodies, however, there is usually some renumeration or support, in order to retain staff.  The truth is that very few would consider it wise to have a national organization without any accountability, which is what an all-volunteer lobby would be.
Additionally, many more Baptists than you might think have volunteer staff. Finally, there are a great number of unpaid missionaries, itinerant preachers, and supporters of various causes that may fit into this category. Usually the local pastor is supported by the congregation, but the national staff has many more volunteers.
Finally, if you look at what a Roman Catholic priest earns, it's pretty close to nothing.
All that said, most mainstream Protestant churches will pay their clergy, based on Paul's commentary on paying preachers in 1 Timothy 5:18.  Those churches relying on unpaid staff tend to be less mainstream and more "feeling" driven, with the feeling being that preaching is a gift like any other.
Comment: I feel like this is a partial answer. The question seems to ask "Which Christian churches do not pay *any* of their clergy," which would actually disqualify the Mormon and Quaker churches because, as you said, the national leaders of both are paid. I would suggest editing the answer to remove these churches.
Answer: Coming from a Plymouth Brethren background, I can speak to the experience of growing up in a church movement which eschewed ordaining ministers and employing them as fulltime servants within local churches. Wikipedia has a decent overview of the Plymouth Brethren, a movement which began in the late 1820s in Dublin, Ireland and quickly spread to Plymouth, England in 1831.

". . . the central figures [in Dublin] were Anthony Norris Groves, a dentist studying theology at Trinity College, Edward Cronin, studying medicine, John Nelson Darby, then a curate in County Wicklow and John Gifford Bellett, a lawyer, who brought them together. . . . The first meeting in England was held in December 1831[5] in Plymouth. It was organised primarily by George Wigram, Benjamin Wills Newton and John Nelson Darby.[6] The movement soon spread throughout the UK. By 1845, the assembly in Plymouth had over 1,000 people in fellowship.[7] They became known as "the brethren from Plymouth" and were soon simply called "Plymouth Brethren".

Darby, by the way, has his own translation of the Bible as he was quite adept in biblical languages.
The Wikipedia article goes on to say,

"Brethren assemblies are led by the local church elders within any fellowship and there is no office of "pastor" among Brethren churches, because the term "pastor" is not found anywhere in the original koine Greek language of the New Testament. So, there is no formal ordination process for those who preach, teach, or lead, within their meetings. Men who become elders, or those who become overseers within the fellowship, are ones who have been recognized by others within the individual assemblies and have been given the blessing of performing leadership tasks by the elders. However, many assemblies also support full-time evangelists and workers."
"Conversely, an elder should be able and ready to teach when his assembly sees the "Call of God" on his life to assume that office (1 Timothy 3:2). As stated in the New Testament, Brethren elders conduct many other duties that would be typically performed by the clergy in other Christian groups, including: counselling those who have decided to be baptized, performing baptisms, visiting the sick and giving general spiritual advice. Some Open assemblies, especially the larger assemblies in North America, have salaried staff, including some designated as "Teaching Elders" or "Teaching Pastors."[citation needed] Normally, sermons are given by both the elders and other members of the meeting, but only men who the elders recognize have the call of God on their lives. Visiting speakers, however, are usually paid to cover expenses such as the cost of travel. Full-time missionaries are often financially supported by assemblies known by them, particularly their home assemblies."

When I was growing up, the Plymouth Brethren (PBs for short) did support missionaries both home (in the U.S.) and abroad, but those who served in the U.S. and Canada were called "fulltime workers." This meant that they were supported financially by one or more "assemblies" (the PB name for local fellowships around the world). For a number of years, the assemblies also had a mission organization stateside called Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML), which published a magazine devoted to the work of PB missionaries throughout the world.
Another ministry of the PBs was, and still is, Emmaus Bible College, located in Dubuque, Iowa, which, in cooperation with other local colleges, grants four-year degrees in a number of disciplines and majors, including, of course, biblical studies. I attended the school for two years back when it was located in Oak Park, Illinois.
The PBs had as well a financial institution called the "Stewards Foundation" which helped to finance the planting of new assemblies by providing seed money for building a permanent house of worship, commonly called (in years past) chapels. I myself was brought up in Congress Avenue Bible Chapel in Rochester, New York, where I became a lay preacher and teacher for a number of years. Since I moved to Pittsburgh many years ago, the chapel building in which I grew up was sold and the members built and moved into a new facility in suburban Rochester. They called it Cornerstone Bible Chapel. It is doing very well, thanks to committed and Spirit-filled members, elders, and deacons who go above and beyond the call of duty to help grow the church spiritually.
In conclusion, the PB assembly movement has been on the decline for a number of years now, for a number of reasons. We needn't consider those reasons at this time. A new trend has emerged in the last few decades, however, and that is the financial support of elders. The biblical basis for this is 1 Timothy 5:17 NIV:

"The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching."

My own personal feeling (and I could be quite wrong) is that the spiritual vigor of the general membership in many PB assemblies has declined over the past 50 years or so. Worldliness in the form of materialism and a "let George do it" mentality have sapped the strength of many assemblies. The level of commitment that is required for a volunteers-only church to run at least at near-peak level has not changed in the last half-century, but that level has not been reached of late, particularly in those churches which lack a critical mass of unpaid but committed volunteers and leaders.
Paid fulltime elders and even paid staff members have helped to bring new vigor to some assemblies, but if a pervasive worldliness takes over in any given assembly, particularly to the point where there are simply not enough volunteers to bear the burdens of leadership and followership, the typical distinctives long associated with this once vital movement are likely to fade into oblivion.
Answer: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Commonly called "Mormons")
As a member, I enjoy paying tithing to the Church that is used to fund the building of the Kingdom of God on Earth: "Tithing funds are always used for the Lord's purposes—to build and maintain temples and meetinghouses, to sustain missionary work, to educate Church members, and to carry on the work of the Lord throughout the world." (www.lds.org)
0% goes to any local leaders, 0% goes to church leaders. It all goes to the building of the kingdom. Everyone in leadership positions serve as volunteers and have careers on the side. Isn't it wonderful? :)
Comment: Welcome! If you'd like to improve this answer, you could address the follow-up question, "how does one ascend into a leadership role" in the church?  If you haven't already done so, I hope you'll take a minute to take the [tour] and learn [how this site is different from others](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/a/1809/21576).
Comment: [This document](http://docdro.id/JlekSUK) clearly indicates that the general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are paid $120,000 a year.
Answer: Orthodox clergy, especially Russian Orthodox, are frequently not paid.  Other Orthodox jurisdictions (e.g. Orthodox Church in America) may pay a small stipend, but frequently it is not enough to live on.


What does "viewfinder magnification" mean?

Question: Viewfinders (both optical and electronic) typically come with two stats: magnification and coverage. The latter measuring how much of the actual exposed area (film or sensor) one sees. But what is magnification?
Answer: The magnification is not a solitary measurement; in the case of optical SLR viewfinders in 35mm-format or APS-C, it's usually stated as "magnification with a 50mm lens focused at infinity" with the standard viewfinder optic diopter setting (no user correction applied).
It's only when all of those factors are taken into consideration: the focal length of the lens (which can be changed with the focus distance even without zooming, depending on the lens design) and the viewfinder diopter (adjustments for negative diopter correction will make the viewfinder image appear smaller, and positive will make it appear larger) that you can talk about magnification. And then it's pretty simple -- it's the apparent size of what you see through the viewfinder compared to what you'd see with the naked eye.
Ideally, I suppose, you'd want 1x (1:1) magnification with a normal lens so that when you're living the single-lens lifestyle you can easily shoot with both eyes open and everything matching in both eyes. That will almost always lead to some vignetting of the screen, though, and make the in-viewfinder data areas almost impossible to see without shifting your eyes around the finder's viewport. For this reason, the magnification is usually slightly less than 1x. (Some very-high-eyepoint finders, especially the lovely optional "sports finder" for the late, lamented Canon F1n, can be 1x or larger—but you could look through that sucker with both eyes.)
And because you're spreading a smaller amount of light over a larger area, a given magnification (with a purely optical system) will be significantly dimmer for a small sensor than it would be for a larger one (since the focusing screen is the same size, roughly, as the sensor). That's why, all else being equal (same screen design, same prism design and materials, etc.), a full-frame 35mm-format DSLR's viewfinder will be brighter than an APS-C's with the same magnification spec.
Electronic viewfinders, of course, can always pump up the brightness to compensate for the image magnification, but they still have to allow for the viewport problem in an eye-level finder—a 1:1 picture in the viewfinder is only helpful if you can see the whole thing.
The actual magnification of the viewfinder image will change, of course, when you change lenses or zoom. The specification, though, will give you some idea of the apparent size of the focusing screen -- a larger number means you will see a bigger picture through the viewfinder, and that can make composition a lot easier.
Comment: Does magnification change linearly with focal length? That is, can one translate the manufacturer's given viewfinder magnification at 50mm on APS-C to that at an APS-C normal field of view simply by dividing?
Comment: You would need to know the full magnification specification (which focal length is specified, etc., for the number given), but yes, the difference would be as linear as the field of view at the sensor. The focal length in the spec number would be the denominator, of course, with the actual focal length in use as the numerator. Thus, a 200mm lens used on a camera that claims a 0.95x magnification with a 50mm lens would show you the world at 3.8x life size through the viewfinder, while a 14mm lens would give you a Lilliputian 0.266x view.
Comment: @mattdm -- I hope I haven't misunderstood your question. The viewfinder magnification spec is a spec—it doesn't change—but the size of the world viewed through the viewfinder can be calculated based on the lens you're using. It's the "normal field of view" that's ambiguous; one could argue that the "normal field of view" is a crop of a larger picture. If you mean using a 30-35mm lens (as appropriate for the brand), then, yes, you can divide the actual lens by the spec lens to get the magnification f the wider world.
Comment: So if it scales linearly, and my camera shows 1:1 at 70mm, does that mean it actually has a 0.71x magnification at 50mm?


In basic logic, if an argument contains a self-contradictory premise, how come the argument is valid?

Question: I have started to attend the logic lectures. The lecture notes indicate that a "self-contradiction" is a statement that is always false.
But why will it lead to a valid statement?
Comment: Welcome to Philosophy.SE. Does https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/q/34082/2953 answer your question?
Comment: You need some slight rephrasing.  Officially validity has nothing to do with the truth of the premises, it is about whether the logic of the argument 'holds water' and would preserve the truth of the premises if they were, in fact true.
Answer: Your question at least on a quick reading seems to be using terms a bit willy nilly. Let's start by defining terms.
Background
Statement - a claim that can be either true or false.
Some examples:

"it is raining"
"it is not raining"
"if it is raining, John uses an Umbrella"
"Jill is either in Denver or Tokyo"

We also need to be a bit careful about the "can be" in the definition. Here, it means something like "capable of being evaluated to either true or false" -- my point being that it's possible a statement is always true (e.g. A or not A) or always false (e.g. A and not A), but the point is that statements don't include things that don't have a "truth-value."
Self-contradictory - I assume this something that posits both A and not A.
Valid  - this means that an argument would have a true conclusion were all the premises to be true.
Another term related to validity is "truth-preserving." This is the idea that an argument's premises truth can be carried onto the conclusion.
To your question
In your question you speak as if a statement can be valid or invalid. This is not true in logic. Statements can be well-formed or not. A well-formed statement is one that can be evaluated unambiguously. Any statement that follows the rules of the syntax is a well-formed formula -- not statement is valid because validity is not about statements.
You also speak of a self-contradictory premise. This might make sense, but more commonly this happens with an argument as a whole rather than a single premise.
E.g. "The moon is blue" and "The moon is not blue" would create a self-contradictory premise if it's a single premise or a self-contradictory set of premises if the two claims are separate premises.
To understand why an argument is valid if it has self-contradictory premises, we just need to think through the definition of validity a bit. I will repeat it in pieces:

An argument is valid  if and only if it is the case that when the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

This is often thought of it in a backwards way in the sort of introductory logic and critical thinking classes that exist. In other words,

an argument is valid just so long as there is no case where the premises could be true and the conclusion false.

(In some types of logic, the definition of validity is different than this, but those types are never taught in introductory logic classes in philosophy)
Given a set of contradictory (or self-contradictory) premises, it is never the case that the premises are all true -- because for one to be true ("the moon is blue"), another must be false ("the moon is not blue").
Thus, any such argument is valid on this definition of validity.
Answer: I think you're talking about a material implication, which has the form of "if A then B", where A and B are propositions. This statement is false if and only if both A is true and B is false, or "A and ~B". The negation of this is ~(A and ~B) which is logically equivalent to (~A or B). It then follows that the statement "if A then B" is logically equivalent to (~A or B).
Like we said, and by way of truth tables, you can see that the statement "if A then B" (~A or B) is false when and only when A is true and B is false and thus it follows that the statement can be true even when A is false, or even when A is a contradiction.
The fact you can obtain truth from falsity is counterintuitive, so I propose you look at material implications as promises.
Let A be "You work for me" and B be "I will pay you". The promise then says

"If you work for me then I will pay you".

I can only break my promise when you work for me, and I don't pay you. (A is true and B is false). I wouldn't be breaking my promise if you hadn't worked for me and I didn't pay you (Both A and B are false) or even when you hadn't worked for me and I still payed you (A is false and B is true).
Then our analogy that the promise holds even when you didn't work for me translates into the fact that a material implication can be true even when the premise/precedent/antecedent is false, or even a contradiction. This implies that the statement "If penguins can fly then there is no gravity on planet earth" is true.
I hope my answer wasn't too convoluted.
Answer: The authors of forall x give this definition of validity (page 8):

An argument is valid if and only if it is impossible for all of the
  premises to be true and the conclusion false.

They also refer to this as "validity in virtue of form" (page 21):

The validity of the arguments just considered has nothing very much to
  do with the meanings of English expressions like 'Jenny is miserable',
  'Dipan is an avid reader of Tolstoy', or 'Jim acted in lots of plays'.
  If it has to do with meanings at all, it is with the meanings of
  phrases like 'and', 'or', 'not,' and 'if..., then...'.

Such validity can be automatically validated using proof checkers. Assuming the proof checker is not poorly constructed if the argument we enter into the proof checker passes, then it is valid in virtue of form.
Consider the sentence, "It is raining." The negation of this sentence could be written as "It is not the case that it is raining." Let us symbolize "It is raining" with "P". Then its negation would be "¬P". A self-contradictory sentence built from these two would be "P ∧ ¬P", that is, both "P" and "¬P".
Using this as a premise can we construct a valid in virtue of form argument? Yes, we can.  Here is an example where I am trying to show that "P ∧ ¬P" implies "P".

The first line is the premise. I get the second line by using the conjunction elimination rule (∧E) which allows me to use either side of the conjunction (∧) in my argument. It turns out what I used, "P", was what I wanted to show and so the proof checker verified that I reached my goal.
It may see odd that given a self-contradictory premise, I was able to construct a valid argument showing that one of the conjuncts in the self-contradictory premise followed. It can get even stranger.
With a little more work, I can show that anything whatsoever follows from a self-contradictory premise. Let "Q" be the symbolization for anything whatsoever. This example shows that I can construct a valid in virtue of form argument for "Q":

The first line contained the self-contradictory premise as in the previous example.
On lines 2 and 3 I used conjunction elimination (∧E) to both sides of the premise (line 1) to place these on separate lines.
Once I have them on separate lines, I can use the rule of contradiction introduction (⊥I) to note on line 4 that I have a contradiction (⊥).
On line 5, because I have a contradiction, I can write anything I want. That is called the rule of explosion (X). Since my goal is "Q" and according to the rules I can write anything I want, I write "Q".  The proof checker verifies that I have reached my goal.
For more details on these rules, see Chapter 15 "Basic Rules for TFL" in forall x.

References
Kevin Klement's JavaScript/PHP Fitch-style natural deduction proof editor and checker http://proofs.openlogicproject.org/
P. D. Magnus, Tim Button with additions by J. Robert Loftis remixed and revised by Aaron Thomas-Bolduc, Richard Zach, forallx Calgary Remix: An Introduction to Formal Logic, Winter 2018. http://forallx.openlogicproject.org/


Does 100 yr old concrete floor need replacing?

Question: Our house was built in 1905 and the concrete floor is uneven and gets a lot of moisture at times.  We replaced the gutters which helped a little.  We'd like to finish the basement, maybe use stained concrete.  Is newer concrete normally better, less prone to getting as moist?  Is there an additional way to create a moisture barrier that wasn't used in 1905?   I would consider the moisture to be relatively minor, but too much to consider installing a floor or carpet.
Comment: See this excellent answer https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/67/should-i-use-a-subfloor-for-a-finished-basements-floor
Answer: Concrete is porous, regardless of whether it's new or old. If you replaced it with a new floor, you could have a drain installed around the perimeter to stop most of the moisture infiltration. The best solution is to install a barrier around the perimeter of the exterior, which requires a lot of digging to get to the bottom of the foundation and installing a drain at the bottom to remove the moisture that gets to this barrier. A less intrusive solution is to install a French drain anywhere you have moisture problems around the outside of your home.
Regardless of how you decide to fix this problem, you should ensure that the yard is properly graded away from your property on all sides so that any moisture in the ground goes somewhere other than against the concrete foundation. This, combined with your work on the gutters, could be enough to make the moisture levels tolerable.
Comment: Ok, maybe I'll try a French drain.  I'd considered digging around the foundation but obviously that's a huge job.  Once moisture is down to low level, does painting concrete (or any type of sealant) help at all with moisture?
Comment: @Dave, I think Greebo has a great flooring suggestion. With paint or even another layer of concrete, the challenge will be getting it to adhere to the old concrete. 100 years of dirt, oils, etc, are now in that surface, though there are solutions that will prepare the surface if you go that route. The paint can wear, and where it does block moisture, it's locking it into the cement, potentially causing other problems.
Comment: Subloor and French drains, sounds great.  Surprisingly the basement smells good, not moldy, so apparently it helps to allow the concrete to breath.  Thanks.
Answer: As for finishing, after you address the drainage issues, consider using DriCore or a comparable product as your subfloor before any finish materials go in.

DriCore is a composite subfloor material consisting of a dimpled heavy duty plastic bottom and OSB top.  Each panel is 2'x2' and they install in a tongue-in-groove fashion.  The point of this subfloor is that if you get a small amount of moisture on the concrete even after waterproofing, the dimpled bottom allows water to drain and with proper venting installed at points around the perimeter, air flow can get underneath to allow the remaining moisture to evaporate.
Comment: This looks like a good solution.  Seems as though the most important thing is air flow in order to prevent mold and mildew.  Thanks.


ArcSDE 10 and PostgreSQL 8.3 vs 8.4

Question: We have recently upgraded our ArcSDE 9.3 instance to ArcSDE 10.  I was hoping to upgrade postgresql 8.3 to 8.4 at the same time.  Although ArcSDE 10 supports 8.4, it turns out that the ArcSDE wizards do not.  Everything must be done via the command line.  I made the call to stick with 8.3 just to keep things easier.  Am I missing out?  Does anyone have any experiences with 8.3 vs 8.4 in ArcSDE, if so, what are your thoughts?
Answer: Are you with postGIS geometry or ESRI's?
Comment: I am using PostGIS Geometry
Answer: Although I can't help you on the feature comparison, I see that there are some scripts to make the upgrade process easier.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianGis/UpdatingPostGIS

ArcSDE 10 and PostgreSQL 8.3 vs 8.4


How to deal with a Product Owner who refuses to write user stories?

Question: I am currently playing a scrum master role in the project. Because the PO refuses to write user stories - I have to do it myself, but this flow has led to specification breakdown and scope creep many times. Moreover, I can't focus on other important stuff. I tried to explain numerous times that writing and prioritizing User stories is specifically PO prerogative. Any suggestions for this case?
Comment: Does the PO give input into what should be created in some other way or does he leave it completely to the team what product is being built?
Comment: Sounds like an anecdote.
Comment: I have come across this situation whereby PO's don't have the technical skill, experience or bandwidth to write user stories.  It's not as uncommon as some might think **especially** if organisations have dedicated BA's which become PO proxies.
Comment: What do you mean by "I have to"? Your or project manager is forcing you to write stories?
Answer: TL;DR

You're not wrong for writing the stories; it may be wrong in continuing to do so without change
Scrum doesn't say PO has got to write product backlog items or that they be user stories
Continuing serving, but do so by showing the cost of bad practice
Evidence, evidence, evidence.
For more good points, check out Venture2099's answer below for other very good things to consider.

nvoigt: Sorry to be blunt but this is not a project management question, this is a workplace question.

I agree, but you're right to ask it here since it impacts at least two, clearly defined SM responsibilities in the Scrum guide:

Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management;
Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items;

nvoigt: As long as you do it for him, he found the perfect idiot.

You're NOT an idiot for doing it for him, you were serving him and the Dev team. If you suspect he and the Development team would be better served by him writing the PBI's more often and using the user story format, reveal the reasons and the data that substantiates your claim. Call him to be accountable for choosing a less valuable, more wasteful approach that exposes the organization to unacceptable risk. Do so with evidence.
Data you could gather would be things like:

Amount of rework (misinterpreted work requirement, scrapped approaches, miscommunications)
User/stakeholder satisfaction with delivered work
Defects discovered
Rate of value completed
Rate of work items completed
Cost of development team time (hour / day / sprint)

Carefully observe and involve the effect of the PO's practices on the development team. They time is very expensive to the org, and even an hour here or there spread across a six developer team can be very costly when summed over a Sprint.
There may be two difficulties here:

Revealing to PO that writing user stories is a more clear, concise and ultimately valuable way to express a requirement for product change and
Forming a working agreement that finds the right balance of PBI writing between the PO, you and the Development team

Scrum does not mandate that the PO write the PBI's, only that he/she be responsible for it's availability, content and ordering. This PO may well be skirting his responsibilities. I encourage you to serve your team by leading empirically rather than emotionally here. Bonus: evidence tends to be more useful when going to someone's superior about their behavior, but let's hope it doesn't come to that ;).
Comment: `Scrum does not mandate that the PO write the PBI's, only that he/she be responsible for it's availability, content and ordering`. Exactly this, +1. I don't discourage anyone in the team from writing user stories, but ultimately the PO has the final say. Forcing rules and regulations on roles in an agile team seems contrary to its goals, and can have an overall negative impact on the success of the methodology.
Comment: @RuslanDoronichev it sounds like you've been misinformed. Take a look at this section from the Scrum guide:

http://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-po

It seems pretty clear that while the PO bears the responsibility, the Development Team or even others may do it on the PO's behalf.
Comment: Thats a great answer Jason...I would vote it above my own.  Maybe incorporate my points into yours and this can be the definitive approach.
Comment: Don't agree with that. Writing stories is straight PO's responsibility
Answer: The very simple answer is;
Short Term
Deliver the stories that are on the backlog and have been prioritized by the PO.
If that is 0 stories then it is 0 stories.  I have seen this situation in enterprise organisations occur and I have seen Scrum Masters stick to their principles and allow the situation to escalate.  It really depends on the environment you are working in and how Scrum is perceived.
If it was me, I would let the team deliver 0 stories or simply prioritise all of the engineering tasks they wish to do and include 0 feature stories.
Long Term
As Scrum Master you have a responsibility to educate and evangelize the Scrum framework to the business in which you are working.
The first action should be raise this issue within the Community of Practice / Centre of Excellence if one exists for Agile or Scrum within your organisations.  If you have access to an Agile Coach then request support immediately to resolve the situation.
The next escalation is to articulate your concerns regarding the Scrum implementation to the Product Owner in written format and also cc in the Programme Manager in charge of the department or delivery.  If no Programme Manager then simply escalate to the next highest authority.
Outline how Scrum delivers value through the framework and the steps you would like to take to resurrect the delivery of the project.
Lastly, start work on a syllabus of workshops and training material to outline the key aspects of Scrum.  Run them on a regular cadence (weekly, fortnightly etc) and layer each workshop in a way that it builds on the principles of the one before it.  You should be in full on coach mode by this point.
If the business do not support you then give serious thought to the precariousness of your position as Scrum Master in that particular organisation.  If you are a contractor, dust of your liability insurance and begin to reach out to recruiters.  It is unlikely that this situation will be resolved without someone leaving the project or at the very least asking for evidence from you that you have done the correct things.
Answer: From the moment the different roles of the Scrum Framework are no more respected, you can't really call it Scrum methodology anymore.
If you are defining the work breakdown by yourself, organizing the work for the team and removing impediments for them, it seems to me you are closer a project manager role than a scrum master.
Hence the added value of your PO is really questionable and actually results in endangering your project. You should try to solve amiably this issue with him, and if it fails, escale this issue to a higher authority.
Answer:
Any suggestions for this case?

Sorry to be blunt but this is not a project management question, this is a workplace question. As long as you do it for him, he found the perfect idiot. Would you do my programming job as well, if I simply said I'm not doing it?
I'm not a big fan of the soft approach of you trying to teach your PO to do his job. He's paid for it, isn't he? You need to stop doing his job and start asking why he cannot do his job. Work with him on any issues that come up. If he has no solid explanation, have a one-on-one with the POs boss and ask him why the PO is not doing his job.
Comment: @nvoigt this answer does not seem to encourage practicing the Scrum values of either "courage" or "respect". Courage means doing the right thing and tackling the hard problem of teaching and coaching the PO to choose better ways of working with the Dev team. Respect is treating the PO like a capable, independent person who can see the error of his ways. Refusing to help or insisting on dragging the PO in front of his boss(es) seems overly rash and assumes the PO to be incapable or an opponent of improvement.
Comment: I cannot say I agree with this answer; although I understand the spirit of it.  The role of PO can vary widely across the industry with numerous descriptors used for similar roles (Product Manager, Change Manager, Delivery Lead, Product Owner etc etc  (insert your own 50+ examples).  There may be a genuine case for the OP to explain Scrum and the roles within the framework. I would not go so far as to call the OP the perfect idiot since certain organisations have dysfunctional views of Scrum and require education and time to improve the culture. I doubt workplace.se have the Scrum awareness.
Comment: @Venture2099 However dysfunctional this company is, the simple truth is that only the POs boss can make him do something **or** explain that writing stories is not the POs job. Either way, it's the boss' decision. Please note that I called the OP the perfect idiot in case he is silently doing the POs job in addition to his own without asking the boss, not for asking this question or working for a boss not understanding scrum.
Comment: @jason.t.knight Maybe you missed the OPs sentence "I tried to explain numerous times". How many times do you think it's okay to show courage and respect before you involve someone with the power to influence the PO?
Comment: @nvoigt I didn't miss it, I just assumed that the OP is like me i.e. more prone to explain based on contents of Scrum guide than to demonstrate through data. It seems likely OP is new Scrum Master if he is just now encountering this issue and might be less confident taking an evidence-based approach to persuasion. Last, if OP has done so and evidence has failed to persuade the PO, then I recommended PO be take to task with superiors, but armed with data not accusations. The evidence based approach is more difficult but ultimately more courageous and respectful.


Exp-Resso Store Shipping Rates & Calculator

Question: We're integrating exp-resso store with a new e-commerce site. Ideally, we want to be very clear about the shipping charges for an order on the cart page before we have a lot of information from the customer (where they live, for example). I understand that some of this is required to determine the rate. With other e-commerce packages we've worked with there is a Shipping Calculator feature which prompts the visitor for their city, state, and zip and then presents them with the shipping rates that apply to their order. Can we do this with exp-resso store?
Comment: To answer this question, we'd need to know how you currently have shipping set up. Which service are you using for shipping? Are you getting live shipping quotes?
Comment: Right now we're using the Default Shipping Plugin but we'll likely be moving to either the UPS or FedEx plugin shortly.
Answer: This shouldn't be hard to set up on your end, I'm sure there isn't code offhand to send you.
I'd set up the form prompting for city, state, and zip on my Cart page... then submit form using ajax to get the data into the session, then call a template which contains your shipping code using ajax into your page.

EDIT
Use the {exp:store:checkout} on your cart page to collect your shipping city, state and zip data.
https://exp-resso.com/docs/store/tags/checkout.html
Submit that form using ajax.
In the second template, use the same {exp:store:checkout} tag to display the available shipping methods:
https://exp-resso.com/docs/store/tags/checkout.html#shipping-methods
You will return this template's data with ajax after the first form is submitted.
If you don't want to use ajax, just return the form to the same page and show the shipping methods as needed.
Comment: Spot on. The Default Shipping Plugin only really needs your state/country, and UPS/FedEx only usually need a ZIP and Country.
Comment: Excellent solution @MediaGirl - will be using this on a future build.
Comment: Seems easy enough! Is there any documentation on these form variable names and the post URL? I wasn't aware we could do this, but that's definitely a good solution once I know the form variable names and post URL. Thanks so much!
Answer: The easiest way to do this would be to have the following in your template somewhere for the default shipping plugin:
{exp:store:checkout}
Shipping Country
{field:shipping_country}

Shipping State
{field:shipping_region}

<input type="submit" name="update_cart" value="Update Shipping" class="btn" />
{/exp:store:checkout}

You would want to change that to:
{exp:store:checkout}
Shipping Country
{field:shipping_country}

Shipping Zip
{field:shipping_postcode}

<input type="submit" name="update_cart" value="Update Shipping" class="btn" />
{/exp:store:checkout}

If you are using FedEx/USPS/UPS plugins.
There are a few things to mention though so you don't get weird behavior. In the Store >> Settings >> Genereal page you will want to make sure that the "Default Shipping Address" field is set to either "None" or "Billing Address same as Shipping" if you have "Shipping Address same as Billing" you will need to change the fields to {field:billing_country}, {field:billing_region}, and {field:billing_postcode} respectively so that Store will calculate your shipping cost.
Comment: Great solution, Justin! Works great, and I appreciate the explanation.
Comment: No problem Shawn as @MediaGirl said it would be very easy to submit that portion of the your template via AJAX so that you don't need to refresh the page to grab the rates