Stack Overflow Version Control System used for Questions and Answers

Question: What is the Version Control System that Stack Overflow uses for managing revisions of questions and answers, and is there information on the architecture employed? I had come across a post on MSE about the "tools and technologies" that Stack Exchange uses in the past and GitLab is mentioned under "External Bits". I would guess that GitLab is used for this task. But in what way? Does C# code talk with ROR endpoints? How many repositories are there? One repository for the whole of Stack Overflow? One repository per question? I could be way off, of course. But I would like some input.
Comment: By "source control" I mean it has a million features SO doesn't need. Branching, tagging, myriad other operations. SO basically needs a lot of revisions, and a diffing library to display them.
Comment: Git is a source control system. It's not likely to be powering post revisions - it would be complete overkill.
Comment: all question and answers are in the [Post](http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/610177) table, and their revisions in the [PostHistory](http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/610175) table. That is basically it
Comment: GitLab may be used for the application code that actually runs the site, but I'm pretty sure question revisions are stored in the main databases with everything else.
Comment: The version control system is very likely custom made, possibly helped by a 3rd party diffing tool. I don't understand what you mean in (2) at all? Appropriate in what way?
Comment: @Pekka웃 I think 2 is a "Is this where I ask this question?" type of deal. To which, xnakos, the answer is yes, you can ask this question here. Meta is for questions about the site and the software that powers the site, so you're in the right place.
Comment: There's some information on the diffing here: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/132771/smarter-diff-algorithm-for-revision-history
Comment: @jonrsharpe GitLab is mentioned twice, both under "Software Development Tools" and under "External Bits". That is why I was under the impression that GitLab (and, thus, git) is in some way used for the functionality of the site as well.
Comment: @rene Thank you. Does `PostHistory` contain whole posts or diffs?
Comment: @xnakos whole posts, in markdown format, while the posts table contains the rendered html version
Comment: @Pekka웃 Isn't "source" a bit fluid? Markdown, XML, TXT. Aren't they all "source"? Atlas by O'Reilly uses GitLab as a backend. Atlas is a tool for online collaborative editing of books, etc. It would definitely be overkill to use Git in some cases (especially without some form of caching), as you stated. But there is a threshold and I was wondering about that threshold in general.
Comment: @Pekka웃 You are totally right about that. Thanks!
Answer: The production database schema is probably different on details but what we get on SEDE is close enough to get an idea how this works.
Each site on the network will have their own database. Each database has two main tables that handle Questions and Answers:
The posts table and the posthistory table.
The posts table hold in the rows with posttypeid = 1 the questions, and in posttypeid =2 the answers.
For a row in the posts table the events that happened in history of the post are stored in the posthistory table, basically all posthistorytypeids < 10 are related to editing of a post. A revisionguid is used to keep track of records that belong to one revision.
The posts table stores the rendered html (as you see it on the site) where the posthistory table stores the raw markdown (basically how you posted it).
For information on how the actual diffing is done see the link provided by jonrsharpe, Smarter diff algorithm for revision history.
GitLab is used internally as the version control system for the code that makes up the site. It is not used in any way for tracking revisions of a post on the sites.
See also the database schema documentation for the public data dump and SEDE and the awesome blog posts from Nick Craver.
Comment: The company has a unified database, this is behind the https://stackexchange.com . Only ordinary mortals can not see it. If they are doing some... more sophisticated data collection and processing, they are using probably this data. Although they clearly show that they don't do it.


compiler optimization for non-called function

Question: I have a function in legacy code, that is no longer being called.
My question is:
would the compiler optimize for a function which is not being called, or would the executable file include the code of that function?
Comment: Any reason you can't just remove it yourself?
Comment: Under gcc you need to add option "-ffunction-sections" which will put each function in a seperate section.  As I understand it the linker only removes code at a granularity of sections.
Answer: possibly. it's implementation, toolset, and build parameter-defined.
altering your optimizations settings, linker flags, and the visibility (static/private/extern/internal/anonymous namespace) can increase the probability that it will be omitted from the final executable.
Comment: You may also simply emit a warning if a function is not used, so you're free to remove it in that case :)
Answer: Dead code removal is usually done by the linker (as the compiler does not have a clue as to which functions are used or not). However, sometimes the compiler itself can remove functions that have static linkage.
This is because by default all functions have external linkage. The reserved term "extern" which is used while declaring external linkage variables could (and in fact is) omitting while declaring functions. So if those are not declared static those could be used elsewhere and compiler don't know nothing about it.
Also, GCC (if that's what you're using) has SSA Aggressive Dead Code Elimination (the -fssa-dce flag) which can help with removal of unneeded code.
If you're looking for something to remove dead functions or sections then you can use gcov http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Gcov-Intro.html#Gcov-Intro
Answer: If it is compiled to object file, than compiler does not know if your function will be used or not.  Unless you are using link time optimization (lto) or whole program optimization options.  If function is in header - you can make it static, so that compiler can  optimize it away.
Comment: although it's unlikely that `static` in a header would (as a general application) produce a smaller binary than the default behaviour (ODR). best to use static (or anonymous namespaces) as the *exception*, if visible in multiple TUs.
Answer: There's a good chance it's in the file because of the possibility of run-time access through dynamic means. Such as a concatenated string yielding a plethora of different function names and being used to access them.
Although this type of implementation is rare, it is still a possibility and thus the code must remain available.
Comment: The function name (as we know it) is lost after being compiled but the memory location is still accessible, just not through a string.


Confusing article about ester production

Question: I am aware that esters in finished beer are usually caused by high temperatures during fermentation. This fact is not confusing to me and needs no elaboration. What has me confused is this article that another user posted recently in the comments section of this question. The article had he and I very confused.It basically says  that an increase in fermentation temperature will actually decrease ethyl acetate production and lower temps actually encourage ethyl acetate production. It even sites a source (that I couldn't find) that greatest production of ethyl acetate was between 10C and 21C. Everything I've ever read and tried (I accidentally made "banana-beer" once) indicates that this is the exact opposite of the truth.I've only been brewing a year but I've been reading about brewing for several years so I feel like even though I'm lacking in experience, I have a pretty decent base knowledge. Either this article is completely inaccurate or I have overlooked something.
Answer: Ethyl Acetate is the ester of ethanol and acetic acid and has the aroma of pear drops to solvent depending on the concentration. The taste threshold is roughly 120mg/L.
Isoamyl acetate also known as isopentyl acetate, is the ester which tastes like bananas in low concentrations. [1]
Depending on the yeast strain there will be differing levels of higher alcohols which will be oxidised to organic acids which with the react with Acetly-CoA to form different esters.
So it is true that the temp range commonly used for brewing may heighten production of these compounds but it does so thusly:
"These include fermentation temperature, where an increase from 50°F to 77°F (10°C–25°C) has been found to increase the concentration of ethyl acetate from 12.5 to 21.5 mg/L." [2]
As you can see this does not, under ideal conditions, push Ethyl Acetate levels beyond the 120mg/L taste threshold. There are a range of other factors that can push ester production up to higher levels that break this taste threshold.
These include:

low pitching rates;
low oxygen availability in the wort;
high C to N ratio in higher gravity worts;

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate
[2] https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/O1rjQz3DYu/ethyl-acetate/
Please feel free to ask more questions in the comments and I will expand the answer as requested. I have to run now.
Comment: Thank you for Your comment Mr_road. It seems though that your answer confirms what I already thought... that raising fermentation temperature increases the concentration of ethyl acetate as well as other esters. The article I'm asking about seems to claim that raising fermentation temps actually decreases these compounds. Even more confusing is that they claim 10C-21C, an ideal fermentation temp for most ales, yields the _highest_ concentration of esters.
Comment: This may be different in beers to wines, unlikely I would guess, or it may be that maximal ester production just happens to be inextricably linked to maximal fermentation, 10-21 is a pretty happy range for most yeast. Also at higher temperature you may get less retention but still high production, or at higher temps you may get more higher alcohol and ester production. I will keep digging in to this as you have spiked my interest, and if I find more I will update the answer,
Answer: Ethyl acetate is created by all brewery yeast. This is a volatile ester as are all the ethyl esters.
Generally these esters are created when the yeast is stressed but remain when yeast isn't given the chance to reconsume them or is incapable due to conditions.
Also these esters being volatile are subject to being blown off with cO2. Which may account for the article stating warmer temp reduced ethyl acetate, not that it reduced its production but rather was easily blown off with c02 in vigorous fermentation.
To reduce the ethyl esters aerate wort and make sure yeast is healthy and pitched in proper amount for your brew and fermentaion temp is according to makers recommendations.
Comment: Okay, that makes a bit more sense. So the production is not reduced, rather the extra ethyl acetate is removed by the vigorous fermentation. Would I be correct in assuming that the rate of production and the rate of expulsion (due to volatility) are linear or at least mostly linear? And if so, can I assume that the slope of production is flatter than expulsion? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a situation where esters in the beer would be lower at higher fermentation temperatures.
Comment: @thekolnik usually what happens to result in ethyl esters in the finished beer, is often too warm of temperature and too much alcohol is produced before the cell walls can tolerate it. Reducing the effective ABV tolerance of the yeast. So the yeast dies out before it's blown off or reconsumed.
Answer: The above answers are all quite correct. One additional comment, though:
All things being equal, the yeast generally tends to produce esters during the earlier stages of fermentation, while the re-uptake of these esters tends to occur during the later stages.
Therefore your finished beer will have higher levels of esters if the fermentation starts at a higher temperature (more ester production) and completes at a lower temperature (less ester re-uptake) and lower levels of esters if the fermentation starts cool and finishes warm.


How do I properly break in an engine after a rebuild

Question: I just changed my engine's piston rings and do not know how long I should let the engine break in. The engine is an '06 Chevrolet 1.5L SOHC. And how is the procedure done just by letting it sit idly?
Answer: Piston ring breaking standard procedure involves how the engine is used for the first 500 miles.

No extended idle time
Easy low power driving with lots of changes of rpm
No high power accelleration or high load.
No steady speed driving as in long trips with steady cruise speed

Some oil burn is not uncommon in the first few thousand miles.
An oil change at the 500 mile mark is a good idea.
Comment: Don't use synthetic oil for break in.  Conventional "dinosaur" oil. I prefer Shell Rotella 10W-40, which is fairly cheap, has high surfactants and detergents for diesels but works well as a "break in" oil.  Change at 500 miles to your regular oil like Fred suggests.  Just don't pour Comet or BonAmi cleaning powder into your carburetor, even if you had one....
Comment: @SteveRacer In our shop  choice of oil depends on cylinder surface finish. Conventionally honed cylinders get 30 wt conventional oil. Modern "plateau" honed cylinders get conventional oil of the standard weight for that engine and old flat tappet engines would get a break in oil with ZDDP additive. I have not used 10w40 in 20 years. Added abrasives would be counterproductive.
Comment: Agreed.  No idea how/if OP honed; doubt it was a Sunnen.  I feel chrome alloy rings take forever to seat on synth.  For a BMW, I can't deal with Nikasil, even for a new crosshatch.  I leave that to folks with much better equipment, and follow their break-in oil recommendation.  My '72 2002tii M10 gets rebuilt quite often, but no NIkasil and rocker arms -- so I use Rotella.  Not a problem on newer engines, other than a possible delay in ring seating.  There were a lot of failures in the '05-'06 seasons of my vintage racing series, when zinc/phosphorus dropped to .08% -- tribology=alchemy to me.
Answer: I'll stick my neck out and fly against convention. There's a great article here:
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
I've verified this method with a number of motorcycle and race engine tuners who all agree and it pretty much sums up what they do.
Tldr; warm up the engine gently, then give it a very thorough workout!
The main point is that you need the combustion pressure to push the piston rings to sit into the bore perfectly, then you get excellent, even compression, minimal blow by and a good engine.
Answer: This is similar to RemarkLima's answer.  Figured I'd list the steps I follow.
Start the engine.
As it is heating up, rev it through the entire rev range a couple times.
Keep an eye on coolant, temperature, oil pressure.
set timing
Go out for a drive. Get it into top gear and go WOT a bit.  Do this about 5 times for couple seconds each.
Go home and change the oil.
Afterwards, take it easy on the engine for the next 1000 miles.  no WOT.
As was mentioned in Fred's answer, always use non-synthetic oil for the break-in.


Cubesat Launch Costs

Question: What are tentative launch costs for 1U/3U cubesat on popular launchers? I checked up ISRO, SpaceX and others. Only RocketLab provides exact cost for cubesat as a piggy-back launch: \$77k / \$240k for 1U/3U cubesats on its Electron rocket. Any idea about other launch providers?
Comment: I have a non-expert hunch that anything far above $\mathbf{O}(\text{10}^5)$ $/U won't last much longer, and anything far below would be speculation or at least undemonstrated. One exception would of course be non-retail situations, where there are sponsors involved.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Barriers to launching a cubesat](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/6492/barriers-to-launching-a-cubesat)
Answer: For ISRO we have revenue details on few small satellites launched between 2013 to 2015 through an official response in Indian Parliament PDF
VELOX-1 (3U) satellite from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore was launched on 30 June 2014 aboard PSLV-C23 (core alone configuration) to a 660 km Sun-synchronous orbit for €140,000 as a ride-share.
Four LEMUR (3U) satellites from Spire Global were launched on 28 September 2015 aboard PSLV C30 (XL configuration) to a 650 km, 6° inclination orbit for €540,000 as a ride-share.
Details on primary payloads and co-passengers here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle#Launch_history
Answer: In addition to differences in vehicle costs, flight cost per unit depend heavily on the destination and the configuration of the payload stack. For example, assuming 40% capacity loss to the adapter and CubeSat dispensers (wild guess), I estimate below that a dedicated rideshare flight on Virgin Orbit LauncherOne to 500km SSO could be estimated as \$110k/U, but same vehicle to 230km equatorial could be \$65k/U.
CubeSat Cost / Unit
NanoRacks: \$40k/U - \$80k/U | ISS Orbit, 408km, 52$^{\circ}$ inclination
Virgin Orbit: $110k/U | 500km, SSO
Vector Space Systems: $220k/U | 450km, SSO
Sources
NanoRacks: A couple years ago, NanoRacks told me, via email, that the costs to deploy from ISS were: \$80k/U. They also said they had a 50% educational discount, so the educational cost was \$40k/U.
RocketLab: As you mentioned, RocketLab is transparent with their costs. If you want to buy a slot, you can do so on their website now. I talked to them at SmallSat last Summer and they said this slot does not include the price of the dispenser, so RocketLab is BYOD, bring your own dispenser. They sell carbon fiber dispensers, but I can't remember if you're required to buy one or have the option to bring your own. I requested their user guide from their website and will edit my answer when I get it.
For the following, I assume 40% of capacity is taken by adapter and dispensers for CubeSats. I also assume that rocket is used for dedicated CubeSat rideshare with no middle integrator taking a cut. I use UnitMass = 1.33kg/U and $\frac{Cost}{Unit} = \frac{LaunchCost}{\frac{TotalMass}{UnitMass}}$. Note that this scenario would also include the cost of the adapter and dispensers, which I am neglecting here.
Virgin Orbit: Virgin Orbit is projecting a \$15M launch cost with 300kg capacity to 500km SSO on it's LauncherOne vehicle. This and other payload capacities can be found in its LauncherOne Service Guide.
Vector: Vector is estimating \$3M launch cost with a 30kg payload capacity to 450km SSO on it's Vector-R vehicle. This and other payload capacities can be found in the Vector-R Forecasted Launch Service Guide, available for download from the company's website.
Comment: RocketLab is totally transparent, so no need to speculate. However, I'm pretty sure they are  BYOD, bring your own dispenser. I've added this to my answer.
Comment: I didn't even realize it was a year old. I was just looking for a CubeSat question to dig into. Haha. Your question still spurred me to look into whether different companies would have dispenser costs on top.
Comment: Helpful answer, still in the 100k$ ballpark. Any speculation on where Rocket Lab might end up?
Comment: Silly me, the question is a year old now, and I hadn't read it again. Thanks!
Answer: If the satellite isn't getting an academic free ride from the Air Force or NASA, then it is probably best to work through a payload integrator, who bundles several CubeSats into a single launch.
One major integration vendor is Spaceflight Industries (formerly Spaceflight Services).  They start with 3U CubeSats for $295K (USD) to LEO. As the satellite gets larger, the price per U goes down.
Spaceflight schedule and pricing  They fly using several different boosters.
Answer: I recall a youtuber who was getting a cubesat into orbit say it was costing him about $10k. You'll have to do some hunting, as I don't recall the specifics of the video, but I do remember that detail, and that he was a student.
Clearly this is a bargain price, as a picosat costs about $8k to get up there. So I would bet you won't see a price like that except as a piggyback, done at the gracious behest of a large organization.
Comment: Most likely Interorbital Systems. Interorbital has been selling \$10k tickets for more than 5 years without coming anywhere close to delivering. I've never heard any other picosat/CubeSat class launch that low.
Comment: Is it verified that this person actually launched the satellite?
Comment: Interorbital and their hype drives me nuts.
Answer: The cost of a CubeSat depends on the mass and size of the CubeSat and launch vehicle being used. It can range between on average between 10,000 USD and 500,000 USD. CubeSats sizes range from 0.5U to 27U, with 1U being defined as 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. There are mass requirements that CubeSats must stay under, however, waivers can be signed to allow for a higher mass cubesat. A CubeSat being launched on a Falcon 9 will have a much smaller launch cost when compared to one being launched on a Delta V.
Also the many companies and NASA is willing to launch certain CubeSats for free depending on the type of research being conducted. Currently CubeSats between 0.5U to 6U have only been launched. There are plans for people to launch larger CubeSats of 6U+.

Cubesat Launch Costs


CFD Broker that only charges for earnings

Question: I've created a small piece of software that allows me to invest into CFDs and gain some small profits. However, most brokers I've found require high opening/closing fees that are in most cases a way larger than my earnings (It does rely on small movements and only holds it for a few minutes). Is anyone of you in aware of a broker that has very small opening / closing fees or, even better, that only charges for my profits?
Answer: that only charges for my profits - do you understand how CFDs work?
For the sake of simplicity, there are four aspects to CFD trading:
(1) bid/offer spread - differs on whether you're doing OTC contract, or have DMA access
(2) margin requirements - usually tiered and each tier has % of required margin
(3) overnight funding
(4) commissions - there are CFDs with no commissions (e.g. cash indices, futures); and there are CFDs where commissions are calculated as % (e.g. equity CFDs).
So, to dissect your question:
invest into CFDs - CFD is a contract, you need to be specific - what is the underlying asset?
high opening/closing fees - depends on asset class, see above
only holds it for a few minutes - you're trying to scalp the market. Some brokers may not like that.
only charges for my profits - no, that's not how CFD operate.


Are desktop wallets transferable?

Question: I know you can make a transaction across the blockchain to move your Bitcoins from say Bitcoin-QT to Multibit, but is it possible to import my wallet.dat file from Bitcoin-QT to another desktop wallet without preforming a transaction?
Answer: You can simply copy .bitcoin/wallet.dat to another place, and use it like HOME dir for bitcoind/bitcoin-qt.
It is like a copy the whole bitcoind data.
Other files in .bitcoin/ directory are just a logs and configs with database, which will be downloaded from network automatically by your new client program.
Answer: I think it's possible but importing private keys would work better.
All you need to import an address to a new wallet is the private key. Get the private keys of your addresses from the QT client and import them into Multibit.

Are desktop wallets transferable?


Where can I find Neloth's apprentice?

Question: I cannot find Talvas Fathryon in Tel Mithryn. I never used him as a follower and have completed all quests for Neloth with the exception of his radiant quests. Any idea where he could be? I need him to buy spell tomes that i cannot find anywhere else.
Answer: With all of Neloth's quests completed up to Briarheart Necropsy, including the Reluctant Steward quest, Talvas can be found in the main room of Tel Mithryn 24 hours a day (tested by waiting).  More often than not he is peering down the magical lift from the railings.
This is after his own personal quest of "From the Ashes" is completed outside Tel Mithryn - before this point he remains outside the compound.

Where can I find Neloth's apprentice?


What is the recommended technique for refinishing hardwood floors?

Question: I have old hardwood floors in my home that I'd like to refinish myself. I'm ok with all sorts of manual labor, but I'd like to know the preferred method for refinishing them without damaging my walls or baseboards.
Answer: Belt-style floor sanders were current years ago, but more recently the best bet is a random-orbit style sander like the Varathane ezV sander.
(source: rustoleum.com)
The random-orbit sanders don't have nearly the risk of grooving that the belt sanders do, and these ones also have a built-in vaccuum which collects a large portion of the dust, unlike the sanders of my childhood.
I've sanded both floors of my house using that system; each floor took about a 3-day weekend start to finish using a process similar to this one.  I did find that I needed to use a hand-held belt sander for the edges, and since our floors are not all that even we used it to get the existing finish out of some of the deeper spots in the floor as well. If you pull out your trim and use some care you should be able to get right to the edges without having to do more than touch up the paint on the trim.
We just used the water-based polyurethane and have been quite happy with the results, but it's absolutely worth it to put down as many coats as you can - we ended up doing 4.
Comment: -1 more than 3 coats is worse not better!  [Ref 1](http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/inffloor/infrefinpoly.html), [Ref 2](http://www.woodflooringguy.com/2006/01/09/229/), [Ref 3](http://www.brownstoner.com/forum-archive/2010/12/how-many-coats/)
Answer: Rent a drum sander, but practice in an out-of-the-way area first! You can easily sand grooves into your floor.
With the drum sander you should be able to get within a few inches of the baseboards, then you'll need to use some type of hand sander.
Comment: They make smaller floor sanders that are intended for sanding near walls.  It's larger than your typical hand tools.  I'm not sure what the name is for this class of sander, but I found one manufacturer so you can see a picture and check your local tool rental shop : http://www.werkmaster.com/
Comment: @Joe You are correct. By "hand sander" I didn't mean manual tools, but some type of powered hand-held sander.
Comment: Drum sander is the way to go, orbital takes forever!
Answer: I rented the Varathane sander as mentioned in the other post from Lowes.  I also purchased the water based finish and sanding disks.  There was an instruction booklet with the sander that walked you through the process.  I used a handheld random orbital sander to sand in the corners.  The entire process cost about $150 and took two days.  I sanded down to the bare wood the first day, cleaned up and put one coat of finish on.  I put 4 more coats on the next day with a light sanding before the last coat.
Answer: For amateur use I would suggest considering one of the floor sanders that uses four 6" random-orbital discs rather than one large one. Rental is a bit more expensive, but they're almost idiot-proof. (Very much so compared to the old belt-sander versions, though I've seen beginners succeed with those too.)


What would be the most commonly used and understood term for copulation? (i.e sex)

Question: I know there are a lot of ways to say it, but what is the most commonly used form?
Comment: Of human, I guess?
Answer: セックス is the most direct word for it.  It's likely not the most scientific way to describe it, but using セックス in any circumstance would make sense.
In Osaka, I've also heard people (particularly college students) say えっち as well. However, it's considered slang, and it doesn't quite mean the same thing.
Comment: エッチ is not, strictly speaking, copulation. Nor is it properly foreplay. エッチな would be titillating or salacious. エッチする would be more like heavy necking and petting -- making out.
Comment: I hear えっち a lot, especially in more recent media.
Comment: Is it derived from the word for the English letter "H"?
Comment: @AndrewGrimm エッチ is not derived from the letter H, but that is related to how both are spelled in kana.  I was once told that it means success (in a sexual manner), and I've heard conjugations like 自エッチ。Most of this I picked up from college students.  Googling エッチの意味 I found the following definitions: 1.《名ノナ》性的にいやらしいこと。そういう人、特に男。2.《名・ス自》性的行為、特に性交。
Answer: Depends on context.
「[交尾]{こうび}する」 is, I think, a rather clinical expression, applicable to animals in scientific literature, etc.
「[性交]{せいこう}する」 is seen a lot, relative to humans, in somewhat formal or academic contexts.
A lot of the colloquial expressions are borrowed (often mis-borrowed) from foreign languages. None of them come to mind at once, sorry.
I bought a book called, I think, "Making Out in Japanese", or maybe it was "Making Out in Kansaiben" once, so I could try to figure out what my wife was saying sometimes. It didn't really help, which actually was not surprising.
Yet another half-answer, I suppose.
Comment: One of these? https://www.google.com.au/search?q=making+out+in+japanese&client=safari&hl=en-au&prmd=visn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX79CC5rXVAhUBULwKHZgACxIQ_AUICigC&biw=320&bih=460&dpr=2


How to write a grading rubric for coding assignments?

Question: I'm trying to improve the grading process and I need to write some guidelines for the graders. Students submit Java code for the assignments. Any ideas/suggestion about how to structure the grading?
Comment: A course may have mixed objectives. For example, when given an assignment to sort an array, the student may struggle with the development environment, the algorithm, the syntax, the analysis of the problem, writing test data, naming variables, programming structure, proper indenting of code and of course the programming paradigm. The course must have a specific set of objectives and using these objectives the marking can be set accordingly by giving the appropriate weight to each of the above factors.
Answer: This is what I have for my Java assignments. Notice that this is not a programming course, but an algorithms course.

Compiling and running (8 points)
1.a 0 points if the program doesn't compile. No points for the rest. Grading complete.

1.b If the code compiles and runs:
a   Full points if it succeeds in all test cases.
b   0.5 deducted for each failing test case.

2. Readability and submission (2 points)
2.1 Documentation (Oracle official)
    a. 0.5 points for complete commenting
    b. 0.4/0.2/0 (%) if we detect 0-25/25-50/75-100 (%) missing comments where expected.
    You should at least use clear commenting for the following:

        a. Classes and interfaces
        b. Fields
        c. Methods, including all input parameters and return values

2.2 Indentation (Oracle official)

    a. 0.5 for appropriate indentation
    b. 0.4/0.2/0 (%) for 3/6/more violations

2.3 Submission:
(0) 1 points for (not) correctly following the requirements for submission.

I would appreciate your feedback on this.
Comment: Welcome to [cseducators.se] and thank you for a nice anwer. Once you have enough [Reputation](https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/help/whats-reputation) (20pts.), why don't you stop by the sites chatroom [The Classroom](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/59174) to discuss this, but my sense here is that this would make a good question on its own. The concept of feedback doesn't work well in comments, which are considered ephemeral here, but could make good answers to a question. Not that it is not also a good answer to this question, of course.
Answer: Since the nature of your question implies sharing personal experience rather than providing some guidelines grounded on hard evidence, I'll take the liberty to share mine.
In the past I tried to develop a fine-grained scheme for my courses, but now I think it was a mistake. Such schemes cause more troubles than they do good: they are difficult to follow for the graders, students ask why someone got 8 points instead of 9 points, and there is too much room for subjective interpretation.
After years of teaching, I realised a simple thing: we must separate educational goals from the grading process. As an educator I strive to provide the best explanations as I can and I try to give them examples of good code and show the difference between good and bad practices. However, as a grader, I only have to rank students according to their performance, and my practice shows that regardless of the scheme the same students tend to go up or down. Therefore, I try to simplify my scheme every year.
Thus, currently I tend to focus on rather short assignments, each taking at most 2-3 hours to accomplish for a skillful student. Then I grade each of them on the scale 0-3 and give the same weight for each assignment (this is of course simplification as they aren't equal, but it works reasonably well).
The subsequent logic is as follows:

0 - empty submission / plagiarism / doesn't compile
1 - passes some tests
2 - passess most tests, but fails sometimes
3 - perfect submission

Sometimes I extend it to 0-5 if I want to ask some additional questions that had to be answered within their submission and/or want to give an additional point for coding style.
Comment: And tests should be automated, and published so students know what they have to do, and can test their own code.
Comment: Personally, I think that if you are using an automated test suite, those test should not be published. Using a website like gradescope, you can allow students to run the tests as many times as they wish, but the risk is that they just hard-code in the solutions to the individual test cases.
Answer: When students are learning to program they should be focused on more than getting the "right" answer. If a pro is writing quick-n-dirty code that will be discarded, the answer is important. But in all other cases, a program will have a lifetime and this needs to be considered. Therefore it also needs to be taught - and learned. Focusing too much on details works against this goal.
The rubric should reward correctness, of course, but it should also reward structure. It should not reward speculative programming, however: programming that might be useful in the future but isn't now.
But, in my view, the comments that are put on the students work should be more important than the points assigned. This is how you teach individual students and get them to advance. I realize that in the modern world, if you are teaching 800 students and have a staff of 40 to help you do it, someone else has to provide those specific comments. But if you ignore that altogether you are leaving the world of teaching and entering the world of pure performance - like a play - where there are not real requirements on the "audience".
It is also difficult to justify a too specific grading rubric. If one student has earned 88 points and another has 89 or 90, can you say that there is some essential difference in their learning? Broad grading categories and the opportunity to revise work are much more valuable to the student than a strict point scale. It also lessens the need, in their minds, to argue about small points - especially when they need guidance and practice on bigger ones.
If the scale is very large, it is useful to have a meeting with the graders before grading begins, but after some of the papers have been looked at (briefly). Only then can you get an idea about what is needed. Making it perfectly objective isn't the goal. The goal is to elicit change in the brains of the students. It will help, in such situations if the TAs have a stable set of students to work with, so that they can help with the individual guidance. To do this and to assure some uniformity can be difficult, of course. It might require that grades and comments are reviewed, perhaps by another TA than the one that normally works with a given student.
Note, that I may be defining "improve the grading process" differently than you originally did. To me, things only improve if the students skills improve. Everything else should work to achieve that.
Comment: I can't remember the name of the study. But if you give sumative feedback (grades), then you negate formative feedback, and learning. You can measure or you can teach, you have to choose. It may be that you can separate these things.
Answer: What I'm doing is: I give points for each relevant idea / concept in the program. E.g. if you have to loop through a data structure and you have to do something with the content, I would give point for the loop construction and points for the content.
The graders can now check whether the loop is correct and if the inner content is correct and give points for this. If students use a different technique (e.g. while instead of for), they can still decide whether the loop is doing as intended and give the points.
If you are insisting in specific soliutions (e.g. you have to use a "for"-loop), you should note this. Still, it would be possible to get some points for the content.
For a simple test about python lists this could look like this:
feld = [5, 55, 555, 5555, 55555] # 1Pkt.

print("Output:")
print(feld[0]) # 0,5 Pkt.
print(feld[4]) # 0,5 Pkt.
print(feld[2]) # 0,5 Pkt.

feld[1] = 42 # 1Pkt.

for z in feld: # 1,5 Pkt
    print(z, end=", ") #0,5 Pkt. ("end" is not relevant)
print()

print(feld[:2]) # 0,5 Pkt.
print(feld[2:])     # 0,5 Pkt.
print(feld[::-1]) # 0,5 Pkt.
print(feld[::2]) # 0,5 Pkt.

summe = 0 #0,5 Pkt.
for z in feld: # 1 Pkt.
    summe += z # 1 Pkt.
print("Summe =", summe) #0,5 Pkt.

The problem becomes more difficult the larger the assignments are and the more variations you are having in the solutions. You could still try to decompose the overall problem and give points for parts of the solution.
In general, I suggest that you try to avoid to have different grades for the same (sub-)task - this ensures at least consistency of the grades.
Answer: Grading coding assignments should consist of the following parts

automated tests
plagiarism checks
code quality (lint checks)
a short manual review of each submission

If the tests are written properly, I would imagine that anyone who passes the automated tests, plagiarism checks, and code quality checks should qualify for at least a B (or the equivalent in your course). On top of that, the manual review of the code determines whether the student used the correct approach and whether the submission matches expectation. This is where the student can reach A or A+.
There are many tools that can help you streamline this process. I recommend checking AutoGradr.com (disclaimer: I'm one of the authors)


Can I leave voice messages via Echolink using my 2-meter handheld?

Question: I am (KB3IFP) going on a 400 mile bike ride in the middle of West Virgina with 0 access to cell reception. I have a 2 meter handheld and a small book of all the US repeaters. I like to 'check-in' every evening/morning so my family knows I am OK. I could buy a Delorme GPS with texting capabilities via sat but what's the fun in that? My brother is K3OD and he has a HF station back in Pittsburgh. Is there a way to have my brother use Echolink to monitor a freq/channel using Echolink and record any messages I transmit? Am I thinking of this all wrong? What would you do?
Answer: Yes, you can leave voice messages with your radio, if the EchoLink server you connect to (via RF) has the svxlink server daemon running on a Linux system. This can be done with any DTMF capable radio.
Answer: I haven't used EchoLink myself, but from listening while other people are using it on the local repeater, and reading the web site, it seems that EchoLink does not have any kind of store-and-forward messaging capability, only real-time communication.
You could use it to talk directly with your brother if he is available at the same time, but you would be limited to repeaters which have functioning EchoLink nodes.

I'm not aware of anything commonly available that will let you pass on voice messages, but I have two suggestions for alternatives:

Ask people to relay your messages home. (You could do formal radiograms, even.) This sort of thing is not done often in these days of the Internet and cell phones, but some people will very much enjoy helping your message along.
Use APRS. You can transmit APRS messages which contain your current location and whatever text you want; wherever there is APRS digipeater/IGate coverage, your messages will be passed to the Internet (e.g. on http://aprs.fi/).
This does require some more hardware, but I hear it can be as simple as your HT, your smartphone, and an audio interface cable.
Comment: When I was posting this, I was thinking of APRS as a solution even though I do not know much about it. Will investigate it. Thanks!


Offensive comments - How to deal with these

Question: I marked an answer "as not providing an answer to the question" and I received a series of insults from the answerer. How to deal with these type of situations? I think that people not willing to be criticized and acting offensively should be banned for a while. Which countermeasures are taken in situations like this?
Moreover, if the OP indicate that he has thousand of points while showing only 35 points, can this be understood like he has double account on SO?
Comment: Just a note, there's no point you (or anyone else) exacerbating this further by engaging... Just leave well alone. And, I've been alive since 1984, and using a computer since 1989, so I know this.
Comment: Flag them as offensive...
Comment: @Ben: oh, you young, young fry. I've been alive since 1973 and been *chasing babies like you of my lawn [since 1984](http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/15464/Toshiba-MSX-HX-10/)!*
Comment: @Daedalus Only mods can see comment flags. But under some circumstances, a comment can be deleted via flags without moderator intervention.
Comment: @Ben, I agree with you. I limited my self in explaining why I marked the answer in that way then I left him alone.
Comment: More comments to flag it seems.
Comment: @Mysticial A question; is it high-rep users that deal with offensive flags, an auto-system, or diamond mods? ... Or some combination of any of the prior three?  Aside, I'm beginning to run out of flags.
Comment: @Mysticial Alright then; thanks for the clarification.
Comment:  @Martijn. It was meant to be a riff off the '96 comment, just earlier and with things people could still turn into a competition but were less likely to... I couldn't walk in 1984 so chasing may have been difficult but I can imagine "throwing"!
Comment: I scrubbed the comments related to this particular user, since we don't want to publicly shame anyone. The question stands by itself as a general one, and I wanted to focus discussion on that.
Comment: @BradLarson There's something strange with that user's rating. Despite having more than 40 positively rated answers (+many zero-rated accepted answers), only a few downvotes and NO offered bounties, his rating was 34 right before the temporary suspension. How could it happen?
Comment: @BradLarson And now after the ban he has >1K rating. What was that? Serial downvoting caused by the Meta effect, now reversed, or something else?
Comment: @BradLarson I mentioned in my original question above that there was something strange with this guys since he was under the impression that his answer was given from an account with several thousand scoring votes.
Comment: @Idolon - All I will say is that this particular user has been dealt with. I recommend not dwelling on them any further.
Answer: You flag the comments (use offensive) and move on. Leave dealing with a user like this to the moderators and do not engage. Flagging is only visible to moderators, the user cannot see that you have done so, nor can other users.
Moderators will engage the user if there are multiple cases of comments with offensive flags on them, and can do so in a private and non-conflicting manner. If a user doesn't improve their behaviour, temporarily banning the user is an option.
Most of all, do not call out the user here on Meta! Moderators try and address the behaviour, not the user. Calling out the user here only brings in the vigilantes, and we really don't want that.
Comment: relevant: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/240839/the-new-new-be-nice-policy-code-of-conduct-updated-with-your-feedback
Comment: @DaleWilson: no, certain keywords make comments insta-deletable with an offensive flag. You found one of those keywords. They didn't delete the comment, *your flag* did. I'd expect any of the [7 dirty words](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words) to be on that list.
Comment: @2Dee: It is rare for a user to *persist* in disruptive behaviour, and we believe in second chances. See [A Day in the Penalty Box](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/04/a-day-in-the-penalty-box/). If the user continues to be disruptive, longer bans are possible.
Comment: @marflar: Then that user can see the flag, as can *other* moderators. They are held by the [moderator agreement](http://stackoverflow.com/legal/moderator-agreement) however.
Comment: `Flagging is only visible to moderators, the user cannot see that you have done so` What happens if the user is a moderator?
Comment: Would you mind explaining the "temporarily" part in "temporarily banning" a bit further ? IMHO, such a user could be having a bad day but repeated offenses demonstrate a tendency to troll rather than providing constructive answers. Why would we want that type of user on SO ? Is there something I'm missing ? Thanks for the explanation !
Comment: A variation on the theme.  I saw a one sentence fly-by answer to a question.  I commented: "True, but how does this answer the question?:   The answerer added a sentence that said "and this might cause the problem you are seeing."   I followed that up with another comment that said "could you please explain what the OP can do to fix this?" and the answerer commented "F**k you, Dale Wilson".   As soon as I saw this comment, I flagged it as offensive, but the answerer deleted the comment just as quickly. Has he found a way to beat the system by erasing his tracks?
Comment: Ahh.  I understand now.  Thanks.
Comment: @MartijnPieters what about those comments in my regional language? It happened me today. How would SO moderators handle those issue?
Comment: In this [URL](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35737364/hyperlinking-a-html-table-row-to-its-corresponding-sql-record#comment59152441_35737364) actually I tried to help him by questioning for more details. He's commented abusively and it's deleted. Which may not comes under the `7-words` category, since it's the regional language.
Comment: @VinothKrishnan the user deleted the comment themselves. If you'd flagged that comment as offensive, I'd have asked a fellow moderator familiar with the language and / or used machine translation to check if the user needs contacting about their behaviour. For cases like these, a custom comment flag explaining what the comment is saying would be much appreciated.
Comment: Yes, Absolutely !


Fluid allocation for shell and tube heat exchanger

Question: I'm designing a shell and tube heat exchanger with a hydrocarbon stream (31.6% propane and 60.4% propylene) entering at 135F and 321psi, and leaving at 100F being cooled by water at 85F and 74.7 psi. As of now I have the hydrocarbon stream on tube side and water stream on shell side, mainly due to the high pressure of the hydrocarbons and it being at a higher temperature. Is this a decent enough basis for my decision? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Answer: This is a good start for your decision and you can probably get away with it however you should factor in everything that influences that decision.

Cleaning
Corrosion
Fouling
Temperature
Viscosity
Pressure
Pressure Drop

Higher Temperatures and a higher pressure favor allocating the fluid to the tube site.

Put a high-pressure fluid on the tube side. This usually minimizes exchanger cost. The smaller tube diameter has a higher pressure rating for the same metal thickness compared to the larger diameter shell.(1)

and

If the temperatures are high enough to require the use of special alloys placing the higher temperature fluid in the tubes will reduce the overall cost.

Chemical Engineering Design, 12 Heattransfer Equipment,  R K Sinnott (2)
Although I wouldn't consider 135 F "hot".
And here is another article (3)
All in all I would advise you to work through the sources I provided and this should help you with your choice. Without knowing more I would probably choose the same allocation.


Grub loading, please wait. . . Error 22

Question: Yesterday I got a problem which I posted here. Trying to solve it, I installed slitaz live CD to desktop. After that I tried to use boot other live CD's (Ubuntu, Tiny core) but they didn't boot. So I deleted the the slitaz partition through gparted(or something like that) and restarted. After that I am seeing this error message:`
<code>GRUB Loading stage 1.5.
Starting cmain() ...

GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 22`
</code>
UPDATE:
I have tried Backtrack live CD to live boot laptop but that doesn't work too.
Answer: Boot Backtrack or ubuntu live CD. Open terminal and run command "update grub" as root and then restart your laptop.

Grub loading, please wait. . . Error 22


Change color of Date and Weather app in Ubuntu 12.04 & Mate

Question: I have recentely installed Ubuntu 12.04 and as I am a truly Gnome 2 lover I also switched from Unity to Mate. The font color of the Weather/Date applet is barely visible so I was wondering how I can change it. I Already tried to explore all the options shown in the menu when I right-click on the applet, but apparently there's no such feature. So is there anything I could do in order to customize the font color in order to make the text more readable?
Answer: "GNOME Color Chooser" works for me (I use Ubuntu 12.04 with Mate), and it's available in the Ubuntu Software Centre.


Can the excessive consumption of mineral water lead to kidney stones or other health issues?

Question: I heard that drinking too much mineral (bottled) water could lead to problems such as kidney stones because of the high amount of minerals in it. Is it true? If so, what is considered to be excessive?
Answer: I suffer from calcium oxalate stones.  My doctor pointed me to this study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9096270
tl;dr;  For calcium oxalate, drinking Mineral Water high in Calcium and Magnesium may reduce the risk of forming stones.
Answer: It is unlikely that drinking too much mineral water will cause kidney stones. One of the chief causes of kidney stones is dehydration. I can't imagine the calcium content of mineral water could be that high as to cause kidney stones (please correct me if I'm wrong) unless you drink ridiculous amount by which stage you will probably start to have electrolyte abnormalities and perhaps seizures.
Consumption of excessive amount of water can cause various health issues (even life threatening). These include seizures, rhythm disturbances in the heart (all usually secondary to acute electrolyte imbalance in the blood).
I've never come across drinking too much mineral water as a cause for kidney stones-most people who get kidney stones usually aren't drinking enough water. The more water you take (in moderation), the less the likelihood for stone formation in your kidneys.


What is the fastest way to transfer huge files beween two android powered devices?

Question: What is the fastest way to transfer huge files (e.g. 500MB) between two android powered devices? Bluetooth? WiFi direct? Beam? or maybe USB on-the-go?
Answer: There are many variables that affect the performance of each method you've mentioned.
Additionally there's also the necessary configuration and requirements that each device must have in order to have solutions like this working.
As requested, lets summarize and compare possible performances between USB; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:

USB:
USB performance can be extremely low or very high, depending on the available USB version, which in turn, combined with the SDcard reading/writing speed on each device allows us to accurately measure and ascertain the transfer speed.
There's also the physical limitation of the USB cable length that for some scenarios becomes a limitation.

USB 1.0: 1.5 Mbit/s (Low-Bandwidth) and 12 Mbit/s (Full-Bandwidth)
USB 2.0: 480 Mbit/s (effective throughput up to 35 MB/s)
USB 3.0: 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s) which is more than 10 times as fast as USB 2

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi loses limitations like cable length, but then again we need to account for the 802.11 protocol being used, the signal strength and range to accurately measure results:
<code>┌────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│  Protocol  │  Data rate per stream (Mbit/s)  │  Approximate range (m)   │
│            |                                 ├────────────┬─────────────┤
│            |  Bandwidth of 20 MHz            |   indoor   |   outdoor   │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11a   │  6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54   │     35     │     120     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11b   │  1, 2, 5.5, 11                  │     35     │     140     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11g   │  6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54   │     38     │     140     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11n   │  7.2, 14.4, 21.7, 28.9, 43.3,   │     70     │     250     │
│            │  57.8, 65, 72.2,                │            │             │
│            │                                 │            │             │
│            │  With Bandwidth of 40 MHz:      │            │             │
│            │  15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120,       │            │             │
│            │  135, 150                       │            │             │
└────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────┘
</code>
More about Wi-Fi protocols from Wikipedia.

Wi-Fi Direct
Wi-Fi Direct, initially called Wi-Fi P2P, is a Wi-Fi standard that enables devices to connect easily with each other without requiring a wireless access point.
Here the communication is performed at typical Wi-Fi speeds for everything from file transfer to Internet connectivity. Essentially, Wi-Fi Direct falls under the same values presented at the Wi-Fi table (yet again keeping in mind that signal strength and range are the key factors for a good performance).
More about Wi-Fi Direct from Wikipedia.

Bluetooth
While we need to ascertain several influencing factors to determine if Wi-Fi is faster than USB, Bluetooth is with no doubt in last place when we speak about transfer speed. Designed as a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances, the maximum speeds are below the two concurrent options:
<code>┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Version   │  Data rate  │  Maximum application throughput         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  1.2        │  1 Mbit/s   │      0.7 Mbit/s                         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  2.0 + EDR  │  3 Mbit/s   │      2.1 Mbit/s                         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  3.0 + HS   │                                                       │
├─────────────┤  theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s  │
│  4.0        │                                                       │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
</code>
More about Bluetooth from Wikipedia.

Android Beam
Being a fairly recent technology, Android Beam allows users to transfer data between devices with Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities.
NFC is even slower than Bluetooth (both short-range communication technologies) and is limited to about 20cm of range getting up to 424 kbit/s.
On a positive note, NFC sets up more quickly than standard Bluetooth and the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established:
Technical comparison:
<code>┌──────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│    Aspect    │  NFC           │   Bluetooth    │ Bluetooth Low Energy │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Network Type │ Point-to-point │ WPAN           │ WPAN                 |
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Range        │ < 0.2 m        │ ~100m (class1) │ ~50 m                │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Bit rate     │ 424 kbit/s     │ 2.1 Mbit/s     │ ~1.0 Mbit/s          │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Set-up time  │ < 0.1 s        │ < 6 s          │ < 0.006 s            │
└──────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────┘
</code>
Only relevant aspects to this answer, for full table see Wikipedia.

Summary
Based on the specifications for each method and their respective version, my classification ordered by fastest-to-lowest would be:

USB assuming version 2.0, since 1.0 is way slow and outdated
Wi-Fi / Wi-Fi Direct
Bluetooth
Android Beam
Comment: Another alternative, right up there with USB, is to put the file on a microSD card on one device, transfer the card to the other device, and pull the file off again. Of course, this won't work on every device, but the vast majority do have microSD slots.
Answer: If your android devices have removable SD card slot, the fastest way to transfer big files is to physically move the SD card from one device to another.
Answer: After some experiences, it appears the Samsung Galaxy S4 software must recognize the file format first, before and during transfer from pc to the smartphone main memory. When moving the file to the SD Card memory, again the software needs to recognize the file, so this is done from either the (a) Move File option in the folder or, (b) Application option to Move to SD Card Memory.
{ for those smartphone users who need to save main memory space on their Samsung S4 }
Answer: For this Task I use an app called shoutr. As I could see it is using the built in WiFi and so you get the full WiFi speed.
I like the interface; it's very easy to share music, videos and photos with friends on the way.
Answer: The method I've used with great success is WiFi, using ES File Explorer on both devices ( sender and receiver).  I simply turn on the WiFi, on both units, to access my home WAN, start ES File Explorer on both devices, select the files/folders I want to send, choose the 'Send' option, and on the receiving device - accept, select save location, press 'OK' to start receiving.  I sent a 200 MB file from my 4 year old Huawei Ascend to my Samsung Galaxy S4, in about 6 minutes @ ~540 KB/s, this way.
Answer: I'm using hike messenger this messenger come with hike direct feature this feature allow share huge files. I'm sharing 1.2GB file within 4 minutes but this feature only available for Android device coming soon for windows phone and ios
Comment: What is your affiliation with the app?
Answer: I use cross-platform Liwi App on my Mac and Android phone. It also works on Windows. It connects devices over WiFi automatically without any create and join process.
Answer: Depending on your circumstances, the quickest way is either over Bluetooth file transfer, or directly through a cable. Bluetooth is nice because it is wireless and relatively quick for word documents and smaller files. Through the cable is better for large files such as video. However you have to carry a cable.
Really depends on circumstances.
Answer: I use android app called Superbeam which enables wifi direct and enables you to get full wifi speed.
Answer: If you don't have micro SD slot in both device, the alternate solution is to use any free cloud services. You can try Google drive or Dropbox to install in both devices under same user name and try to sync/transfer files in between.
Answer: Swift File Transfer is 10x faster than Bluetooth, free and no hassle set up! From the app's description:

Swift File Transfer is World's fastest app to share installed apps, photos, files, folders and videos at with high speed of upto 8mbps with your friends and family without using intenet, data cable, mobile data, Wi-Fi, nfc etc. Now transfer GB's of data in the blink of an eye.

Both, sender and receiver, need to have the app installed. Transfer then is easy:

Sender: Launch SFT app › Tap on "Send Button" › Select data to share › Tap on send
Receiver: Launch SFT app › Tap on "Receive Button" › Tap on "Senders" image/name

Checking the playstore ratings, it seems to do well with bigger files (one user reports having transferred an entire video collection), but there seem to be issues with Marshmallow (most likely with the new permission system; two user report issues accessing the SD card, which might be worked around by manually granting the permission).


How to come up with the setting for the fiction novel?

Question: I have this problem - I generally dislike fantasy worlds and science fiction set up in space or different planets. So I don't want to write about such things. I always loved more grounded stories about the real world. It doesn't matter if there is fantasy of science fiction elements in there, it is setting has to be close to reality as we know it, not the story itself.
The common advice for writers in realistic setting is 'Write about what you know', but there is the problem. I really don't want to set the novel I write in my own country for several reasons. And I don't feel like I can realistically present a culture and everyday lives of people from other countries. I've done insane amounts of research over the course of my life, studying several foreign cultures. I can answer almost every question about several countries and their cultures. But that's just facts, you can't actually think like representative of another culture, you can't actually 'get it' if you never been there, in that environment.
What should I do then? Try to invent a setting that looks like reality but isn't actually a real world? This approach seems cheap and even if it didn't, I'm not sure how to come up with something like that for it to not to cause repulsion.
Comment: I'm having a little trouble understanding what your precise question is; it's kind of all over the place. Yes, every approach has its pros and its cons. But also, pretty much every approach's downsides can be overcome. The right kind of research will help you write other cultures; invented settings can be made rich; and so on and so forth. **What kind of story and setting are you interested in writing about?** Write that, see what problems you run into, and then fix those.
Answer: "Write what you know" is a guideline, not a law, or every book would be an autobiography.
If you want to write about other countries, you say you've done a lot of research, which is a great start. That will keep you from making basic mistakes, like having your characters drive on the incorrect side of the road or dress inappropriately.
Beyond that, either visit the other country in question and get your own experiences, or find one or several natives of that country to act as your cultural nitpicker. Or both.
Answer: Unless you write to portrait life in a specific culture, fiction is mainly about people, and people are basically the same everywhere. Everyone wants physical safety, health, social connections, love, entertainment, and so on. People everywhere love their children, are jealous, strive for economic success, feel insecure or happy or sad. Since you are a human being and have spent your life with other human beings, you know how human beings work, and can write about what you know. Setting is just the background for the human drama, and as long as the setting is plausible to your readers (who do not live in the culture you write about) they won't care about the correct description of tax systems or public transportation as long as the descriptions of the people and their motivations and behavior are truthful.
Answer: As part of your research, you could get to know some people who come from that area. Even better, see if any of them would be willing to be alpha or beta readers and look for mistakes.
Answer: Do not forget, that you do not have to include any details. Recently I saw quite below average thriller Donkey Punch which is being placed in Spain. But whole Spain serves just as background to the story and because it actually takes place on a yacht in the middle of sea, you could successfully move the story to Hawaii without any influence to the story itself.
I would recommend one better rule: Be creative. In one of my parody stories, I used Canton Tower as hideout of the bad guys. I do not know anything about China, or that tower in particular. I just liked the picture of it. And the setup of parody offered me possibility to use that.


When did the words 麻醉 and 麻药 first appear?

Question: I want to know how long 麻醉 and 麻药 have been compounded to mean anesthesia and anesthetic respectively.  What is the approximate date of the origin of those two Chinese words?  Are their origins relatively recent or relatively remote?  Is there a reference site online that has this information or a reference in book form?
Comment: zdic.net hints at 水浒传 (16th century) for 麻药. 麻醉 can be found in Lu Xuns 呐喊.
Answer: I assume you're looking for how Chinese translated the technical terms, which according to the OED were invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1846.
Chinese has early claims for anesthetic compounds a couple of thousand years before this, going back to the hoary Hua Tuo.  Wikipedia's article on the history of general anesthesia has a few things about him. There is more in the article on the Japanese doctor Hanaoka Seishū, reputedly the first person to perform an operation using general anesthesia.
Both of these articles represent Wikipedia at its least reliable (look at the references), and in any case are not about the medical practices which Holmes christened in the 19th century.
As the comment from 倪阔乐 above mentions, the word ma-yao appears in Shui-hu-chuan (late 16th cent.) as a name for a general type of drug that is probably something like knock-out drops.
Shui-hu-chuan calls the ma-yao in question 蒙汗藥 meng-han-yao, a drug which also appears in plays from the Yuan dynasty (13th cent). People who get dosed with 蒙汗藥 usually wind up as steamed meat buns in shops run by people you would not like to meet in a dark alley. Despite the claims of various dictionaries, I would not call this an anesthetic.
I would say that this is a difficult question, not an easy one. You will have to hunt around in early accounts for yourself, and this could be tough. The book Anesthesia: Essays on its history has a chapter by S. Yong called "History of Modern Anesthesia in China". Alas, it's only 3 pages long.  Clearly there's a lot to be done.
Answer: Hua Tuo's (c. 140–208)innovative anaesthetic mafeisan 麻沸散 "cannabis boiling powder" is a long-standing mystery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Tuo
麻沸散 claimed to be the first sort of anaesthetic, probably combined with surgical analgesia by acupuncture when in surgical practice.
Even the mystery lasts long, I would say neither the 麻醉 or 麻药 is a recent concept.
Comment: Are you sure 麻沸 means "cannabis boiling"? Wikipedia does not reference this part so it seems dubious, also the formula for 麻沸散 has been lost, and none of the theorised formulas mention cannabis. If you're trying to draw a link using the 麻 in 麻沸散, but it's not clear what it actually meant, then your answer isn't well supported.
Comment: I do not have a very strong reference as you said the formula for 麻沸散 has been lost. So all we can do is to guess what was in there. I am not an expert on this subject but I know Cannabis has been widely used in medical treatment for the propers for reducing pain(during surgical operation) and relaxation since 3 bc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)#cite_note-Booth2003-19.
So I do think cannabis is a possible ingredient the formula of 麻沸散, and hence 麻沸散 named after cannabis (大麻). Or at least that's what we were taught in school about the mystery of  麻沸散.


Sounds of supersonic objects

Question: Would you, as a stationary observer, hear a sound in reverse when the source of the sound travels with twice the speed of sound? Of course, he wouldn't hear anything at all before the airplane passed by and the sound reaches him, but what about after? Does it reverse due to the Doppler effect?
Comment: Curiously, [this was asked yesterday](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/192334) by another user.
Comment: Is the airplane far overhead? Or is it travelling directly toward the observer. If the latter, I think they have more important and imminent concerns than what it will sound like
Answer: Yes, the sound can be reversed. Thanks to JiK, we have this animation (Python source code) of a supersonic jet moving forwards that can illuminate what is going on:

The red circle represents the first sound produced by the object, the blue circle the second sound produced by the object and the remaining (black) circles representing the sounds produced elsewhen along the simulation. Two things to look for here:

The generation of the Mach wave (or Mach cone)--this is what produces the sonic boom that the observer first hears (which is actually generated from compression waves made after the first two in this case).
The blue wave clearly hits the stationary observer first, so the sounds played by the moving object would be heard in reverse.

Obviously point #2 is key to OPs question.
However, sound intensity follows an inverse square law:
$$
I\propto r^{-2}
$$
which means that the larger circles are "quieter" than the smaller circles. Thus, the sounds that you would hear as backwards are muffled in comparison to the normally-directed sounds. So while there is reversed sounds, it would be very unlikely that you would actually distinguish them from the normal-directed sounds.
The image below is a still from a slightly modified version of JiK's code (added an elif (t_i > 7) condition). This shows a bit more clearly the details of the above paragraph, that the normal sounds (in orange and received in the normal direction) would be louder than the reversed sounds (because smaller is louder).
Answer: As you stated, the observer would not hear anything as the plane approached him. If fact, he still would not hear anything until the plane had past by since it takes some time for the sound to travel from the plane to the observer. In answer to your question; no, you would not hear the sound backwards since you still hear the sound in the same sequence as it was made (although the pitch may differ).

The image is drawn incorrectly. The sound waves propagate outward in circles, never ovals.
If the plane passes very close to the observer, he would hear the sound in reverse, but he would also hear the sound of the receding plane (forward) since it is still making noise. Since the sound of the receding plane is louder (since the circle is smaller) than the sound of the plane approaching, you may not be able to distinguish the sound.
Comment: @LDC3: I think you are saying your original answer was incorrect. You might want to edit it.
Comment: In the lower right picture, the sound represented by the biggest circle is the "first" emitted sound, right? Let's assume the listener is places at the tip of the cone. he would hear the smallest circles sound before the bigger ones. thus he hears the sound emitted before the plane passed by in reverse. or am i completely wrong?
Comment: Then the observer would need to move at nearly the same speed as the plane. For a stationary observer, the largest sound wave would pass by him before the smaller sound waves.
Comment: I meant, the observer is currently at the cones tip, but stationary, while the plane is moving. The smallest wave would hit him before the biggest. right?
Comment: I see what you mean. Yes, he would hear the sound in reverse, but he would also hear the sound of the receding plane (forward) since it is still making noise. Since the sound of the receding plane is louder (since the circle is smaller) than the sound of the plane approaching, you may not be able to distinguish the sound.
Answer: BUT: One important question is (in case of faster than light), the actions of the object who created the rays, are already done by the object, and they can not be changed even if we move faster than the light (images of the object). Example:
A starship with hull1 is moving from pos a to pos b, but we move faster than light. if the starhip is changing its hull in time=a+1 to hull2 , we see still its hull at pos a/time a, but inbetween - as said  - the hull is changed physically. If the starhip changes at time/pos=a+1 its hull to a completely different hull9, we see the starship still its hull2. And if we are transmitting to the ship it change its hull meanwhile to hull6 what we will see at faster than light.
I mean what we see is the (so far theoretical) what happened in past, but can we physically change the images that we see movin faster than light
Comment: Is the meant to answer the question? I think it's a new question or a comment, in which case it should not be entered as an answer.

Sounds of supersonic objects


How can I carry a refrigerator with a Mercury Sable 2001 (aka Taurus)?

Question:
I'm not concerned if a scratch the car, and I can use wood or something to help. I need to transport a regular household-size refrigerator. We don't have one, and occasionally people give them away on Craigslist.
I also need to figure out a way to lift it to the position on the car.
Comment: Ignoring the legalities of what you propose, It's doable. I have personally moved a refrigerator from the second floor to the bed of a pick-up truck alone. It is bulky but really not that heavy. Take your time and slide it on blankets when you can. Use wood skids and pads to protect surfaces. You will have to carry it horizontally on that car so when you do get it to its destination and place it upright, let it sit for a day or two BEFORE you plug it in so the coolant can settle in the compressor or it will burn out when you start it.
Comment: What are the dimensions of the refrigerator?
Answer: There is no safe way to do this.  Please don't try.  Either have a properly made hitch installed and rent a small trailer, or rent/borrow a suitably sized truck.
Comment: $40 to rent a truck for a day isn't even comparable to $500+ for a refrigerator that the vendor will deliver.  Doesn't change the fact that there's no safe (or, probably, legal) way to transport a full size refrigerator on/in that kind of car.
Comment: If I could rent a truck and have a hitch installed, I'd just buy a refrigerator delivered. -- Certainly, it's possible.
Answer: You need to get at least four healthy strong people to get it on the car. You get a couple of long pieces of material like 2x4's or 4x4 lumber. You place the wood under the reefer in a manner that allows you to straddle the car, just make sure the lumber is long enough and strong enough, and that you have enough people to get the reefer high enough for long enough to get it on the car.
I would be really apprehensive about the weight of the thing, and the pressure of securing it properly, collapsing your car roof leaving a huge dent. I would suggest you try using a mattress to cradle the reefer.
There is a similar post about securing loads on cars here. , it may give you some food for thought.
Answer: Get a roof rack. Found one for a Taurus for $30 en ebay.

(this is an example of how not to do it btw)
Now, the roof rack comes with a manual in which is written the maximum weight. Mine can carry 70kg. Obviously, whatever you carry should be fastened properly. Please don't use rubberbands, or anything which has links made of plastic. Tough straps like this work very well:

For fragile materials (like sheetrock/gyproc) planks or a bit of plywood should be used to support it from below. Also, cardboard is needed to protect the sides and prevent the straps frop digging into the material. You should do this with your fridge, else the two beams of the roof rack will dent the edges when you fasten the straps tight.
You can put the flat plywood against the trunk of the car, lean the fridge on it, then slide the whole assembly onto the rack. It really helps to have some kind of ramp to haul the stuff up instead of just carrying it...
Now, the problem will be to put the fridge on the car. If you remove the shelves inside and unscrew the door, it will be lighter. This should be easy to do for 2 people.
And drive carefully, like 70 km/h...
Comment: The question asked how to lift the fridge into the car, not where on the car to put it.
Comment: Like I said, if its too heavy, put a sheet of plywood against the car to make a ramp and slide the stuff up...
Comment: Even if no one gets hurt and no traffic accidents result, this is very likely to result in significant damage to the car (passenger car roofs aren't built to take weight) and to the refrigerator (rendering the whole exercise pointless).
Comment: This sounds a bit weird. My car has hardpoints (threaded holes) on the sides of the roof on which the roof rack is attached with bolts. It's all designed in, and sold by the car's manufacturer as an accessory. My previous car didn't have the convenient hardpoints, but a roof rack could still be mounted. It's a very common accessory. I already put a fridge on it by the way, without any damage to the fridge or the car. So I'm puzzled by your comment. (Although the simplest would be to have a friend who owns a pickup-truck, because lifting the fridge requires some creativity)
Comment: I have several ratcheting straps, and I've already used them to carry a couch, a washing machine, and a queen-sized bed. I put the cargo on top of the trunk and roof, strapped down through the windows, and went.I'm a bit concerned about a refrigerator because of the weight it would place on the back of the roof or on the top of the rear glass. The car doesn't have hard points, but it does have the channels where a rack could attach. A new roof rack requires cross bars first. Those added with the rack get expensive.


Why do unboiled eggs last longer than boiled eggs?

Question: Just like the title says, I watched this video https://youtu.be/CHMY4G9gTPA and then became intrigued.
Answer: An eggshell is a complex structure.  From Wikipedia:

Boiling the egg removes the waxy cuticle from the outside of the egg, dissolves a small but not insignificant amount of calcium carbonate from the shell, damages the protein matrix that holds calcium carbonate crystals in place in the shell, and can disrupt or destroy the two shell membranes.  All of these contribute to allowing bacteria a means to enter the egg and spoil it.
Note: Though calcium carbonate is actually less soluble in hot water vs cold, the rate of dissolution is substantially greater.  Unless the egg is boiled in a saturated solution of calcium carbonate, it will lose material to the solution when boiled, and any pores in the shell become enlarged as a result.
Comment: Not to forget the hole if you prick the shell where the air pocket is...
Comment: It isn't just the membrane. My recollection is that boiling an egg will  inevitably lead to at least small cracks in the shell, which will rip the membrane.
Answer: In addition to Jason answer: egg is a live organism with repair and immunity capabilities. Small punctures in egg membrane may be healed, and bacteria are most likely to get killed by white blood cells using antibodies or other techniques. Boiling kills everything, including egg immunity system - existing antibodies are denaturated (they are protein too) and there are no white cells to produce fresh ones.
Comment: I don't think eggs have white blood cells.


Is troff/groff a "friend" of TeX

Question: I have several TeX vs. troff/groff questions and surely there are experts on here that would know both.  Not wanting to have a question rejected/closed due to the *roff nature, are these acceptable questions?
Answer: There being people here who will be able to answer your question doesn't make it a good question.  But that's not to say that it wouldn't be acceptable.  I don't know the answer to that one.  I would try an experiment.  Pick one of your questions and ask it.  In the question:

Explain that it's an experiment and that people are encouraged to discuss whether or not it is acceptable here (link to this specific question).  That shows, amongst other things, that you're trying to play by the rules but aren't sure what the rules are, rather than are trying to game the system.
Try to make your question as TeXy as possible.  Try to make it so that someone who doesn't know about troff/groff could still learn something from the answers to your question.
Answer: I'd like both troff/eqn and Postscript to be in a special category of questions that are narrowly speaking off-topic but welcome here because we are friendly.
We might have a section in the FAQ along the lines of:

Q: I know my question about digglefying grobnits is off-topic, but I can't think of anywhere better to ask it.  Can I ask it here, please?
A: It sounds like it isn't really in scope, but since it seems to be to do with DIY-ethic document preparation, we will probably like answering your question anyway.  To be more specific, we are happy to adopt troff/eqn and Postscript questions, and probably many other questions, but you will have to make allowances for our Tex-centric preferences.
Answer: My understanding (which may have been incorrect) was that "friends" in the site name was intended to refer to all the different variants and distributions of TeX and its derivatives (Context, Luatex, XeTex, tetex, etc. etc. etc.) as well as programs that are specifically designed to be used along with them, e.g. BibTeX, compilation managers like Latexmk, or editors like TexShop or Kile. From what I've heard about *roff, it does not fall under that category.
Of course, just because a question happens to involve some subject matter besides *TeX itself doesn't automatically make it inappropriate. I'd agree with Andrew Stacey's advice about trying one as an experiment.
Answer: TeX and *roff aim to accomplish similar goals: typeset output. They both use macro packages and a "plain text" mark up syntax to accomplish their goal. But you wouldn't be able to run a file marked up for *roff through TeX and come out with anything usable.
Answer: Let's put it this way: There isn't going to be anywhere desperately more appropriate, except perhaps the main site.
Answer: If your question is a TeX question, and you want an answer, then the question is on topic. Otherwise you will get downvotes. I cannot see what a "TeX vs. troff/groff" question is, perhaps you should explain.
If your *roff implementation is based on TeX, then the answer is "yes"
Answer: troff/groff is a small little format =) it is possible to take troff process it to get tex, and then typeset that. E.g. similar to docbook XML.
There were already a few publishing / workflow / XML questions. So I think any troff/groff questions will fly by just fine =)
Comment: There's nothing remotely "small" about Roff whatsoever. The language has depth and complexities rarely seen by users who aren't developing a macro package: diversions, environments, runtime substitution of control characters, and page traps are *not* for the faint of heart. Refer to [CSTR #54](http://www.troff.org/54.pdf) to see exactly what this language can do.

Is troff/groff a "friend" of TeX


I can't open my edit in premiere as its saying it was saved in the newest premiere?

Question: I am currently editing my project and it was saved to the newest premiere however this computer version has now been changed back and I have no access to my edit. I cant use my laptop however all the computers at university have the old premiere is there anyway to open it on there and continue with my edit?
Answer: I just tested it, and you can successfully import files from CC to CS6 via exporting to final cut pro xml and then importing that xml back. This should work with any versions, though there may be a few issues if some newer features are not supported, or cannot be exported to final cut pro.
This requires that you would have access to the latest version of premiere on any computer that can access the file.
Answer: Unfortunately, there isn't any way to work collaboratively across different versions of Premiere Pro. See my question here (which never got an answer, because there isn't one, as far as I know).
If you want to save a project file from the current version of Premiere Pro to be compatible with an older one, you're pretty much out of luck as well. You can only use a workaround such as exporting an EDL-file (see my answer here), but this will only export your rough cut, not any effects or other changes you made.
Answer: You proabably have to open the project on a machine with the same version that created the project. Exporting sequences as AAF or OMF can bring more metadata through, but will require re-linking. Here it is
Answer: Ok, in most cases, you can open Premiere Pro Projects going backwards with no problem. There are however "bugs" where things might not import in correct; specifically with transitions, and effects.
Premiere Pro CC Projects- will NOT open in any versions prior to CC. Period. They designed it this way on purpose to keep people out of the "Owning Software" and move them into the "Pay to Use" program.
However, I can from experience, that Premiere Pro CS5.5 will most likely open a CS6 project.
Lastly; having been a PPro user for many years, one project we had from a client required us to "jump through hoops". We had to take their project; which was (just an example) Premiere Pro CS4. CS6 would not open it.
However, CS5 would. So we opened it in CS5. Saved, then moved it into CS6.
If you are having problems opening a project saved in a later version in an older version- like you said you had at school:  You can try:
1.) Try opening it in an even "older" version. Yes I know this seems crazy but sometimes it works. Then save, then move up to the version they have.
2.) You could try to export an EDL and bring that in to premiere; although the results could be not ideal.
3.) Try to use the "Reduce Project" feature where it clips all of you files, with handles, and let it render out and wrap the project into a single Folder. This will create new clips entirely, so make sure you select a good codec to output to avoid loss of quality by the rendering which will take place.
4.) If all else fails. And you absolutely must work on the project on your schools computer:  Render out each video track as a video file, and do the same for audio.  Render each track from 0:00:00:00. Then bring in each one and lay them on tracks accordingly.
The last option would require work, because transitions, opacity, etc, may get lost depending on your project.
Hope this helps.
SideNote:  I would highly recommend to anyone NOT using CC. CS6 Suite offers nearly all of the same options as CC. I am still using CS6 (and my studio owns approximately 50 seats which is a fortune if we were to upgrade).  There is really no reason to use CC over CS6 that I can think of, unless you need one of the very few upgrades it brought with it. We have 50 seats with CS6; and its paid for and done. With CC, we'd be looking at $3500 a month perpetually to use the suite. Obscene.


What is the least divided country, politically?

Question: The United States is thought of as a divided country based on numerous studies, and the trend seems to be getting worse (more divided). Are there any westernized, Democratic, and free societies that are either considered not highly divided and/or trending towards a unified goal as opposed to opposite ways?
Comment: Can you better define what you mean by "divided? Without a specific definition and metric, this seems very opinion-based.
Comment: Do you have a minimum population requirement to rule out single-family microstates?
Comment: I would look for things such as a growing concensus  amount opposite party members about key issues
Answer: This is not an easy question to answer because there's not a total agreement on how to measure political polarization. The typical conundrum is to rank the examples shown below:

Having said that, measures used in the literature correlate to some extent:

But if you want to pick an extreme, it will probably vary by measure used.
It will also vary on the moment in time chosen. There's a paper (Europe only) that ranked the UK as among the least polarized... in 2009 (see figure A3 and/or table A1 in there). Only Flemish Belgium was ranked as less polarized than the UK in that paper.
Besides the particular numeric measure they chose, they also have some histograms, which do make you wonder how relevant the numeric measure is/was:

Pew has put out a 2018 survey of some EU countries based on various political criteria, with ideology being fairly important, but they don't try to synthesize a single polarization measure from that.
A different paper using more historical data (and a few non-EU countries) puts Malta in that top spot, as well as finding little change over time in that country:

In contrast, the study that Roger found ranks Malta 3rd in the least polarized ranking.
An even newer paper published last month, with a rather limited sample, but with trends over time:

We measure trends in affective polarization in nine OECD countries over the past four decades.
  The US experienced the largest increase in polarization over this period. Three countries experienced
  a smaller increase in polarization. Five countries experienced a decrease in polarization.

If they fitted a non-linear curve to the UK, the trend would not be decreasing in recent times... On the other hand Denmark and Iceland (the top two from Roger's answer) are probably not incredibly unique in their relatively low polarization among Northern European countries, all having apparently experienced a decrease in polarization over time.
However, Europe as a whole is perceiving itself as more divided than a decade ago, and this holds for countries like Germany or Sweden too. (Smaller countries like Denmark or Iceland are not included in this latter Ipsos Mori survey either.) Saudi Arabia perceived itself as being least divided now (than 10 years ago) in that survey. If you want to stick to more democratic countries, Japan and India are in that top. Japan also self-perceives that way in absolute terms, but India less so. From the "really Western" countries, Canada tops in both charts (in terms of least division), but do note that they still perceived themselves as more divided than a decade ago: the answer to the "more divided" trend question had 51% of Canadians agreeing, but this is far less than say Germany or the UK (both with 73% agreeing there was more division in their country compared to a decade ago).

So yeah, there can be multiple answers to this depending how one considers the issue (objective vs. subjective measures, exact measure used etc.) There's also the non-trivial problem that countries included in the sample vary quite a bit between such studies. And if you want to consider trends, the time frame is also an issue that can result in different answers.
Comment: @divibisan: I've added more info, including some papers which do offer actual rankings. However, I think it's disingenuous not to start with the fact that the answer to the extreme value question will probably depend on the exact measure used. The paper from Roger's answer puts Malta 3rd for example, but another paper (last figure in my post), puts Malta first.
Comment: I posed a question about this here: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/46376/are-there-standardized-ways-to-quantify-political-division
Answer: This subject is examined in the "How Polarized are Citizens? Measuring Ideology from the Ground-Up" paper from 2018.
Of interest to this specific question is Figure 8: Polarization by Country on page 39, which indicates that Denmark and Iceland have the least amount of polarization of the countries listed.
The paper goes into quite some detail on their methodology for those interested.
Comment: @JonathanReez it takes two people or more for a group to be divided. A village of 300 people can be just as divided (e.g. cattle farmers versus crop farmers; each supporting very different policies) as a country of 300m. There's a relevant Astérix comic (German title: *der große Graben*) which deals with exactly that.
Comment: @Jan true, but an important point is that over a certain size the factors that lead to polarization are more likely to occur
Comment: Malta took 3rd place in this study. (And the US was the most polarized, i.e. last place.)
Comment: I'm not sure how a country of 300k could all but in jest be compared to a country of 350m. Of course a bigger country will be more divided!
Comment: @JonathanReez: Oh, that's because you've probably never lived there. Back when the country was debating whether or not to legalize divorce a few years ago, Malta was every bit as divided as the US is. And don't even try to get the Maltese started on legalizing abortion. (It's the only EU country where it's still illegal.)
Answer: North Korea. Without a doubt.
if you want democracy, you would have to pick a very very small one. Try Nauru or something.
Comment: NK is neither democratic nor free. Nor is it generally considered westernized.
Comment: Nauru may not have a law authorizing political parties, but they seem to exist informally nonetheless "Nauru does not have any formal structure for political parties, and candidates typically stand for office as independents; fifteen of the 19 members of the current Parliament are independents. Four parties that have been active in Nauruan politics are the Nauru Party, the Democratic Party, Nauru First and the Centre Party. However, alliances within the government are often formed on the basis of extended family ties rather than party affiliation."
Comment: The question asks "Are there any westernized, Democratic, and free societies [...]" So I think NK is clearly not in that category.
Comment: @Fizz technically...  Communism is very western (invented in a library in the UK)... and communists call themselves freedom lovers just like everyone else.


How do I remove the left column in finders column view?

Question: When in column view in finder, there may be several columns displayed, one for each folder. Let's say the one I really care about is 5 folders deep, and so its far to the right side of the window. How can I make that folder the "root" of the column view window? Alternatively, how do I remove the left-most column/folder from being displayed?
Comment: Is there something in particular you are trying to accomplish? I don't know of a way to do exactly what you are asking, but maybe there is another way to go about it.
Comment: Sometimes I'm looking in a folder that contains files with long file names, and expanding the column to fit the file names will make the entire window wider. I start to run out of room on my screen, and shrinking the finder window while keeping the column width can be tricky and cumbersome.
Answer: Just drag your folder to the "Favorites" panel and it will be the root folder for that window. You can see the full path at the bottom, my folder (Mateus) is deep in the HD but the parent columns are not showing.
Comment: Thanks! This is the only thing that has worked so far since I'm running **macOS Sierra**. I'll be upgrading to **macOS Mojave** soon, so I'll have to come back and try some other solutions.
Answer: Note that this works in macOS High Sierra 10.13, but as mentioned in a comment does not work in macOS Mojave 10.14, and does not appear to work in macOS Monterey 12.6.  The second solution at the bottom appears to still work.
One of the ways I know how to have the target folder be the left most column while in Column view in Finder is to do the following:

While in Column view, highlight (select) the target folder.
Either press ControlCommandO or right-click and select: Open in New Tab

The root of the new Tab in Column view will be that of the selected folder and you can close the now previous Tab, if you so choose.

The other way is to do as suggested in Mateus Ribeiro answer, add it to the Sidebar, as suggested, can be done by drag and drop.
Not mentioned in his answer, but another way is after highlighting (selecting) the target folder press ControlCommandT to add it to the Sidebar.
Comment: Thanks for all the solutions! I'm running macOS Sierra right now. **Open in New Tab** is not an option after right-clicking, and Control Command O opens the _target folder_ in a new window, but without it being the left-most column.  **File > New Tab** doesn't put the _target folder_ on the left either. Control Command T adds the _target folder_ to the **Sidebar**. After that, I can use the **Sidebar** to open the _target folder_ as the left-most column in a new window.
Comment: On Mojave this isn't quite right. You do get a truncated hierarchy, but the left-most column is the parent of the folder originally highlighted.
Comment: @samh, Hence why I explicitly stated, "Note that this works for me in macOS High Sierra and I have not tested it in other versions of macOS" The OP doesn't mention what version of macOS is being used.
Comment: Hence, why I'm including info on other versions of Mac OS.
Comment: This answer should be deleted since it no longer works.
Comment: @JimGarrison Deleting it would then be of no use for High Sierra users who may be searching for a solution, even in 2021. Just cos something doesn't work on the current macOS version doesn't make it a candidate for deletion.