What happens if I mistype the address when making a payment?

Question: I sent bitcoins to an address, but I think I made a typo when I copied it. Where did these bitcoins go. Can I get them back?
Answer: Bitcoin is very resistant to typos because the addresses contain a built-in check code.  So if you had simply mistyped a few of the letters or numbers in the address, it's unlikely the client would have let you send them.  If, however, you pasted in a different and valid address, the coins are already transferred to it permanently.  In this scenario, Bitcoin works pretty much like cash--there is no way to get it back after giving it away.
Comment: A note for anyone passing by : nowadays (2020) the usual address format (bech32) is even more resistant to typo.
Answer: It is highly unlikely, you made a typo and were still able to send coins.  There is a difference between an invalid address and an incorrect address.
All bitcoin wallets/clients check if addresses are valid.
Bitcoin addresses are the PubKeyHash encoded in Base58 with a version value and a checksum.  The checksum is the leftmost 32 bits of a double hash of the PubKeyHash.  The format of the address is often referred to as Base58Checked in technical documents.
Since the checksum is 32 bits the probability of entering an incorrect address that will still decode to an incorrect but valid PubKeyHash is roughly 1 in 4.3 billion.  So, on average, 4,294,967,295 out of 4,294,967,296 times a typo will produce an address that is incorrect AND invalid.  When decoded the PubKeyHash will not produce the proper checksum, the error will be detected by the client/wallet, and the transaction won't be created.
To actually lose coins to a typo you would need to produce not just any invalid address, but one that is valid but incorrect and the odds of that happening are almost zero.
In that extremely unlikely event (1 in 4.3 billion is 10x less likely than winning the US PowerBall lottery), the transaction will be irreversible and only spendable by the person who has the private key for the incorrect address/pubkey. Given how many private keys are possible, it is almost certain that nobody ever has or ever will have that private keys and the funds will remain forever unspendable.
Comment: So, is it correct to think that if you accidentally issued an invalid recipient, shouldn't it be possible to doublespend it back to yourself and get that verified quicker, since it will be rejected by most miners? Or is it actually impossible to send to an invalid address (I thought that was what people did to write messages to the blockchain?)
Comment: @Murch,  It is impossible to send to an invalid address.  No (compliant) client will even create the transactions.  No (compliant) node will relay the transaction and no (compliant) miner would include it in a block.  If a miner did the block would be seen as invalid by all other nodes.   When people want to send coins to an address where the key is unknown they make a valid address by computing the proper checksum for the "fake" address they want to send the coins to.
Answer: Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. If you were connected to the network when you made the transaction, your coins are lost.
If you weren't connected to the network, you can restore your wallet.dat and start bitcoin with the --rescan option.  This will effectively undo the transaction (that hasn't been committed to the blockchain yet).
Comment: no, highly unlikely. bitcoin given preference to first transaction seen, any conflicting transactions that come later are ignored and not relayed, even if they have higher fees.
Comment: @ChrisMoore - as I understand it, miners `are encouraged` to give priority to first transactions, but this is not mandate by the protocol.
Comment: If the transaction fee of the 'replacement' transaction was high enough, some miners might be tempted to ignore the first transaction and go for the higher reward I guess.  Either way, it's best for recipients of Bitcoin payments to wait for a confirmation if the payment's amount is significant.
Comment: What if I was connected to the network, but quickly (ie. before my transaction makes it into a block) restore my wallet.dat and --rescan, then spend the same coins again, but with a bigger transaction fee?  Is there a chance the new transaction will get mined in preference to the old one?
Comment: @ChrisMoore: What nanotube said, and of course, if this was possible, it would also be extremely easy to double-spend.
Comment: @ripper234 while that is true a miner could be running modified bitcoind and prioritize double spends by fee rather than by first seen the issue is getting that transaction to a miner (and one willing to reduce the security of the network for a small profit).  The overwhelming majority of nodes are not directly connected to a miner and if all the peers you are connected to are running compliant code they will reject the double spend and not forward it.  This means a greedy but willing miner will never even see the transaction to attempt to include the second one in a block.
Answer: Bitcoin address include checksums, so it is less likely that you made a casual typo and entered a valid bitcoin address.  However if the address is valid and also incorrect, then it is likely that the coins are effectively destroyed.  You can check the address on the block chain explorer.  It may help you determine if the address was a valid address (say a friend's, in the case of pasting the wrong address), or one you may have access to somewhere else.
But because transactions are irreversible, there is no way to "pull" them back or cancel the transaction.
Answer: Bitcoin Addresses contain a check-value: extra data added on computed as a function of the rest so that mistakes are unlikely to be acceptable addresses.  1x and 3x addresses use a 32-bit cryptographic hash for their check value and as a result any given well formatted random address has roughly a 1 in 2^32 chance of being accepted.
But when users make mistakes they don't generally produce random strings they tend to make typos where a small number of characters are replaced with alternatives which are visually similar, audibly similar, keyboard-position similar, or case variations. Transposition of adjacent characters is also more likely than random errors. 1x/3x addresses are designed with one improvement to likely errors: the base58 charset excludes a number of visually similar characters.
On average one of these likely errors is also only going to be accepted 1 in 2^32 times, but sometimes a given address is more vulnerable since the detection performance is only an average. E.g. you could have an address where there are one or more different places where a likely mistake could be made.  This isn't a practical concern, since these cases are unlikely, but it's an area that could be improved on.
BIP173 introduced BC1x style addresses (also called bech32).  BC1 addresses use a smaller character set that doesn't have mixed case which completely eliminates one major cause of transcription errors. Like base-58 the bech32 character set also excludes some visually confusing characters (in addition to all the mixed case cases).
BC1 addresses also have a check value, but it is 30 bits instead of 32-bits. The 30-bit check in BC1 addresses, although shorter, is radically stronger than the old approach because it is constructed out of an error correcting code instead of a cryptographic hash.
The construction for BC1 addresses guarantees that up to 4 character errors or 4 transpositions in an address are always detected. 5 errors are also always detected if they're all made among the most visually similar remaining characters. For more errors than are guaranteed the false acceptance rate approaches 1 in 2^30 as the number of errors goes up.
The error correction code based design of bech32 also means that applications can hint to users what characters they got wrong without a computationally expensive brute force search.
When we designed BIP173 we felt that 30-bits of protection against random errors was probably overkill, but we didn't want to have error detection performance that was much worse than the old standard in any major respect.
If you model the user as making random mistakes and entering, say, 2.5% of the characters wrong on average (so one mistake expected per entered address) then bech32 gives that user protection better on average than a 39 bit random hash (so 1 in 2^39 wrong addresses they enter will be falsely accepted). Being more careful pays off too: if the user's error rate is reduced to 0.1% the rate of accepted bad addresses drops to 1 in 2^60).
This graph shows the effective protection level as a function of the user's error rate for Bech32, a 32-bit hash (like 1x addresses), and alternative error correcting code which we could have ended up with if we hadn't taken so much care in designing bech32:

BC1 address also avoid errors in another way: People sometimes lose funds because a number of reckless/scammy altcoins have copied Bitcoin address format, so you can accidentally send bitcoins to an altcoin address. For the moment this doesn't apply to BC1 address, and the prefix beginning with 'BC' hopefully will reduce the odds of it in the future. (Though sadly, it's become trendy for more scammy cryptocurrencies to call themselves 'bitcoin' now, so perhaps not.)
Improved error detection is just one of many reasons users should prefer BC1 addresses these days.
Comment: This answer is deeply underrated (TBF it was written eight years after the original question). I have joined this community only to be able to upvote it. :-)
Answer: A merchant could offer their own local bitcoin processor to connect a client to, if the transaction is innaccurate, they could "undo" it and simply not transmit the transaction to the Bitcoin Network.
Answer: If a service like BitUndo can get enough miners supporting it, it could have a chance (probably not a large one, but some chance) of undoing transactions if you submit your undo request within minutes of the original transaction. This works because if they are able to successfully mine the next block, they can choose to exclude the original transaction and include their refund transaction instead.
Comment: Urgh. Bitcoin is what it is for a reason, don't support services like this. The fact that they advertise some random gambling site right in the first bit of text is a huge red flag too.


Minimum sensible button size on iPhone

Question: I'm designing an iPhone app that features a rather large set of onscreen rounded rect buttons. Given finger-based touchscreen UI, what do you think would be the smallest sensible button size? I need to fit as many of them as I can in the viewport without compromising the usability too much. Maybe there's an Apple-recommended minimum size? Right now it's 33x33, and it looked OK on a simulator, but I was playing with the app on a real phone last night, and it was awkward - the buttons felt too small.
Comment: This may sound snarky, but have you considered a different UI? There are very few situations where you need to have a screen full of buttons all available all the time.
Comment: This may found snarky, but yes I have :) This button sheet (not necessarily buttons, on other platforms it's clickable images) is the defining feature of the app. There are all kinds of collapsing/highlighting/filtering options for navigation, but the default view is, yes, kinda large - 10 columns of average length 63. On PC/Web it's three pages worth of vertical scrolling. On WinMobile, it's 9 pages. On iPhone - to be determined...
Comment: This question appears to be off-topic because it belongs to the UX Stackexchange site @ http://ux.stackexchange.com/
Answer: Apple says that the avg finger tap is 44x44 (from WWDC).  All table rows are recommended to be at least that height.  It is common for icons to appear 32x32, but have padding to make the touchable area 44x44.  Of course, people can tap a 1x1 if they are very careful, but why make people try harder than they need to in order to use your app?
Comment: And of course Apple violates this with the infuriating App Store application free/install button...
Comment: Don't think pixels when talking about UI, think points. The answer is still 44x44 points no matter retina or not.
Comment: When you are talking about the finger tap being '44x44' this is in points correct?
Comment: At the time of this posting, it was the non-retina display and in reference to pixels on the device. Now, with the retina, it would be doubled to 88 pixels.
Comment: Thanks.

The scrolling will be a kill. On Windows Mobile, I was getting away with 24x24 buttons, 'cause of the whole stilus thing... :) Then again, who knows how many customers did I lose with that.
Comment: Is the "width: 44pt" and "height: 44pt" same as this? I guess pixels isn't correct?
Answer: Recent scientific research has found that:

[A] target size of 9.2 mm for discrete
  tasks [i.e., single-target pointing tasks] and targets of 9.6 mm for serial
  tasks should be sufficiently large for
  one-handed thumb use on
  touchscreen-based handhelds without
  degrading  performance and preference.

Cited from Target Size Study for One-Handed Thumb Use on Small Touchscreen Devices (Parhi, Karlson, & Bederson 2006). Other sources agree on this "close-to-0.4-inch-rule" (e.g. Designing Gestural Interfaces (Saffer 2008, p. 42)).
Given the iPhone's pixel density of 163 PPI (6.417px/mm), you should preferably aim no lower than 59px diagonal for any target.
(Please note that this is verified for one-handed thumb use only.)
Comment: Btw, if you consider 9.6mm to be the ideal (instead of 9.2), then the minimum size comes out to be 61.6 px diagonal, which in turn corresponds to a 44-px square - exactly what Apple recommends! Once again (came here on an unrelated search after 2 years!) nice research.
Comment: +1 for mentioning actual dimension and not pixels ^^ (though I guess Iphones so far use identical screens perhaps?)
Comment: @Oskar Duveborn The pixel density is the important part. The rest is just arithmetics :)
Comment: Fantastic. This is a great point of reference for developing touchscreen UI in general. Thanks a lot! +1'ed
Comment: I just thought that I'd add, for a square button, 59px diagonal is just under 42 x 42 sides. This is compared to Apples recommend 44.
Answer: Apple is not consistent in this, and there are no hard rules.
They recommend you provide Fingertip-Size Targets in the UI Guidelines, and then go on to say that the calculator buttons are 44x44.
Also in that document they say that images for toolbar and navigation icons should be 20x20, and for tab bar icons should be 30x30.
I think you have to simply test your application and make sure that it's easy to press the buttons - even when you have fairly large hands...
-t
Comment: "Also in that document they say that images for toolbar and navigation icons should be 20x20, and for tab bar icons should be 30x30." -The icons, yes, but the hitbox extends around the icon.
Answer: I could have sworn they said the minimum was 37 pixels, but I'm finding 44 today. Either way, 33 seems small.
(Note that images can be smaller because they're often part of a larger rectangular area.)
(You might get away with fewer pixels on other devices, if the pixel size is larger.)
Comment: I could've sworn for the life of me it was 42, since it's the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Answer: In practice while creating a custom web-based device UI on early touch screens, we found it important to design for what one of our beta testers referred to as "my fat fingers." And he was right: it is easy to design elegant, fine controls that a significant number of users will find error prone or unusable. In that project, the exact size was application dependent, but that tester found 40 x 40 to be usable (double that for hi-def/Retina displays), anything less increased the number of misses and errors (and frustration); and as a bonus, people with slender fingers found it felt like they could move faster and didn't have to be as precise, which made the whole thing feel smoother, less subjective friction, more breathing room. The trick is to make controls of that size not seem clunky or overbearing; one solution is mentioned above, making the visual part of the control smaller than its actual dimensions, though that isn't a universal solution.
Answer: According to HIG it should be at least 44pt x 44pt:

Provide ample touch targets for interactive elements. Try to maintain a minimum tappable area of 44pt x 44pt for all controls.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/visual-design/adaptivity-and-layout/

Minimum sensible button size on iPhone


How is product pricing affected by heatmapping?

Question: I feel like this is a chicken or the egg scenario. Are users who are looking for pricing drawn to the price on heatmap testing because that is the information they are seeking, or are there areas on a product page that users look to more often (for whatever reason) and the pricing is placed there?
Comment: That's the trouble with quantitive research / statistics - they only tell you **what** has happened. They don't give you any reasoning as to **why**.
Comment: @plainclothes Well, it tells you that **those** users discovered the price. It doesn't show the things other users **didn't** find. But yes, I don't mean to sound like it's not a useful tool. It's just that each tool / process has it's drawbacks and things that it doesn't offer. There's no single research method that answers all the questions. Sadly.
Comment: To get to **why**, carry out at least one **usability test** with a real user. It doesn't need to be sophisticated. See this video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thNZIZmMDQo
Comment: @JonW that's not "trouble" at all. It tells you that users are finding the price -- that's exactly what heat-maps are intended to tell you. If you want to know *why* users care about the price ... well, you shouldn't wonder
Answer: Heatmapping doesn't "affect" anything
Pricing is not affected by heatmapping in any way. The user doesn't see it
Heatmapping is affected by the presence of pricing. On most product / ecomm sites, the price is a primary concern for the users and they'll focus on it when they find it.
Remove the prices
To see how users naturally scan, remove the price while keeping the products and other graphics and controls where they are. You'll end up with a cluster of activity where users want the price to be.
If I were running the test, I'd bet beers that users expect the price to be below the product image, after the name and description
Answer: I would say that it doesn't matter actually.
If you want to determine the best position for your product pricing using heatmapping testing then you can run multiple tests on different screen variations. You'll get a result for which variation works best so that's what you wanted, right?

But the larger question is one of ethnography. You should ask yourself, when running these user tests, how does the format of my task/question influence how the subject will carry out the task? Furthermore, does this corrupt my data?
If you start a test and tell the users they have to go and find the price of product A, they will go and do it. But this doesn't account for the kind of users that will land naturally into the page, the people that are just "browsing".
If you wanted to find out how this natural 'browser' type behaves on your site then run a test with minimal information and don't even give them a task. Just tell them to explore the site. I think that way you'll get the most unexpected and valuable findings.


Почему "Венера", а не 'Венус"?

Question: In Latin, Венера is Venus. A similar word "corpus" is translated as "корпус", not as "корпора" (or "корпор" if we take its gender into account). Why is then Venus not Венус?
Comment: it takes a research into the history of adopting the name into Russian through identification of the language it was borrowed from
Answer: Imparisyllabic Latin words (meaning words having an extra syllable in genitive compared to nominative) are usually cited in their genitive form, as it's usually a more accurate representation of the word's etymology.
Church Slavonic authors chose to use Latin genitive stems for all Church Slavonic forms, including the nominative.
That's why we have Venus (gen. Veneris) > Венера, Cicero (gen. Ciceronis) > Цицерон, cliens (gen. clientis) > клиент etc.
Comment: @ruslan: it's a speculation, but it seems like *корпус* might have been first borrowed as a medical term. In medical terminology, Latin nominatives complete with the inflectional suffix are used to name the organ, and the genitives to name its inflammatory process: _appendix / appendicitis, duodenum / duodenitis_ etc.
Comment: @баянкупика: those very words I cited might be borrowed in later times, however Church Slavonic renditions of Cato and Nero (*катонъ* and *неронъ*) are attested in Church Slavonic texts. My point is that there is a tradition of using genitive stem for imparisyllabic Latin words, this tradition goes back to Church Slavonic, and it had gained enough traction to be used for most such words borrowed from Latin, at least for personal names.
Comment: Why then didn't this happen to "corpus"?
Comment: not to dispute the reply, but the dictionary of Church Slavonic by Diachenko in particular doesn't list these words (and naturally not Cicero), which could be an indication that they weren't part of its vocabulary... provided the dictionary is an exhaustive and accurate collection of the lexis, what then was their way of introduction into the language, or was it not through Church Slavonic?
Comment: @ruslan: because the person who first introduced this word into Russian (or Church Slavonic) made a decision to borrow it this way.
Comment: @Quassnoi OK....
Comment: interesting that it goes as "clienT" in English too
Comment: @Arioch: Vulgar Latin and its descendants, including French, mostly accepted the accusative as the basic form as they had lost the original Latin declension.
Answer: In modern Italian she is Venere, in Latin one of the forms were Venĕris according to Italian Wikipedia.
In Serbian and Bulgarian she is Венера. Looks like it's nothing very special about Russian. You should search for this fork earlier than Russian loan.

Почему "Венера", а не 'Венус"?


Do you need to know how to attack to defend better?

Question: Would I be able to better defend my electronic assets if I knew how to attack them?
Answer: In general, yes, you should know how the system works in order to subvert it, then you know a little better how to protect your systems and network.
If you approach your network with the mindset of "if I wanted to do XYZ, how would I do it?" you'll then be able to say, "If someone did ABC, how do I stop them?" and take it from there.
These are kind of satellite subjects to understanding how the system works in the first place.
Answer: Would you better defend yourself, if you learned how to fight?
Comment: Only if you actually put the defense into practice, though. An unpracticed defense is just as useless as an untrained attack.
Comment: Nice comparison, but I assume you are telling me it's true when it comes to the hackers vs sysadmins wars
Comment: Indeed.  Learning how to attack something intrinsically teaches you how to defend against that attack.
Answer: I think that wihout actively trying to "break things", it is difficult to develop the right mindset - to be able to think as a hacker.
An interesting recently released book where a number of high profile security experts discuss "the security mindset" is Beautiful Security
Answer: Knowledge of your environment is the first step to protecting it: Knowing the systems, learning about the languages and OS version used, knowing how the servers interact, and protective controls already in place, understanding what kind of organization you're trying to protect.
Once you have that knowledge, attack techniques are key because they give you the ability to audit these systems both in production and before they get there, and help expose the assumptions about how your systems are run.  Assumption: Our firewall is working fine.  Reality: nmap just returned a list of systems that have vulnerable ports exposed to the internet, lets take a closer look at our firewall rules.
But there is a danger, once you've seen all the attacks that come out of BH/defcon every year, you can become over focused on the cool new attacks and totally miss other critical basics.  eg. You run around and disabled BIOS based virtualization because you read all about Blue Pill rootkits, but the systems aren't patched or screened by a firewall and they still get owned by a drive by download.
I find that the my most important question is not "what could an attacker do against my system?" but instead "What are most attackers doing right now against people running systems like mine?"
Answer: Yes. I think so.
Often it is not until you actively attempt to work around a solution, especially when it comes to security, that you will begin to discover it's weaknesses beyond a pen-a-paper mindset.
If you're after a more in-depth answer then you may need to provide some subject specifics.
Answer: You will know how to defend them better when you gain a deep understanding on how they work, not necessarily how to attack them.
For example, if you spend a lot of time researching and studying the Apache code base, and all the options it provides you will be able to defend and harden it well. With this knowledge, you will also be able to attack it too (maybe you will even find bugs in there).
So, deep knowledge leads to a better defense (and attacking knowledge), not the other way around.
**don't fall prey to the thinking that just because you can run a few shell scripts or run Metasploit that you know how the system works...*
Answer: Security and countersecurity are just the same medal...just not the same side.
If you want to do passive security, as in protect yourself from what you know and if a problem comes, you fix it, you don't need the hacker mindset.
If you want to do active security, as in protection AND prevention, you want to be 2 steps ahead of hackers...in which case the dual mindset is necessary.  However..in the industry, it isn't always easy to justify the time dedicated to security.  It's up to the bosses to see if they want to invest or not in this prevention, but they have to understand the added value to properly analyze if it's worth it or not.
As for the specifics of your question, yes you will see your assets with another point of view, discovering consequences of previous decisions and configurations and their impact.
Answer: Most system probing tools are, essentially, attacks, probing for open ports and known vulnerabilities. So, if you know how to run the tool, and interpret the results, you know just about enough to secure your systems.
Almost.
The trouble with the "Almost" is that it can consume all of your time, and several other professionals, trying to bridge the gap between vulnerabilities your tools know about and what MIGHT be vulnerable in the future.
Instead of spending so much time trying to learn how to attack your own systems, the best approach is to use current best practices - Arrange your network for defense-in-depth, update strong passwords often, set up two factor authentication, use least privileges, shut down unneeded services, and patch often.
Answer: Inasmuch that to be able to be good at exploiting a system, you must first understand it, yes.
But script kiddies have long demonstrated that you don't need to know jack about a system in order to exploit it. You just need to know methods to exploit it. Typically, methods developed by someone else who does know.
Likewise, it is not necessary to know how to attack a system to know how to defend it. For example, I can tell you that to build a good firewall, you should block everything, then allow only certain ports to connect (the ones you want the public to access), as opposed to blocking "bad" ports. I can also tell you that when programming a PHP application, sanitizing all data (not just user data, but all data that comes from outside your program!) prevents security holes and cross-site scripting issues.
Sure, you can sit down and dream up new attacks, but it's the attacks the malicious attackers use that are a threat to your system, not the attacks you conceive of. At the same time, standing outside the perimeter for a moment and just asking "how can I get inside?" would probably have saved the guys in the movie "Aliens" a whole lotta grief. :)
Answer: I think it's important to know how anything you use works and know its weak points.  It boggles my mind how many "security auditors" are out there who have never configured a server in their life, yet they are the ones coming into big companies and performing audits and telling people whats right and wrong, yet they have no experience hands on with anything.
Answer: Yes, in a way.  The most important thing is to at least be aware of the methods that hackers use to penetrate systems.  That opens your eyes to a lot of things that you might not have otherwise considered as potential threats.  (Of course, if you're experienced with the hackers' tools and methods, you'll be even better at defense, but that takes a lot of time and isolated resources.)
Answer: Knowing how your car works, allows you to better diagnose your problem and either fix it yourself or take it to the shop.  Once you take it to the shop you have a pretty good idea if the mechanic is lying to you or telling you something that sounds reasonable.
Looking around your home at all the doors and windows and "thinking like a thief" allows you to better defend your home from a break in by taking appropriate measures such as security lights, trimming large bushes and shrubs, possibly even setting up security cameras.
On that same line of thought, knowing how your systems work will allow you to "think like a hacker" and try to think of the most common vulnerabilities.
Knowledge is power.


Kohelet citation - better peace and poor then rich and without peace

Question: I remember that there is some citation in Kohelet meaning "better peace and poor then rich and without peace", but cannot recall the exact source... Does someone remember?
Answer: Perhaps you refer to Koheles 5:11:

מְתוּקָה שְׁנַת הָעֹבֵד, אִם-מְעַט וְאִם-הַרְבֵּה יֹאכֵל; וְהַשָּׂבָע, לֶעָשִׁיר--אֵינֶנּוּ מַנִּיחַ לוֹ, לִישׁוֹן.

Translated (Mechon-Mamre.org):

Sweet is the sleep of a labouring man, whether he eat little or much; but the satiety of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

In fact, an evaluation of the condition of the rich and the poor is a recurring theme in Koheles.
Answer: I'm guessing you mean chapter 4 vs 6 better one handful peacefully than two handfuls of work and bad spirit.
Comment: A more accurate translation (according to _Rashi_ at least) and one which more directly meets the asker's need is "two handfuls with work" (rather than "two handfuls of work"). The handfuls referred to are not of work and bad spirit but of wealth that was earned through work and bad spirit.
Comment: I realized from the question he was reading the passuk without rashi's pshat. Thats why i didnt mention it.
Answer: I suspect that the answer already given (Kohelet 4:6) is the correct one; it might also be worth noting some proverbs that express the same sentiment:
Mishlei 15:16-17:
15:16 Better a little with the fear of the Lord, than a great treasury and turmoil with it. 17 Better a repast of herbs where there is love, than a fattened ox where there is hatred.
Mishlei 17:1:
17:1 Better a piece of dry bread and tranquility with it, than a house full of sacrifices of strife.


Can I paint my entire Class C RV using fluorescent green and how long will the paint job last

Question: I cannot afford to paint my 30 year old RV (in which I rebuilt the engine and plan on going on a Road Trip around the world!) professionaly ... Can I paint my entire Class C RV using Rustoleum fluorescent green if no rust, what will be the result and how long will the paint job last ?? What else do I need to do ? Thanks in advance for any info or opinions !!
Answer: You absolutely can!  I've painted several of my race cars this way, on a limited budget.  The looked wonderful, and I usually wrecked them before the paint was an issue.
If you prep very well (all automotive paintjobs are 90% prep work, and 10% spraying) you can get outstanding results.  You do need to have some painting experience, even with a rattlecan. It will not last as long as automotive paint, but it will look nice for years and last years after that.
Two possible caveats:

Flourecent green has a terrible ability to cover.  You either need to prime first in white or grey, or spray on an already light existing color.  Note that any variation in color (rust, bondo patch, something unpainted or sanded) will show through clear as day.  The base [primer] coat needs to be uniform.  Existing paint needs to be "roughed up" and thouroughly cleaned with solvents and tack rags before spraying.  Outdoors, you need perfect cool, windless weather, and a lack of insects is really helpful.  Conditions that are rarely, if ever, available.
If you ever desire a professional automotive paint job, every last trace of "Rustoleum" will have to be stripped.  Rustoleum formulations have oils or magic chemicals which resist corrosion, but they also make it difficult for other paints to stick to it.  It will cost extra and the bodyman will curse you (ask me how I know).  However, if a "real" paint job or budget is never in the forseable cards, spray away.

You're going to need a bunch of rattlecans.  Again, flourecent green has poor coverage, will require multiple coats, and it sounds like you have a lot of area to cover.
Do some thinking, you might find that an "Earl Scheib" or "Macco" type low-budget job won't be much more than the cost of 20 cans of primer and 30 cans of green.
Comment: Also consider fluorescent green will not stand up to UV light outdoors for very long. It will degrade faster than other colors.
Comment: Also, consider getting a inexpensive HVLP sprayer and paint in "bulk" (gallons or quarts). It could well be less expensive.
Comment: Exactly the type of goofy-yet-informative answer I expected for such a goofy-yet-legitimate question.
Comment: How do you know? :D
Comment: Thats Earl Shibe...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Scheib
Comment: @Moab  Evidently It's actually Earl *Scheib*.   Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.
Answer: Can you do it? Yes.
Will you ever lose your vehicle in a car park? No. Not in a million years.
Is it a good idea? Well, you're going to do the prep yourself anyway. Strip and prep to a rolling chassis, and get a quote from a local paint shop for a blow-over in the original color (or close to it). It may be surprisingly close in price to the cost of the rustoleum or painting equipment you'd need to do it yourself.
Answer: 90% of a good paint job is in the body work. Unless the body work is done flawlessly you will see every ding. Just about anyone a can paint a car it's the body work that counts. I would go with a white color paint, it hides the more. The paint should last a few years. You maybe be better off doing the body work yourself (flawlessly) and then getting a paint job with Maaco for the same price of all those paint cans.


Handling log and configuration files when load balancing apache

Question: I asked this question on Stack Overflow, then I released that serverfault would be more appropriate, I apologize if anyone stumbles upon these two issues.
So, I am currently rebuilding my web platform from a single-machine to a cluster of machines, and I will be using Apache load balancing to do this., but I have two questions that I need a good answer to before proceeding. I have Googled and searched here in SF, but didn't find anything good.
My setup will be one Debian machine running the Apache load balancing server (i.e. Apache with mod_proxy) and then any number of "slave" machines, that are balancing members. All of these are VPS inside a VMWare machine, so setting up new slaves as needed will be trivial.
Log Files
The first question is that of log files. In order to troubleshoot my platform, I sometimes need to analyze log files, both access logs and error logs, from Apache. When the load is evenly distributed (i.e. I don't know if I'll even use sticky balancing, any host could probably handle any request at any time), so would the log files for each slave Apache instance. Is there a way to consolidate these live, meaning that my live log analyzer could see the log files from all hosts? I certainly understand that doing so while the files being on several hosts would be difficult, so is there a way to make sure that all log files are kept on one server?
I'm thinking about two things myself, but I would greatly appreciate your input.
syslogd
The first is syslogd, where in it would be possible for several hosts to write to one logging host. The problem with this is that in my current setup, each virtual host in apache, has its own log file. That could probably be fixed in some manner though. My main usage for this is for troubleshooting, not keeping separate logs for each host (albeit if both goals could be met, that would certainly be a bonus).
NFS
My next thought was about NFS, i.e. having a NFS share on the LAN where each slave can write to the same log file. I'm going to go ahead and assume that this will be difficult since slave 1 would open the log file and then slave 2 wouldn't be able to write to it.
As I said, your input is greatly appreciated since I feel I'm stuck in how to solve this.
Configuration files
This is another thing altogether. Each slave will respond to each request as if acting as one single server. That is the entire idea. But what about making changes to the apache configuration files, adding virtual hosts, setting up other parameters? What if I have ten slaves, or fifty? Is there a way to make sure that all these slaves are always in sync? I am already using a NFS export to make sure they all have the same files, but should I use the same approach with the configuration files? Or should I have these as some form of repository and then use rsync to copy them out to the slaves? One problem is that I have built an interface in my web platform that edits these configuration files (namely the file with the virtual hosts), and since that action would take place on one of the slaves, the most current copy of this file could potentially be on one slave.
I realize that this was a long and wieldy post, and I apologize. I just wanted to make sure that all the parameters of my problem were expressed.
I hope someone out there can help me, as you have before! Thank you in advance!
Answer:
Take a look at logresolvemerge.
You can combine rsync with incrond.


Tool for straightening a bent metal bar of the gate?

Question: Someone's car hit our metal bar gate, so one of the rods is bent as shown in the photo. What kind of a tool can I use to bend this back, so it's straight? Thank you!
Comment: Is that bar bent perpendicular to the gate (i.e. inwards) or towards the hinge? It's hard to tell from that photo.
Answer: Some woodworking clamps are reversable and can act as spreaders, like this model.  I have another style of the "quick grip" clamps that have a mechanical advantage on the grip mechanism and they are reversible.  They can't apply a ton of force, but for that square tubing, you might not need as much as you think as long as the spreader can get a good grip.
The other thing that comes to mind is a common scissor style jack included with cars for emergency tire changes.  You would need a padding material to not scratch the bars, but they can literally apply a ton of force to spread apart the bars.
Answer: Pounding on iron of that sort tends to do nothing but make you sweaty. It'll bounce a lot without bending, and chances are there's play in the panel as a whole. Heating it is not necessary and will cause surface damage.
I'd pull some ratcheting straps in a full loop around the bulge and all the way to the larger tubing at the other side of the panel (out of frame to the right). Place the ratchet mechanism on the side of the panel away from the bend so that it pulls the bend back into alignment.
Start cranking until you see things moving, and watch what happens to avoid unexpected bending. If needed, have someone push sideways to keep the bent bar in alignment or otherwise direct force.
You'll have to overbend slightly, so some trial and error is in order. Take it slow and keep an eye on all parts of the panel. If the bar on the opposite end starts to bend, back it up with lumber inside the strap.
Answer: Mine was even further bent and I got it straight using just a wooden block.  I slipped it behind the elbow bend,and pulled with hands on either end of the block towards the center position.  With some force it straightened (mostly) out. I also took out a hammer to hammer the block, but it wasn't needed.  It's not 100% perfectly straight but I only notice it because I know which one it was.
Answer: I would probably start by trying to bend it back by pounding on it with a hammer, although you might want to clamp a piece of wood to it then hammer on the wood so that you don't mar the finish on the bar too much.
Another option would be to attach a come-a-long to the bar, the other end to something solid (a tree if you have one close by?  tow hooks on a car perhaps if not?) and try to pull it back into shape that way.  I would be a bit worried about bending the gate or breaking the hinges with that method though (depending on how strong those metal bars are)
Comment: @JCrosby - I had thought about heating it up with a torch too, but looks like it might be painted, so not sure how good of an idea that would be
Comment: To add to your comment, I would clam a piece of wood to it first and hit it with a soft instrument (brass or just a wood block between the hammer and rod). But I would also heat it up a bit to make it more malleable and hopefully prevent beating the heck out of it.
Comment: true...but paint is relatively cheap compared to the unsightly nature of the rod.
Comment: Park a car/truck in the right spot and get a manly "come along" , maybe rent a serious one . Hammers are for taking things apart.
Answer: Have you tried simply pulling/pushing on it by hand?  The bars look like 1/2" (10mm) square.  With a span of 36" or so, you may be able to simply take hold at the peak of the bend and push or pull it back into place. If that doesn't work, the jack, comealong, ratchet straps, etc. should do the job.


How many catnip fields are worth the catnips they require?

Question: I currently have 38 fields and the 39th asks for 750 catnips. Are they still worth the food I should spend for them? To what extent? (that is, how many catnip fields can I have before the price makes them worthless) I currently have 12 kittens
Answer: Catnip fields give infinite catnip. Therefor more fields is better. At least, that is my philosophy. I have 47 fields right now, and the next costs 2057. During spring I have no farmers and +1.5 catnip. During summer and autumn I need 1 or 2 farmers, depending on the amount of catnip I have to survive winter. During winter, I have most of the time negative catnip production, but I have a buffer (that was a tip from a previous question) so that does not matter very much. My buffer is now 3500, after a warm summer.
It's not mathematical my answer, but I try to upgrade my field when my buffer is more than twice as much as the price of the new field. In that way I still can survive winter and have as least as kittens possible on the farm.
Comment: After playing for a while longer, considering that it'd be very bad if my kittens die, I decided to upgrade field (to 56), pasture (to 14) and aqueduct (to 8), now I have 7 base production, 3 kittens are enough to feed my army of 14 kittens. Since food is the most important resource, I guess it's never a waste to buy more field, it's just a matter of balancing it with pastures and aqueducts
Comment: While I agree that it's better to just get as many as possible instead of letting catnips pile up, I was wondering if at some point it's better to convert them to wood instead of buying another field
Comment: I'm taking this as an answer because while this does not answer the question mathematically, after playing further I find that I agree with the philosophy behind the answer
Comment: It does answer it mathematically though. The catnip you get is infinite, so it's guaranteed to be more efficient in the long term than any fixed benefit you might get from the wood, since you'd get infinite wood with that infinite food. Eventually.
Answer: If you want to calculate if a new Catnip field is worth the investment use:
Price/ProductionRate = Seconds Till Profit
Example, if a new field costs 10K
10000/0.63 = 15873 seconds
Convert seconds to hours
15873/3600 = 4.4 Hours
A field that costs 10K will start paying you back in about 4.4 hours
Of course the modifiers and seasons change this payback rate, generally the payoff time will be much better, this simple math can help provide a baseline.
Comment: The fields only become 'Worthless' if you quit the game before the payoff happens.
Comment: but it's always a question of opportunity cost... if you had extra catnip, you could also convert it to wood and use that wood for something else.
Comment: Without modifiers or metaphysics, the first field takes 16s to pay itself back, and the n-th one costs (1.12)^n that, so every tenth is 3 times more expensive and every 30th is 30 times more expensive. Roughly field #12 takes a minute to reimburse itself, field #42 takes half an hour, field #80 about a day, and field #110 about a month. At which point you probably have reached either significant modifiers or storage problems.
Answer: I keep the 10% rule in mind: only buy another field if it'll cost you 10% or less of your current harvest. No idea if it is actually mathematically sound, but so far, it has worked out pretty ok for me
Answer: I mean, you should always buy more fields. Once you have hit the storage limit, THEN start converting to wood. More fields = more kittens you can support, AND more wood you can convert, in the long run.
I would advise buying as many fields as you have patience for before buying a single hut.
(source: have started from scratch in a new browser multiple times, have a good grasp of early game)


What are some methods to measure the ROI for DevOps?

Question: DevOps is complex, and involves many non-deterministic aspects like culture and process.
What are some ways to measure DevOps initiatives for success?
How do you prove to a business that the investment they have made is returning (or saving) real dollars?
Comment: Hey Dave, I wonder what "you" mean by "measurement", as per one of the tags you used in your question. IMO (not more then that), only using the (existing) "metrics" tag would be more appropriate. No? If you don't agree (which is ok ...), would you mind (briefy) explaining what you think the difference between those 2 tags is (or should be)?
Comment: @Pierre.Vriens I suppose measurement is the act of gathering data, whereas a metric is something you measure.  I removed the "measurement" tag because it's probably redundant.
Answer: Great question! Most of us know investing in DevOps practices is a highly worthwhile pursuit for myriad reasons; we don't often justify DevOps on the impact to the bottom line alone, though.
Note: this is something of an opinionated question, and my answer is likewise, opinionated.
Tensibai wisely suggested we find the right metrics, and he used time-to-market as an example. This is a great big-picture approach.
As an alternative approach, my experience with bean-counters is that they don't need to--or necessarily want to--know the big-picture, they just want evidence of fiscal responsibility. They want to see a trend in the right direction.
Here are just a few fiscal wins:

calculate the server costs saved by leveraging auto-scaling in the cloud
for income-generating sites, extrapolate the cost-per-minute of downtime, then show improvements in MTTI and MTTR
again, for income-generating sites, estimate the cost-per-minute saved by leveraging highly-available architecture based on past incidents
if you've improved on your build and deploy pipeline, show that you've reduced regressions and errors in production caused by already-tracked faults
if you've made improvements to developer test environments, or even the tools and configuration on developer laptops, look at commit histories to see if new engineers are making their first contributions sooner after joining
perform a full cost comparison between cloud and on-prem, much like Gitlab did recently, to justify your infrastructure spending (a.k.a. savings!)

Showing that you're money-conscious and you have a few clear wins is often sufficient. I've certainly missed some obvious examples; feel free to add comments below.
Comment: I'm 1000% behind this. I think we're on the cusp of a big shift in monitoring: I no longer care about how much CPU or RAM is in use on any given instance, I care about how much I'm paying for an auto-scaling group of instances over time. I don't care how many requests an instance can handle, I care about how much it costs to service a request. This shift in thinking can really help drive better metrics for DevOps, including ROI.
Answer: The key metric for a DevOps pipeline is Cycle Time (also called Lead Time).  This is the time it takes for a change (or a change request, tracking all the way to the inception of the idea).  The best illustration of this concept I know of is from the book "The Goal", which talks about it in a manufacturing context.
Deployment Frequency is useful as well.  We want deployments to be frequent in a DevOps pipeline.  There is no magical "1 day is good, 2 days is bad" measurement; this will need a historical context on your project to be meaningful.
Deployment Size: Measured in however your developers measure work - user stories, story points, quatloos, whatever.  Again, you want to see trends over time, not absolute value.
Between frequency and size there is a story to tell.  Are our releases becoming more infrequent and larger?  why?  Are they becoming smaller and more frequent?  Again, why?
Explaining whether the frequency/size trend is good, we will also need Percentage of Failed Deploys.  Uncovering the 'why' in those three metrics will tell you a lot about the health of the project.
My personal favorite, although it is a vanity metric, is Time for a Trivial Deploy.  If you found the smallest possible thing worth redeploying the entire site over... perhaps a typo in the CEO's name... how quickly could you go from the panic phone call to a deployed site?  I say 'vanity' because it really isn't that predictive beyond what the other metrics above discuss, but makes me feel good when I like the value.
If we get into monitoring, there are a bunch of different things we can track...  from all-encompassing things like 'Uptime', to really low level things like the time spent regenerating custom HTML on a request-response cycle...  but those aren't specific to instituting a DevOps culture.
These don't directly tie to dollars... doing so will require more knowledge about your org than I can offer in a forum like this;  but they are the key to BEGIN to answer that question.  Once you know you are able to regularly release work into production as a non-event, you can begin to see how much effort you were wasting before.  As the book "The Goal" teaches (about manufacturing pipelines - it's relevant), optimizing locally can look like you're saving money, but ultimately, it just creates value that is tied up in inventory (undeployed features).
Beyond this advice, you should take a look at the State Of DevOps Report for the past few years.  This is full of measurements about real world projects that you could emulate.
Answer: Captain obvious : by reducing time to market and defects on releases.
To extend on this one liner, the usual pitfall is being an organization change without any reference.
Engaging a culture or organization change implies some expense to train and introduce people to this new method, this have a cost in training but also imply a loss in productivity as people in a train session won't produce anything. This is the investment part of the cultural change.
To measure a ROI you have to first find some relevant metrics which should be improved (understand costly, either expensive or source of loss of profit). This could be a shorter time to market, less patch after each release, a better customer engagement within your product. Relevant metrics will be highly dependent of your product(s).
Measuring a ROI (how fast you have covered the training expense) implies that you can factually present an evolution on those metrics, so before engaging any change you must have defined those metrics and measured them in an objective way.
Once you have a real evolution to show you can tell if you did improve something in a way which has covered the training expense and become more profitable than it was before.
The usual pitfall is to engage the change before having defined any metrics and thus evaluating the ROI on a feeling and not on factual datas.
Productivity can be a metric, but its measurement is usually very hard to do in an objective fashion and should not be a first class metric for this kind of study.
Answer: Late to the game here but thought I'd chime in.
You can't manage what you don't measure, so for starters, here are the key metrics devops teams should be tracking for incident response:

Uptime % : total % of time available = [total time - downtime] / [total time]
MTTR : mean time to resolution = [downtime] / [# incidents]
MTTA : mean time to acknowledge = [total time to acknowledge] / [# of incidents]
MTBF : mean time between failures = [total time - downtime] / [# of incidents]

These metrics give you a high level health check of your operations, and help you identify where you need to dig in further.
Take a look at the whiteboard animation here for a more in-depth look on the topic.
Once you know your metrics, you can bump them up against the cost of downtime. You can start building out your team's ROI from there and set some quantitative metrics for continuous improvement.
Comment: Those are reliability metrics, which are related to DevOps but aren't enough. Reliability is only one aspect of DevOps.
Comment: Thanks @Phil. That's a good point - these are indeed metrics focused on reliability, which is an important part of DevOps, but certainly not the whole thing. Hopefully staying on top of reliability is a good starting point, but don't stop there!


When leaving my dog alone is it better to leave some lights on or all off?

Question: I always ask myself what is better. Leaving some lights on wouldn't prevent the dog to have a nice sleep? Leaving all lights off woudn't make her to be affraid and scared?
Comment: Unless you have a dog that you have reason to believe is actually afraid of the dark, I don't see why you would leave it on. For our dog, switching the light off is his signal as well that he can go to sleep now and won't be disturbed until it's time to get up. It helps everyone develop a routine.
Comment: My dog is 16 years old now.She has poor vision.I have noticed at night if it is too dark she gets agitated and cannot get comfy in her bed. However, if I put a low light on she settles straight away.I guess it's because she can't see well. When she is fast asleep I turn it off. Old age, will come to us all..;-)
Answer: It depends on the individual animal, of course, but the wolf ancestors of domesticated dogs are nocturnal, and dogs have good low-light vision. Most dogs are not afraid of darkness.
For roughly the same evolutionary reasons, most dogs won't be kept awake by light; they've been domesticated to follow a roughly diurnal schedule but their wolf ancestors slept mostly during the day. And indeed many dogs seem to prefer to sleep in patches of sunlight (although it's likely the warmth rather than the light itself they're seeking...)
Answer: In lieu of a light, I leave the television on, tuned to an easy-listening music channel and a low volume.  This not only provides some light, but a sense of presence or companionship.  I don't believe it annoys the dogs, but gives them some sort of noise variable to keep them comforted and to distract from noises outside the house that might create anxiety.  I know of others who use a radio.  If they are annoyed by the television light, my dogs have been given blankets to duck under for darkness.  I do not believe it causes a problem for them.


When to find a real-estate agent for buying a first home?

Question: How soon should I find a real-estate agent? I am probably going to buy my first home in September and am assuming I will need an agent. So when should I contact one?
Comment: Bear in mind in many places you're not required to have an agent, and may save money if you don't. Agents help in many ways, but sometimes can add complications to dealing with sellers, and sometimes draw from a limited pool of houses. But for a first-time buyer, probably best to go with an agent.
Answer: I would say ASAP. I have recently been in your situation (first-time home buyer) so here's our experience:

We got an agent from the start. We started to look in August, aiming to close around end of the year, and ended up closing in December. We had a month period in the middle where we were not looking but otherwise almost all that time was spent looking so 3 months is definitely not too much time.
We did skip some good options in the first weeks since we felt we did not see enough and don't want to buy just yet. Looking back at it it probably was a mistake (one looked like a really good deal, though I'm not sure we would end up getting it, but if I knew what I know now I probably would have not passed on it). We could probably be more prepared if we did some stand-alone research - like just going to open houses, etc. but we didn't. However, that was one-of-a-kind deal and then we didn't see anything we liked for quite some time.
We chose agent basing on the advice of friends who recently worked with them and we did not regret the decision. I think this is the best way to choose - it's virtually impossible to distinguish good agent from bad one until you invest some time with them and since you have only 3 month wasting a month on a bad agent might put you in time-constrained situation. So solicit references from everyone you know and talk to agents that make their clients happy :)
Now for what the agent does. Our agent helped us first with choosing the areas we want to look in, set up the searches. Then they helped us to plan visits (we mostly did it on weekends, and looked 5-10 houses each time, so took some planning to organize), arrange it with seller agents and homeowners, getting keys for houses that aren't occupied, etc. When we started doing offers, they helped us navigate the paperwork, understand what we are signing, what options we have, what are the steps and the timeframes, etc. We had to go through and sign a stack of papers several inches high, literally, so the help of somebody who actually knows what these talk about and seen them before is very useful. Of course, this is for US, where such transactions inevitably causes a ton of papers to be signed, some locations may have more simple procedures but in the US I think the services of somebody who can navigate this paper jungle is essential, otherwise you have a big chance of signing something you shouldn't or not checking proper checkbox and ending up losing money.
They also put us in contact with mortgage consultant which handled our mortgage needs and turned out to be quite good and efficient (we checked other offers too but that one ended up best on service and prices - not the rock-bottom cheapest, but cheap enough to be competitive and excellent service). We could probably have figured that part out by ourselves if needed, but the agent helped us to know who to contact, what to ask for and how all the process should look like, which for first-time buyer is very helpful. There's a lot of moving parts in the process and without knowledgeable person it's sometimes hard to figure out how they should work together.

So I would say find yourself a good agent ASAP and then start looking and use them to help you guide through the process. Note that the agent wants the process to be completed as soon as possible (they get paid only when you close) but you should not feel pressured by it - it's your money on the line and it's probably the biggest deal in your life so far, so don't be afraid to take your time and ask them about anything, it's their job to help you.
Comment: Getting recommendations from friends is a good idea, but make sure you interview the potential agent(s) yourselves to see if their style is compatible with yours.
Answer: It depends, really.
Real estate agents help you identify the areas, price ranges, types of houses you want to look at, and your abilities. But you can do all that on your own.
Real estate agents help you with surveying the potential houses, they can help you enter the property and look around, negotiate inspections, connect with the mortgage brokers, and advise you about potential problems. Some of these things you cannot do on your own (for example, entering the property, unless its an open house).
Real estate agents are the ones dealing with the escrow, sending offers and receiving counter-offers, and depending on the jurisdiction you may or may not do it on your own.
Bottom line, you should contact a real agent of your choosing when you're ready to actively start shopping, and see what are the services the agent offers that you would need. Based on that you can decide when to start using these services.
If you're planning on starting shopping in September, then you should call an agent then. If you're planning on moving in in September - then you should call an agent now.
Comment: In the US, a buyer's agent is pretty common (at least here in Maryland) because then you have somebody "in the business" who's acting on your behalf. They are essentially "free" to the buyer, because the seller pays the commission and the two agents split the fees 50/50.
Comment: That sounds weird to me, because in Australia we don't usually engage an agent when looking to buy a house, the sellers do (some people do engage what we call a buyer's agent but that is a rarity and they usually only do it if they are strapped for time). If someone looking to buy saw a house they might like in an area they like they usually just contact the selling agent to look through it and make any offers. You can also approach each agent in the areas you like for them to show you all the houses that meet your criteria that they have for sale at the time.
Comment: @Victor, I kindof assumed that the question is US-related (the OP is from Texas, according to the profile). I don't know how it works in Australia though. In the US it also differs from place to place, but generally you would have a buyer's agent and a seller's agent (sometimes being the same person) for each transaction.
Answer: Now - you have only three months.
Depending on how quickly you make decisions it can take weeks to months to find a place you like and can afford. That doesn't even take into account getting a mortgage; the property inspected and appraised; and going through the settlement process.
Answer: Note: if Buyer's Agents operate in your area, a good one can be tremendously helpful, especially for a first-time buyer. Having someone experienced whose fiduciary obligations explicitly put them on your side of the negotiations makes the process less stressful.
As far as how to find one: that's a Shopping Question and out of scope, but i'd suggest asking friends in the area who have relatively recently purchased a house for recommendations. Skill is part of the equation, but finding someone who really listens to what you're looking for matters a lot.
(A friend of mine is fond of commenting that she got along much better with one of the partners in the agency she worked with, who was good at listening to the buyer's needs and finding good possibilities they might not have considered... but that in fact it was the other partner -- less good at listening to the buyer but better at keeping after the seller -- who successfully closed the deal once she was ready to make an offer.)


How to use the Stack Exchange API in PhoneGap?

Question: I want to write a program using PhoneGap. How can I use the Stack Exchange API in PhoneGap?
Answer: I haven't used PhoneGap yet, but they claim that you develop apps with plain old JS, CSS, and HTML.
If that's true, then use the API just like you would from a web page -- with simple AJAX calls.
Here's a working example (using jQuery):
<code>var userID      = 1416412;
var pageNum     = 1;
var pageSize    = 100;
var siteParam   = 'stackoverflow';
var appKey      = 'Get your own key!';

$.ajax ( {
    type:       'GET',
    url:        'https://api.stackexchange.com/2.1/users/' + userID
                + '/answers?page=' + pageNum
                + '&pagesize=' + pageSize + '&order=desc&sort=votes'
                + '&site=' + siteParam
                + '&filter=!3u0zcO(lpHVEGuskA&key=' + appKey,
    dataType:   'JSON',
    cache:      true,
    success:    function (apiJson) {
                    //-- Provide a closure.
                    console.log (apiJson);
                }
} );
</code>

Get a key, it greatly increases your quota and is needed if you want one of the methods that needs authentication.
Reference the API docs and the API "Hello World" code.
Comment: I dont think "cache: true" is appropriate because its very much possible that the answer might have been edited.
Comment: @BhavikShah, this cache has nothing to do with that and will not miss updates.  It's just about not refetching the *exact same* data unnecessarily.


Domain continues answering even after deleted DNS zones

Question: I have a CentOS server... I deleted the dns zones from a domain, but it is still working... Is this normal? The domain to continue answering even after deleted its dns zones?
Answer: You have to do two checks:
1- You need to restart/reload the name server after changing the configuration (including zone file change).
2- You need to wait for the record timeout before seeing the new change. The TTL value is specified usually in the zone file. Look at this link (file format section). You can flush your DNS cache on your local machine, but you can not flush the DNS cache on an intermediate DNS server between your machine and your DNS server (if any).
Comment: Really sounds like the OP needs to reload his dns config to pick up the changes.
Answer: The old zone information might still be in your local DNS cache.
If you are using a browser to test, you may have to clear your browsing history or restart the browser in order to flush the old information.  Alternately, you could use the dig command - it queries the current DNS information directly.
Answer: You omitted what DNS software you are using. Is it Bind, PowerDNS, DJBDNS, or something else?
In any case, simply deleting a file is not likely to be enough to make the change. Typically, you will have to reload the software in some way to force it to reread the zone files or configuration.
I'm going to guess you're using Bind. I don't remember exactly which scripts exist on Redhat, but here's an example. A very blunt method would be to simply restart it with "/etc/init.d/bind-server restart" or "service restart bind-server". With Bind, you should also be able to control the daemon with the utility "rndc". Check the rndc manpage for more information.


Let $E\subset\mathbb{R}^{n}$. Prove that if $m(E)>0$, then there exists $x\in E$ such that, for all $\delta >0$, $m\big(E\bigcap O(x,\delta)\big)>0$.

Question: Let $E\subset\mathbb{R}^{n}$. Prove that if $m(E)>0$, then there exists $x\in E$ such that,
for all $\delta >0$, $m\big(E\bigcap O(x,\delta)\big)>0$.
PS: Please give a proof using Cantor's intersection theorem.
Comment: I think this is Lebesgue's density theorem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebesgue%27s_density_theorem
Comment: @Paul: This is much weaker than Lebesgue's density theorem, which says for almost all $x\in E$ instead of there exists $x\in E$, and for those almost all $x\in E$, gives for all $c<1$ there exists $\delta>0$ such that $m(E\cap O(x,\delta))>cm(O,\delta)$.
Comment: @Jonas: Oh yes, you are right. Thanks for your explanation.
Answer: We can assume that $m(E)\in\mathbb R_{>0}$. By regularity of Lebesgue measure, we can find a compact $K\subset E$ such that $m(K)>m(E)/2$. Assume that for all $x\in K$ we can find a $\delta_x>0$ such that $m(O(x,\delta_x))=0$. Then the family $\{O(x,\delta_x)\}$ is an open cover of $K$, and we can find an integer $N$ and $x_1,\ldots,x_N\in K$ such that $K\subset\bigcup_{j=1}^NO(x_j,\delta_{x_j})$. So $K$ has measure $0$, which is a contradiction.
Answer: Proof. $0<mE=m\left(\bigcup_{k=1}^{\infty}\left(E\bigcap[-k,k]^n\right)\right)
\leqslant\sum_{k=1}^{\infty}m\left(E\bigcap[-k,k]^n\right)$, so there exists a $k_0$
such that $m\left(E\bigcap[-k_0,k_0]^n\right)>0$.
Let $E_0=E\bigcap[-k_0,k_0]^n$, $E_1=[-k_0,k_0]^n-E_0$. By definition of Lebesgue outer measure,
for all $\varepsilon>0$ we have a sequence of open intervals, $\{I_k\}$, covering
$E_1$, satisfying $\sum_{k=1}^{\infty}mI_k<mE_1+\varepsilon$. Then $G=\bigcup_k I_k\supset E_1$
is an open set and $mG<mE_1+\varepsilon$.
Now we got a closed set $F=[-k_0,k_0]^n-G\subset E_0$ and
$E_0-F=E_0-G^C=E_0\bigcap G$ $\subset$ $G-E_1$.
Therefore $mE_0-mF=m(E_0-F)\leqslant m(G-E_1)=mG-mE_1<\varepsilon$.
Let $\varepsilon$ be small enough so that $mF>0$. Cut $F$ into
two closed sets $F\bigcap (-\infty,0]$ and $F\bigcap [0,\infty)$, one of which must have a
positive Lebesgue measure by (sub)additivity, then cut it in the same way. Keeping doing this,
We got a decreasing nested sequence of non-empty, bounded and closed subsets of $F$,
all with positive Lebesgue measures. By Cantor's intersection theorem, this sequence $\{F_k\}$
has non-empty intersection $X$. Take an $x\in X$, we assert for all $\delta>0$,
$m(F\bigcap O(x,\delta))>0$. Otherwise, there exists $\delta>0$ s.t. $m(F\bigcap O(x,\delta))=0$,
implying $mF_k=0$ for $k$'s big enough to make $F_k\subset O(x,\delta)$, which is a contradiction.


Short castle in Trompowsky

Question: In recent 1st Match between Maguns & Karjakin, started with Trompowsky. How can Karjakin prefer catsle even g file is open ( g × f6 at 3rd move ). Whats idea behind it?
Answer: A few thoughts:

Leaving the king in the centre or long castle are not attractive either with all the open lines and pinned knight on c6
The g file is open but it is not easy for white to make use of it. White has exchanged its bishop which would have had a good square on h6. Also black's pawns on e6 and f6 cover important squares that could be occupied by white knights.
The centre is open and if white concentrates forces on the king side, black will very quickly push through on the queen side and in the centre.
It is an opening and has been analysed by humans and computers and found to be OK.
Answer: Also with a queens side castle it would take the king two extra moves to get complete safety for the king and that would make black lose tempo and might lose the game especially when it's against carlsen.

Short castle in Trompowsky


Am I at fault? Can I get my security deposit back from Landlord?

Question: I signed a weekly rental agreement in Pennsylvania to live in someone's home. I ended up not staying and I text messaged the landlord that I left and no longer wished to stay. The landlord says he will be retaining my security deposit because I didn't give him proper notice. Am I at fault? What should I do?
Answer:
Am I at fault? Can I get my security deposit back from Landlord?

The landlord is wrong, and he should reimburse you the totality of the security deposit.
Clauses #1 and #16 would entitle the landlord to deduct from your security deposit only the portion of the 7-day period that is not already covered in the payment you made for 1st week's rent, which according to clause #1 starts on Sunday July 29.
If I understand correctly, you signed the contract (and paid) on July 27, and then gave your 7-day notice on July 28. Since you paid an additional amount for Saturday July 28, then your 1st week's rent payment actually covers the entire 7-day period of your notice. Therefore, the landlord should reimburse you the entire security deposit.
The contract nowhere indicates that the count of [post-notice] 7 days starts after the current rent-week elapses. But even if it did contain language in that sense, the dates you mention render that hypothetical clause void.
Lastly, clause #16 refers to giving a written notice, which is what you did by sending him the text he obviously read and understood. Therefore, his statement that "you did not provide proper notice of moving out" clearly is false.

What should I do?

If the landlord insists to retain the security deposit, your option is to file a complaint in Small Claims court (I don't know whether this has a different name in PA). Depending on PA procedural law, you and the landlord might be cited for mediation prior to being assigned a court date.
A process in small claims court is pretty straight-forward, but only you can determine whether the hassle of attending mediation and court hearing is worth. If anything, it (1) certainly gives you some [minimal] exposure to litigation, and (2) teaches the landlord to abide by the very rules he drafted in the contract.
8/30/2018: Edited to address OP's follow-up question of whether section 250.512 of the Landlord and Tenant Act precludes recovery of security deposit (see comments)
After analyzing the statute you found, Pennsylvania courts have still held that a tenant's failure to provide a new address does not preclude recovery of the security deposit.
See Adamsky v. Picknick, 412 Pa.Super.Ct. 544, 549 (1992):

we find the lack of notice argument is tenuous at best since
  appellant's reason for withholding the deposit was not because he did
  not have appellees' new address, rather, he withheld it because he
  maintained there were damages for which he should be compensated.

That conclusion is squarely applicable to your situation. The landlord's only pretext for withholding your deposit is his inaccurate statement that "you did not provide proper notice of moving out", and for that matter he refers to nothing else than the rental agreement. The rental agreement nowhere requires you to provide your new address.
One decision that does not constitute legal precedent but still might help persuading Small Claims court in your situation is Back v. Taylor, 19 D. & C. 3d 606, 609 (1980). After citing section 250.512(e) of the Landlord and Tenant Act, the court states:

That section sets forth certain guidelines as to when tenants can
  obtain double recovery. Defendants have only sought recovery of the
  deposit and therefore, the above cited section does not apply.

(emphasis in original)
Unless you were pursuing double recovery (see item (c) of the statute), it would be very questionable --to say the least-- why a [Small Claims] court should decide your dispute any differently than in Back.
Another non-precedential decision analyzing the same statute is Shoemaker v. Henry, 35 D. & C. 206, 209 (1984). Also in the context of double damages, the court stated:

We cannot believe the only purpose [to require a tenant to provide his
  new address] was a negative one, that is, to cancel a right to double
  damages for failure to comply. A more rational explanation is that its
  purpose was to provide a landlord with an address to which the damage
  list could be sent.

(brackets added)
The statute apparently was enacted well before the prevalence of electronic communications. If your landlord has any way to send you a "damage list" (as it seems to be the case insofar as he replied to your text), then the rationale in Shoemaker should apply in your situation. If you are not even pursuing double recovery, then it would be unavailing for the landlord to cling to the language in item (e) of that statute.
Therefore, you are definitely entitled to your deposit even if you did not provide to the landlord a new address. It is up to you whether you want to go for double damages, in which case the decision in Shoemaker might or might not be persuasive in Small Claims court. Beyond that, the Adamsky opinion constitutes legal precedent which favors your position.
Comment: @NateEldredge I do not know if there is precedent for a text message being considered written notice in my state. But I did find this .pdf document for my state that implies that a text message is a written notice. [Source 3](https://www.northpennlegal.org/sites/www.northpennlegal.org/files/11_Your%20security%20deposit_0.pdf). If I had precedent that a text message is written notice in Pennsylvania, then I believe my case would be iron clad.
Comment: @NateEldredge The text message would satisfy the test in [*Firefighter's Institute v. City of St. Louis*, 220 F.3d 898, 903 (2000)](https://www.leagle.com/decision/20001118220f3d89811027) because the fact that the landlord replied to the notice/text proves that the method of service ensured that the notice "*is placed in the actual possession or control of the person to be served*". I would need to go through dozens of [PA cases](http://www.leagle.com/leaglesearch?exact=method+of+service&crt=Pennsylvania), but I am almost positive there is PA case law in that direction.
Comment: I think I may be at fault still and I want your opinion based upon the following information. Pennsylvania Law says that I have to give the landlord in writing my new address (forwarding address) upon termination of the lease or upon surrender of the leasehold premises. [Source 1](https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-68-ps-real-and-personal-property/pa-st-sect-68-250-512.html). As you can see in my text messages, I did not provide this information upon termination.
Comment: But, according to [Source 2](https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-68-ps-real-and-personal-property/pa-st-sect-68-250-511b.html), it talks about security deposits over $100 being required to be deposited in an escrow account, and since my deposit is exactly $100, I'm not sure if providing a forwarding address in writing upon termination is enforceable. In otherwords, I don't know if any of these laws apply in my circumstance since the security deposit is not over $100.
Comment: @Bryan Kudos to you for finding these PA statutes. You should not be concerned about them, though, because you would still prevail. The 2nd statute (Source 2) is not relevant. But the first one is relevant, so I have edited my answer to address your follow-up question. The cases to which I refer for this matter were found using the search string [http://www.leagle.com/leaglesearch?exact=failure+of+the+tenant+to+provide&crt=Pennsylvania](http://www.leagle.com/leaglesearch?exact=failure+of+the+tenant+to+provide&crt=Pennsylvania).
Comment: Is there precedent that a text message is considered "written notice"?  It sounds like the landlord is arguing that it's not.
Comment: @IñakiViggers Thank you for updating your answer. I find it more than satisfactory. I will read through the cases you linked to learn more, and if I take the plunge and pay the $100 application fee, I will use the Adamsky v. Picknick, 412 Pa.Super.Ct. 544, 549 (1992) precedent and not pursue double recovery.
Comment: After reading Adamsky v. Picknick, I learned that they did give a written forwarding address on the envelope itself, and that the judge acknowledges this. If they had not, they may have lost their case. Therefore, I don't believe I can use the outcome of this case to justify not sending a written address upon lease termination just because the Landlord didn't initially retain the deposit for that reason.
Comment: @Bryan The excerpt from *Adamsky* is not *obiter dictum*. It is a holding with rationale which the superior court (1) prefixed with "*In addition*", (2) in the portion stating the reasons for affirming the judgment, and (3) which bears no connection whatsoever with the trial court's finding about the envelope. The landlord's bare statement that "you did not provide proper notice" is too ambiguous and inconsistent with his vague reference to the rental agreement. Your notice satisfies all the conditions stated in that agreement. Therefore, the landlord's pretext of "improper notice" would fail.


How do brokerage firms handle dividend reinvestment when a company does not offer DRIP?

Question: I have my (Vanguard) brokerage account set to "Reinvest Dividends", an option I selected when I opened it brand new.  And ever since then, every stock I own that pays dividends, has resulted in fractional shares. But I was wondering today what Vanguard does if I bought dividend-paying stock in a company that doesn't offer fractional shares? Does that even exist, and if so, what would Vanguard do with the dividend?
Answer: Vanguard has enough customers that are also reinvesting dividends so that when dividends are paid they simply buy more shares on the open market and keep track of how many fractional shares everybody owns.
From Vanguard Brokerage dividend reinvestment program:

How does the reinvestment program work?
When reinvesting dividends, Vanguard Brokerage Services combines the cash distributions from the accounts of all clients who have requested reinvestment in the same security, and then uses that combined total to purchase additional shares of the security in the open market. Vanguard Brokerage will attempt to purchase the reinvestment shares by entering a market order at the market opening on the payable date. The new shares are divided proportionately among the clients' accounts, in whole and fractional shares rounded to three decimal places. If the total purchase can't be completed in one trade, clients will receive shares purchased at the weighted average price paid by Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Comment: And even when an issuer does run its own DRP it works the same way: the transfer agent makes one aggregate purchase and allocates it over the accounts subscribed to the plan.
Comment: Odd, wouldn't it be better to pass it to a trader to work the order over a period of time, a straight forward market order doesn't seem a very efficient execution.


1080p HDMI to USB converter for computer video input

Question: I have a digital camera with HDMI output and I want to use it as a high quality "webcam." I am looking for a device which takes a 1080p/60fps HDMI video signal as input and outputs that signal over USB for usage on a computer as if it were a webcam. It will need to be compatible with USB 3.0 or greater to accommodate the necessary bandwidth.
Comment: What's your budget?
Comment: @Adam As low as possible while maintaining full video quality, but a higher priced answer is still better than no answer.
Answer: I suspect what you will need here is a 'virtual webcam' - i.e. it's not just a media (socket) converter you need here, but a 'box' which the computer, via USB, detects as a webcam.
Consider a normal webcam - it contains a small camera and a set of circuits which get that video from the camera to the computer. The computer recognises these circuits as 'a webcam' and, via appropriate drivers, then knows what to do with it.
What you are looking for is for your digital camera to act as a Webcam. Unless it has this functionality built in (in which case it would have some sort of USB interface and appropriate software/drivers to suit) then you need the actual 'webcam' (set of circuits I described above) to sit in between your camera and your computer.
So, effectively, what you need is a 'webcam' (set of circuits) which instead of taking its picture from a small, on-board camera, takes its picture from an HDMI input socket. The rest of the circuitry, after that point, would be the same as any standard webcam - and the computer would see it as a webcam.
This type of functionality may be more likely to exist as some sort of USB video capture card, rather than an HDMI to USB converter, as most 'HDMI to USB' adapters will be intended for output rather than input - i.e. connecting an external HDMI monitor to a computer by USB.
If such a device exists, I suspect it will cost more than a decent HD webcam. Unless the camera you want to use is 'professional grade', i.e. priced at thousands of pounds/dollars, I suspect you will be better off with a decent, modern webcam. I've personal experience with the Logitech series - we use several models in the £50-£200 mark in our offices for video conferencing. They also do wide angle models if required.
Answer: As of 2021 (five years after I asked this original question), the best product for this is the Elgato Cam Link 4K. If you find it on sale, it can be had for around $100.


What is a type of creature that steals souls?

Question: I an writing a book, and I cannot find any soul stealing creatures that still look human! I was wondering if you could give me any examples?
Comment: Where have you searched already? This avoids us going over the same sources.
Answer:
This appears to be a folkloric belief that has gained significant traction in the era of modern horror fiction.

The wiki for Soul Eater mentions an introduction of this idea in the Iliad:

But when even Bellerophon came to be hated of all the gods, then verily he wandered alone over the Aleian plain, devouring his own soul, and shunning the paths of men

Iliad, 6, 202-204
The wiki also traces the origin primarily to the Hausa people of Nigeria, and includes multiple academic references, chiefly:
Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip. (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
"Black Stomachs, Beautiful Stones: Soul-Eating among Hausa in Niger." In: Modernity and Its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa. (University of Chicago Press, 1993)

I'd also posit that this is the function of incubi and succubi, in that interaction with these creatures would result in the devil stealing one's soul.
Comment: So its just called Soul Eaters?
Comment: @GabrielBaia That version are called soul eaters, and I'm not aware of other pre-modern mythologies that involve that concept specifically.  But it's a robust concept that has found much usage in modern mythology (fantasy).
Answer: Noppera-bō is the closest candidate to your description of a 'soul stealing' mythological creature. However, note that it can be described as 'face stealing' not 'soul stealing'.
Noppera-bō is a Japanese 'face less' Yokai (spirit), which looks like a human with just a plain sheet of featureless skin on their faces (no mouth or nose etc). It is believed in Japanese mythology that even though the Noppera-bō can disguise themselves as humans to 'scare' them, they are actually harmless, often disguising themselves as their target's face.
On the other hand, we can link a Noppera-bō as a depiction of the Face-Stealing Koh in the Avatar series. However, over there Koh is a shown as an evil spirit who steals faces of anything (human or animal) which expresses any sort of emotion in front of him. Thus to survive, one has to stay expressionless in front of Koh. If not done so he steals the face of his target and the victim will not die but remain faceless, eventually entering a state between 'life and death'. Moreover, Koh is shown as a large insect in these series with several pointed legs like a beetle, rather than a human.
Other shapeshifters linked to a Noppera-bō can be a Kitsune (Japanese fox) or a Mujina (raccoon dog), known to deceive humans. (If that is any use to you).
The second most closest candidate to your description could be the Sluaghs according to Celtic Folklore. In Irish, sluagh means 'host'. They were the spirits of the restless dead - so evil they were even banned from hell, therefore, they just roamed around in groups, coming from the West, to try to enter a house where a person had just died, to steal their souls. They either appeared as flocks of birds(ravens) or beasts, hunting for the weak or sickly people who were to die soon, waiting to devour their souls.
Lewis Spence writes in 'The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain';

"In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies."
Answer: The celts believe in Sluagh – the dead Irish sinners
Though they're not so much "demons," Sluagh are scary creatures that hunt down souls. According to Irish folklore, Sluagh is dead sinners that come back as malicious spirits.


How can I get from Coimbatore railway station to Mettupalayam station, early in the morning?

Question: I have a train that arrives at Coimbatore at 3AM, and need to get to Mettupalayam by 7AM. What is the best way to get there? I assume trains don't run that early, or at least I haven't been able to find any on ixigo, makemytrip etc.
Answer: Coimbatore is just 45km away from Mettupalayam; just less than an hour journey if you catch a taxi. There are also a lot of buses available from Coimbatore to Mettupalaym. The buses will take one and half an hour at most. Bus services start at 5:00 am in the morning. So, you can take either a cab or a bus as per your convenience.
Answer: In addition to the comment above: there are buses from the Coimbatore railway station to the main bus stand in Coimbatore, from where there are lots of buses to Mettupalayam. There is also the Nilgiri Express, daily from Chennai to Mettupalayam: this train typically gets to Mettupalayam by 7, in time to get the hill train up to Ooty (if you intend to take that train).
Anecdotally, I've often found the hill train waits for the Nilgiri express to arrive before it leaves, because there are so many people who transfer from one to the other.


Two GUI Wallets: One Daemon?

Question: I have two GUI wallets (or accounts to be more accurate) on my Windows PC. I can be up to date with the daemon in one, but when I open the other account, the daemon is far behind. Is this normal behavior or is it there an issue here that can be corrected? Thanks in advance.
Comment: It's possible that one of the wallets isn't synced with the daemon yet. It can take a while if the wallet is old and has't been synced for a while. Can you give us some more information please. Did you create the two wallets at the same time? Did you create both of them with the GUI or are they old? What does the progress bar in the GUI show?
Comment: You mean it never catches up ? If you want someone to answer your question, you need to be clear about what's happening.
Answer: FWIW, the issue was solved. Perhaps I had two copies of the daemon and the two different wallets were using the different daemons. In any case. All is well now.
Answer: Your question is contradicting itself. The same daemon cannot be up-to-date and far behind at the same time. It is either one or the other for both wallets. What is most likely, as Jaquee hinted at, is that one of the wallet synchronizations is far behind (thus not the daemon). When connected, you should give it time to catch-up.
It is definitely possible to open multiple wallets using the same daemon (one after another with the GUI, or simultaneously with the CLI).

Two GUI Wallets: One Daemon?


I created a wallet contract, sent ether to it and now cannot send to another account

Question: While experimenting. I creating a wallet contract. Here is the address: https://etherscan.io/address/0xC23501aB1E8E5C5EDB0fFA83C5A4DcFb9c31a355 I sent some ether to it. Now I want to send the ether from the wallet contract to a different account. I go to send, I input amount, check the gas, when I press send. The amount shows 0. I think I did something wrong with the creation of the wallet contract in Mist.
Comment: If I were you, I would rather make my experiments on the testnet this would be less expensive. But if you have money to spend, go on, we will earn more mining fees ;)
Comment: @Gianni D'Alerta -- did you get this issue resolved? If so, please post what solved it and choose it as the answer for others who may have the same issue later.
Comment: You have to invoke the contract. Amount `0` is perfectly fine, go ahead and create that transaction.
Answer: I prefer to use geth rather than mist to interact with contracts. The command line lets you do exactly what you intend vs working through a GUI.
The first thing you need is the contract ABI. This is a piece of javascript (or JSON) which defines how you can interact with the contract. Every contract on the blockchain has one -- a simple greeter contract, Etheria, the DAO... all of them.
To get the abi, paste your contract code into a compiler e.g. https://ethereum.github.io/browser-solidity/.
This "endowment retriever" contract may be similar to what you're trying to do. When compiled, its abi is revealed to be:
[{"constant":false,"inputs":[],"name":"kill","outputs":[],"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"getContractCreationValue","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[],"name":"sendOneEtherHome","outputs":[],"type":"function"},{"inputs":[],"type":"constructor"}]

Compile your contract and you'll get something that looks similar. (The above code will not work for your contract.)
Now that you have the ABI and the contract address, you're ready to gain interactive access to the contract with geth.
var abi = <cut and paste the contract abi here>;
var contract = web3.eth.contract(abi).at(<contract address>);
contract.functionname();
contract.functionname.sendTransaction(...);

Hopefully the contract from which you're trying to retrieve funds contains a method for retrieving the ether and you have permission to do so. In my "endowment retriever" example, you'd do:
var tx = endowmentretriever.sendOneEtherHome.sendTransaction({from:eth.coinbase});

If you post the entire contract (use a gist, probably), I might be able to help further and/or determine if retrieval is even possible.
Good luck!


Slow Search since moving from 2003 Server to 2008 R2

Question: I moved a client from a old Windows 2003 server to a new fancy Windows 2008 R2 box.  I have been able to get everything to work properly except for the search function inside a program called Invoice 2 Go.  Invoice 2 Go searches small text files located on a file share.  On the 2003 server it is fast, but on the 2008 R2 box it takes minutes to complete
Comment: Did you enable indexing properly?
Comment: Have you confirmed the software has fully indexed the files? With Windows Search and large amounts of data/emails it can take hours or even days to complete.
Answer: Indexing was not enabled.  After enabling Windows Search and allowing the server to complete indexing this did not increase the speed of the search function.  I also tried enabling the old Windows 2003 Index service and setup a catalog for the folder but it did not help (and actually slowed down the entire server the next day).
Support from the developer is non existent.  Anyone have anything else I can try?
Answer: You will need to find out exactly what mechanisms 'Invoice 2 Go' uses, and then you can start optimising your new server for it. This might require clever use of something like wireshark.
Or figuring out where 2008 R2 treats the multiple opening of text files differently to 2003.
First thing I would try, is turning - or making an exception with - the antivirus on both client and server.