Should I make up for 6-10 years of possibly invalid prayer and fasts?

Question: Since I was 8, every time I got in the shower I would throw water pressure "down there" until my body shook (I believe this is called a climax or orgasm, and I may have emitted maniy but I can't remember). I read that maniy is supposed to be yellow, but I have only ever had white or clear discharge, so it may have been madhy. After that, I would take my full shower. I started praying and fasting regularly at age 11, when I got my first period. Now, 18, I just learned that A woman is deemed to have reached puberty when one of four things happens:
1 – When she reaches the age of fifteen.
2 – When her pubic hair grows, which is hair around the private parts.
3 – When she emits maniy (fluid released at climax).
4 – When she starts to menstruate.
Does this mean I was baligh at age 8? Also, I did not know until recently that this was called masturbation (which is haram) and I did not know that ghusl was mandatory after that. Meaning, I continued to pray and fast in a junub state.
I have now made tawba for all the water I wasted and promised to never to do "that" again. But are all the prayers and fasts I've done up to now invalid? If so, should I make them up for 6yrs or 10yrs? Is there anything else I need to do or I should know in relation to my dilemma?
Comment: I don't think your prayers, fasts, et al, are invalid since -- assuming that even if you were in an impure state then -- you did not know about it. And anything done out of ignorance, I hope, should be forgivable by Allah.
Answer: What was this fluid?
If you didn't know a ruling you in first place have to repent your former sin and do your best to never turn back to it.
Many of a woman is in all fatwas i could read described as thin and yellow liquid. While madhy is declared as a sticky white fluid that is emitted when a person is thinking of or desiring intercourse. Its emission is not accompanied by feelings of pleasure, it does not gush out in spurts, and it is not followed by exhaustion. (For details see this fatwa ).
So from your description it seems that none of them really seem to fit (maybe you should also check the meaning of wady, even if this also doesn't seem to fit according your description).
Assumption and consequential rules
Let's assume it was many (semen) in that case you were really balighah (I'm using the female form).
So if you prayed (with hijab) and fasted Ramadan fully -from that age on-  afterwards it seems to me that everything might be fine (but Allah knows best). Yes you didn't perform ghusl as you should and maybe one could discuss the niyyah matter widely, but one of the most important things that might still be on your side is that as you said you began taking your shower after this act, so the ghusl itself began later (and I think while doing it you had this in mind, so this would be your -correct- niyyah) and afterwards you might be taheerah (I used the female form) and could pray and fast as you should. Of course if your kind of ghusl has been done during the day of Ramadan that would be problematic for the fast, as they would be considered as invalid (see also this fatwa).
As ghusl is needed if semen comes out of a woman even if without intercourse (see this fatwa).
If not I found a fatwa (in Arabic) saying that you must make-up your fasts and prayers from the day you were really balighah, even if you just knew this much later. But also take a look at my answer here about prayers and this specific fatwa on fasts.
Note the 2nd sign of bulugh is a discussed matter among madhabs, so only maliki and hanbali consider this as a major sign, but it applies to rough hair.
What should you do?
So what you should do is as follows (after repentance and asking Allah for forgiveness ...):

Get sure what you felt was climax or orgasm! I'm not sure about that.
Get sure this was many, not any other liquid! I do have my doubts that this was the case!
If it was many you should try to count the days you may have missed, note as stated above if you prayed regularly and fasted fully only those times may count for the fasts where you have done this while fasting!
If you couldn't count make a good guess and pray and fast until you feel you have "payed your duty".
Try your best in performing some optional good deeds especially prayers (nafl/sunnah) and fasts and of course any other good deed as we have been told:

...Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember. (11:114)
..., and follow an evil deed with a good one to wipe it out, and treat the people with good behavior. (Jami' at-Tirmdihi)

If you still have doubts and need a clear fatwa you should ask a scholar you trust about your matter face to face!

Here some other hopefully helpful references:
islamweb: many,wady, madhy see also this, on wady, many of a woman, signs of puberty (bulugh).
islamqa: madhy doesn't break fast.
About niyyah: see my answer here.
About opinions on qada' (making up) fasts in case of somebody who didn't know he was doing a sin: see my answer here.
And Allah knows best!


How do I remove a complete nether tower?

Question: I have recently built a nether reactor next to my house and a ton of obsidian spawned messing up my beautiful house and not letting me sleep. Please help!I also have 3 diamond picks and a ton of TNT which I know won't work.
Answer: First, get the newest version of Minecraft PE. Obsidian forming from Nether Reactors was a bug that was fixed.
If you're talking about Glowing Obsidian this should be able to be broken with a Diamond Pickaxe (the same is the case with regular Obsidian, for that matter).
Answer: Nether towers are made out of nether
which break really easily and can be blown
up by TNT
They are not made up of obsidian


Why did I score points for an answer which I didn't post?

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
Edit a question (from other user) and get +2 rep ?

This has been a strange behavior, I don't know its a feature  or a bug.
First this is the link to the Question I am talking about
Can I mark some Stack Overflow questions and view them later?
Now the problem.
On that question a user posted an answer. Later I edited (suggested) the answer and added a picture to make answer more helpful.

Now today when I viewed my recent activities summary, I saw that I have earned 2pts for that answer (see screen shot below).

So, I don't know if this is a feature or a bug. I haven't any mention of such behavior in FAQ's. Also I have done many edits on SO and never got any points for that :( so why now.

Now, if this is a bug i would like to suggest to make it a feature. it would be good to get some points for doing some contribution by editing the answer.
(That's why I have added both feature-request and bug tags to this question)

I didn't found any similar question previously asked (may be I'm using wrong keywords)
Answer: If you edit a question while you have under 2K rep and your edit is approved, you are given 2 points.


A happy instrumental song which plays during a flashback in Naruto Shippuden

Question: In Naruto Shippuden episode 6 "Mission Cleared", there is a song at about 8:20 where Iruka treats Naruto to a bowl of ramen. The music plays when there is a flashback to Naruto asking Iruka to try on his headband. The song sounds instrumental and happy.
The same song is at the beginning to episode 2 before the title scene/Japanese rock music plays. The song I am looking for plays during a happy flashback. I have spent an hour looking for this song but I can't find it anywhere.
Answer: I guess your are asking this one:
Naruto Shippuden OST 3 - Peaceful Theme
Link Below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1O04qZv3-4


Parametric bootstrap : examples

Question: Are there any examples of complex statistics that are too complex to be computed directly and need simulations  (Parametric Bootstrap from a small dataset)  rather than computing the statistics from the estimated parametric model?
Answer: Here's an example of something that's hard to do "directly" but seems reasonably amenable to simulation:
A prediction interval for a sum of forecasts from a Poisson GLM with several predictors.
Difficulties can be seen in several ways, but here's one: a common way to construct prediction intervals is by constructing a pivotal quantity, but there aren't any - only approximate (asymptotic) pivots, but many problems involve small counts.
(The lack of a pivotal quantity also makes it hard to construct exchangeable quantities suitable for the more usual kinds of bootstrap.)
[There are a number of other issues with this particular problem, but I won't labour the point.]
Answer: This maybe a bit arcane, but bootstrap is used in shape analysis for hypothesis testing. Null hypothesis is that the average shapes for two groups are the same. For example, in works by Vic Patrangenaru, see one of his papers here  http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0507423.pdf

Parametric bootstrap : examples


How old was Carl in The Walking Dead?

Question: According to the The Walking Dead wiki Carl was 12 years old when the show started, although the actor was 10-11 at the time. How old is Carl when season 8 started? He has a visible beard by then and got about as tall as Rick.
Answer: In the real world, he aged 8 years, whereas in  TV world I believe based on Kirkman's comments no more than 5 years which if he started out around 11 would make him 16 at most? Lots of inconsistencies in his and Judith's aging but puberty in a post-apocalyptic world must be tough...all that stress ages you quicker I guess while Judith as a baby is still protected and shielded.
Comment: "Based on Kirkman's comments" - what comments? If you can provide evidence from the show's creators to back up your answer, that would really help improve it.
Comment: @Steve-O: By "the real world" I assume he means the actor, Chandler Riggs, aging 8 years over the course of the show.
Comment: I assume by "the real world" you mean the comics?  I haven't noticed any zombie apocalypses in the REAL world, anyway :P

How old was Carl in The Walking Dead?


What happens when an ISP who was subpoenaed for an IP doesn't have their IP logs anymore?

Question: What if police wanted to find a copyright violator or someone who hacked or committed a worse crime in the United States and the ISP in question deleted there IP assignment logs. Then how would they catch them? Would they subpoena/warrant google and social media sites?
Comment: Is this about US, or Europe? The laws differ.
Comment: The United states
Comment: @NRSJ I've added that tag to your question.
Answer: Copyright infringement does not involve the police. However, you as copyright owner can subpoena records from a service provider under 17 USC 512(h). There is no records-retention law in the US, so there may be nothing to subpoena. Furthermore, the law only allows you to subpoena records from the providers that host material, not the "infrastructure" provider, such as Verizon. This was first sorted out in RIAA v. Verizon. There is no chance that you could subpoena records from a third party like Google on the chance that they might have some record.
Comment: I think you should separate copyright infringement questions from criminal questions: copyright infringement and child pornography are not interchangeable. The bottom line would not be radically different, but DMCA is irrelevant to investigations of child porn. Make it a separate question, not one over-broad question.
Comment: Actually there **can** be criminal charges for copyright infringement, although normally it is used only for parties mass-duplicating physical items such as DVDs or CDs. But if one changed the question to some other crime where web access would be relevant, the issues would be the same
Comment: Could you issue a warrant instead of a subpoena to a third party like Google or is that now allowed too? Let's say the crime was some kind of hacking or worse crime? So if the ISP doesn't have the record, then law enforcement is screwed? As a criminal justice major, and hoping to get into some sort of cybersecurity job, I feel that it's quite horrendous we don't force data retention for much longer like EU or Australia
Answer: If this is law enforcement seeking evidence of a crime, and not a private party engaging in discovery for a civil suit, law enforcement could subpoena anyone, provided that they can show to a judge probable cause to believe that the person or entity  subpoenaed has relevant evidence of the crime. LE can subpoena a web site operator, an ISP, an infrastructure provider, or anyone else.
However, there is no general law in the US requiring that web sites keep access logs of any type at all, or that if created, such logs be retained for any particular period. A business is free to delete all logs after two weeks, if it so chooses, although most do not so choose.
However, if a person or business knows that law enforcement is going to subpoena logs (or any other documents)  and it then deletes or destroys them, that might be destruction of evidence, which is a serious crime. If it has been officially informed that such a subpoena is pending, via an order of preservation, then any destruction is much more likely to be viewed as criminal.
It often happens that documents demanded under subpoena do not exist, or cannot be found. In such a case the prosecutor must do without them, and try to prove the case anyway, or drop the charges. Unless they were destroyed to avoid producing them, or there was some other legal obligation to retain them (some records are required by law), or possibly the entity lied in saying that they were not available, nothing can be done to the entity who did not produce them.
Instead of issuing a subpoena, a search warrant could be issued and the authorities could search for and seize the relevant documents. This is more often done when the custodian of the documents is an accused party, or closely associated with one, and there is a fear that the documents will be hidden or destroyed if a subpoena is served. But the authorities have a choice of which way to proceed. A search is typically more expensive, and will (may) make the custodian hostile if it was not so before, so a subpoena is often preferred when it is thought sufficient to do the job.
Note that it is very unlikely that such a subpoena, let alone a warrent, would be issued in a copyright violation case. But it might be when proof of web access would help to establish a serious crime.


Why didn't the toppings on my pizza stick to the dough?

Question: I made homemade pizza the other night and it was delicious except for the fact the toppings wouldn't stay on the cooked dough. It was a Chicken Alfredo pizza with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and chicken. I used a metal round pizza pan to bake the pizza and the taste was amazing! However, like I stated earlier, the topping and the cheese would fall off. Why is this? How do I make it stick to the dough? Maybe I put too many toppings on the pizza, but I believe I put a perfect, good amount. Thanks for the feedback! (:
Comment: The oil/fat content of the sauce can play a part in this, a napoli sauce dries out, but a cream-based sauce can demulsify and provide the grease to stop things from sticking together.
Comment: Was there any cheese?  Your ingredients above don't mention any.  Cheese is generally what makes things "stick" on a pizza.
Comment: I see "topping and cheese" referenced.  What about sauce? Did you have any between the cheese and shell?  Also, what type of cheese did you use - if mozzarella, was it fresh, whole milk or part skim?
Comment: FuzzyChef: I used cheese on my pizza. I mentioned it in the paragraph but I'm sure it was easy to miss! But yes, I did use cheese (:

Michael: I used regular alfredo sauce for the sauce and I used mozzarella cheese. The cheese was fresh from the deli and I grated it myself at home.
Comment: I was thinking maybe it is the dough because it was pretty thick but it was golden and crispy so I wasn't sure what happened to the toppings.
Comment: Hmmm, that definitely makes sense. I'll attempt to make pizza again next week and use your advice. Thanks!
Answer: Probably, you spreaded too much sauce on your pizza base; that is why melted cheese could not get onto the base.
You might make that pizza in a hasty. So, you put your uncooked pizza in an overheated oven.
You need to select the mozzarella cheese which can work as like as glue stick used in heat-gun. I believe you can make your pizza perfectly after 2/3 more trial and error.


Execute requests not triggered from ExactTarget Journey Builder with Data Bindings

Question: We can use Data-Bindings when execute method is used. But we don't have it after activation of interaction. Here are the steps we are using:

Create new interaction in Journey Builder
Create new trigger in Journey Builder (using Data Extension)
Set Custom Activity (using legacy platform) and configure in Journey Builder
Activate Interaction
Go to Automation Studio
Create a new scheduled automation
Drag "Fire Event" and choose Data Extension from step 2
Save and run once (result: automation completes without error)
Go to the Interaction

We don't have execute request at any of the steps. We need to know when exactly execute request is posted.
As we understand Data Binding is defined by this part of config.json
"arguments": {
    "execute": {
       "uri": "https://application.com/api/execute",
       "inArguments": ["{{Event.email}}"],
       "outArguments": [],
       "verb": "POST",
       "body": "",
       "format": "json",
       "useJwt": false,
       "timeout": 10000
    }
}

According to Anatomy of a Custom Activity when interaction is running Journey Builder sends post request to config.execute.uri. But it doesn't happen. Save, validate and publish requests are sends.
Please can you confirm this workflow is correct and know how it we can know when trigger is launched by Automation Studio (or by REST API through Fire Event).
Answer: I think the parameter is 'url' now in config.json, not 'uri'
Comment: Thanks, I'll try this and if it works I'll mark your answer as accepted.


Is it ok to put configuration files in JARs?

Question: We are having a debate at my office around what can and cannot go in a JAR file. It has been suggested that it is poor form to have anything that is not a .class file go into a JAR. We currently have some XML configurations for Ibatis/etc, some property files.. the usual. However, there is a push to extract all such files from JARs  and put them onto the local file system of each deployment machine. Does this sound reasonable?
Comment: It boils down to the question whether those files are meant to be edited by the end-user of your application, or if there are machine-dependant configuration directives.
Answer:
it is poor form to have anything that
  is not a .class file go into a JAR

That is nonsense. It is in fact very good form to put resources like icons and other data files that user used by the code into the JAR together with the code. This is what the getResource() and getResourceAsStream() methods of Class and ClassLoader are for, and it makes for much more robust applications than messing around with resource paths manually.
However, config files are possibly a different matter. If they're meant to be changed during or after deployment, then having them inside a JAR file is rather inconvenient, and having them in a separate directory is preferable.
Answer: If you make changes in a configuration file inside a JAR (even without altering any line of Java code), the whole JAR needs to be rebuilt and redeployed. Does this sound reasonable?
Comment: Sometimes you don't want people to make changes to a configuration file, for example if the config is environment specific.
Answer: It's absolutely OK to put non-class files in a JAR file, especially resources that the application needs (images, localized strings, etc.) Knowing this, you must decide which scenario fits your situation:

If the configuration is fixed and will only change when a new JAR file is deployed, put it in the JAR.
If the configuration must be altered, either manually or by the application, store it on the filesystem.

If you choose the latter, note that it's good practice to include a default configuration in the JAR file to handle the case when the external configuration file is missing. The default can be loaded directly from the JAR or copied to the filesystem to become the new editable configuration.
Answer: It does not sound reasonable to me. I believe, that some application's configuration should be in jar file. Such things as ORM mappings, spring config, custom spring namespace XSD, other XSDs, etc.. should be in most cases in jar. It's important part of deployment artifact.
The fact, that it's not class file, does not mean, that it should be taken out of jar just because it's theoretically can be modified without building a new jar. Can you imagine a modification of *.hbm.xml in production? for me it sounds very scary.
I think some configuration, like spring xml, is meant in most cases to better organize your application and dependencies, but not to change them at runtime in production.
Answer: Do you want or expect them to be changed without a new release of the code? Then you need to extract them.
If the answer to the question in no than you shouldn't extract them, as it would allow support to tinker around with them without going through the release process. (Of course this is also possible if they are in the JAR but slightly less tempting.)
Update: But since you mentioned multiple deployment machines, there's a third option: extract them and place them in a commonly accessible area on a network drive. Manually editable config files which are replicated on several machines (but should be identical) are notorious for getting out of sync.
Answer: ORM tools (such as Hibernate or IBatis) are not really supposed to be modified once the application is deployed. So, no, I would say that it doesn't make sense for that kind of files.
Depending on your requirements, application-wide configuration files can be placed outside the Jar/War so that they can be modified without having to rebuild the jar.
Do keep in mind that modifying application parameters in production is, imho, a bad practice. Changes should be tested first in some pre-production environment.


Can you eat the seeds of Tamarind if you roast them or boil them?

Question: I just bought some fresh Tamarind & was told that I can eat the Tamarind seeds. Are they really edible? How would I prepare them if so?
Answer: They're certainly edible, but you might have to work for it.
A Western view from Purdue CropINDEX:

Tamarind seeds have been used in a limited way as emergency food. They are roasted, soaked to remove the seedcoat, then boiled or fried, or ground to a flour or starch. Roasted seeds are ground and used as a substitute for, or adulterant of, coffee.

People from more native cultures are perhaps more willing to put in the effort:

... But I was surprised to find those semi-charred seeds tasting wonderful. They were a little like well-roasted peanuts without their disadvantages, and gave me both the challenge and company I seek of suparis!

I also found a few other mentions of them being a snack food, something people had eaten at home, like this one, which also mentions roasting and de-shelling in bulk with a grinding stone.

As for how to prepare them, I think your best bet might be to roast them, peel with the aid of a mortar and pestle (to crack them open), then soak for overnight or for a day in buttermilk like this recipe suggests. It's worth looking at the full recipe - there's more detail and a little background.
You can certainly try them before soaking as well, if you're looking for something that takes work to eat - you might have to suck and chew a while. As the recipe SAJ14SAJ found says, and says "This is the real test for teeth as it is very hard and crunchy."
Answer: Yep, they are edible and I am eating them right now. They are roasted untill they turn black charcoal colored and then peeled. The kernel smells a bit like coffee bean. They are very hard to bite, so they must be kept in the mouth for some time mixing with saliva and eaten slowly.
It helps people who have a habit of constant nibbling, so they can engage their mouth and at the same time have a cholesterol free, slow to eat, healthy snack.
Answer: I have myself ate roasted tamarind seeds in my childhood. We eat that like candy (Top black cover has strong taste but core tastes similar to roasted peanuts but not same). Many people from Gujarat state of India call it 'kachika'.
Answer: According to Plant Cultures,

The seeds are also edible and flour made from them can be used to bake cakes and breads. Roasted seeds are reputed to be delicious.

Finding recipes that address removing the very tough seed coat is difficult, especially since there are false hits for the flesh or pulp of the fruit, as well as many non-culinary uses.  Here is one set of instructions.
Comment: Hm, that link you found does address removing the seed coat, but it just says "remove the outer cover" - do you know if it's straightforward once they're roasted? I think we need to know that to fully answer the question.
Comment: @Jefromi The problem is sensible references that don't devolve into strange health claims are very hard to find.  This was the best I could do with a reasonable search effort.  It is clear they are not harmful.  It is not clear what the right treatments are to make them palatable.
Comment: Once you're past the harder-to-find objective "is it edible" stuff, finding practical advice isn't actually too hard. A few more of the results for [roasted tamarind seeds] are helpful (mentioned in my answer).
Comment: @Jefromi Ironically, that is one of the first search strings I tried.  I even saw the document you linked but gave up on it too early.
Answer: I just soak the seeds until the skin is soft. This takes a few days, and the water has to be changed every day. Afterwards, you can wash and roast or boil them as you like.
Some people are making a desserts with tamarind seeds... I just like to make tea with it...
Answer: I soak the tamarind in hot water or boil for a few minutes and drink as tea. I prefer it to tea and coffee but wasn't too sure what to do with the seeds. So I  figured, if tamarind is edible, then the seeds should be too. I remove the skin, let the inside seed dry, salt it a bit and roast until it's golden brown. I keep them in bottles or plastic bags and, when it's cold, I snack on them and especially like it as a late night snack! It's yum!!!
Comment: This time you were right, but not all edible fruits have edible seeds. Indeed, some edible fruits have seeds that are [potentially deadly poison](https://www.mashed.com/98132/dangerous-fruits-world/).


In which parts of Asia do they speak Hokkien Chinese?

Question: In which parts of China or Asia can you find Hokkien speakers? Also, where can you learn Hokkien Chinese?
Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Nan
Comment: Hokkien is the most widely spoken dialect in South and East Asia because the Fujian people were the very first Chinese to mass migrate out of 16th Century feudal China, followed by the Hakkas & Cantonese. That being so, you'll find that many words spoken by the Indo-Malay indigenous population have many Hokkien words and vice versa. If certain religious festivals feature the sugar cane, then it is most likely Hokkien because way back in pre-history some remnants of Hokkien people were saved from extinction, (due to tribal wars), by hiding in a sugar cane plantation.
Answer: Though Hokkien = 福建 or Fujian,a southeast coastal province facing Taiwan. Hokkien Chinese actually means 闽南语 which is originated from south part of 福建, and also commonly used in Taiwan Island, Southeast Asia and many other Chinese societies overseas.
In fact people living in north part of Fujian speak a totally different dialect, which is almost not understandable to Hokkien-speaking Chinese.
Answer: Hokkien is spoken by around 50 million people.  About half are in Fujian province (i.e. "Hokkien" province), mainly around the cities of Zhangzhou (Chiang-chiu), Amoy (Ē͘-mûi/Ē-mn̂g), and Quanzhou (Choâⁿ-chiu) -- not all of Fujian province.  The other half are spread across South-East Asia, descending from settlers who left Fujian in the 17th and 18th centuries.  This includes most of Taiwan, as well as communities in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Outside of these areas, it can be difficult to find somewhere to learn Hokkien.  The most well-supported variety of Hokkien is probably Taiwanese Hokkien (often simply called "Taiwanese").  For example, there is a textbook called "Southern Hokkien: An Introduction", by Bernhard Fuehrer and Yang Hsiu-fang, which focuses on Taiwanese Hokkien.  This is used by a course taught at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) in London.
http://eng.press.ntu.edu.tw/?act=book&refer=ntup_book00760
Comment: There is also a book on Penang Hokkien https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Speak-Penang-Hokkien-Dialect/dp/9834077408  It is more of a phrase book.


How to make a sound like this?

Question: I couldn't find how to make a sound like the one that starts at 0:58 :

Is there a plugin that enables how to do it or do you modify an instrument to do it?
Thanks!
Comment: Have you tried looking at snare samples? That's what it sounds like to me - a reversed snare sample.
Answer: That's just a sampled 'aaah'(vocal), played in different keys. Just find a bit of vocals you like, drop it in a sampler, pitch it up by an octave or more and you;re ready. It may help to loop a few ms so that it stays more constant in pitch, timbre and amplitude. The amplitude envelope sounds like a sharp attack, no decay, full sustain and the tiniest bit of release.

How to make a sound like this?


We have a multi-author conference paper. What to do if one co-author does not respond when extending it to a journal paper?

Question: We have a multi-author conference paper. However, when we try to extend it to a journal paper, one co-author does not respond (and thus we cannot obtain permission of the submission). The extended part itself is hard to form a paper by itself (and it will be incomplete even if possible). Let's assume that this co-author will never respond. What should we do in this situation?
Comment: Nag them until they respond. Try calling them up. When you're nagging them, make it clear that you're just asking for permission, and not help in rewriting it. (If they've been confined to a mental institution, go ahead and publish it without their permission.)
Answer: Check this with the journal you want to submit to. If you don't actually need them to submit this as a journal paper, this is what you'd ideally do:

Let them know you're writing an extension
Write the extended paper
Send the paper to them with a note saying "Unless you let us know otherwise, we plan to submit to journal X at date Y."
Submit, briefly explaining the situation to the editor.
Comment: Explaining the situation to the editor might not be necessary when it's clear that the unresponsive co-author will never consider objecting. This boils down to personal judgment; some people are more agreeable than others.


Move ROW upon selecting a specific option from drop down menu

Question: I am looking to use Google Sheets to keep track of my jobs. I have a spreadsheet set up so the status of a job is indicated by a dropdown menu. When a job is completed I would select "Closed" from the drop-down. I would love for it to atomically move the entire row to another sheet upon selecting closed. This sheet would be strictly for closed jobs and keep the current sheet only for live jobs.
Answer: "...in the meantime..." solution:
paste the QUERY formula on Sheet2 and everytime you close the job, just right-click the row, select option to resize row and set it on 2px, or better - select hide row
=QUERY(Sheet1!A2:D; "select * where C='Closed'"; 0)
_______________________________________________________________


DVCS Choices - What's good for Windows?

Question: So I want to get a project on a distributed version control system, such as mercurial, git, or bazaar.  The catch is that I need the Windows support to be good, i.e. no instructions that start off with "install cygwin...".  Now I've heard that git's Windows support is decent these days, but don't have any first hand experience.  Also, it sounds like the bazaar team has an explicit goal of making it as multiplatform as possible.
Can I get any recommendations?
Comment: Take a look at this guide: http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2010/03/distributed-development-for-windows.html
Answer: There's a nice comparison between git, hg and bzr in this InfoQ article.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses.  You'll have to think about your project and your workflows and choose the best fit.  The good news is that they're all fairly good.
Answer: I use msys-git on windows every single day. Works fast and flawlessly.
Although the newer build has some problems with git-svn, this build (Git-1.5.5-preview20080413.exe) has a working git-svn.
Answer: At last I checked, the only thing you need for Mercurial is Python and to grab a binary package. If you find yourself with more time and want to fiddle / build it yourself, look here.
The only real drawback with HG is its idea of branching .. but for some people that's a major plus.
I like it because its intuitive, easy to install and works on anything that Python does. I don't think that all of the available plugins will work for you, but most should.
Answer: I've had the best luck with Bazaar, followed by Mercurial. Never could get Git to work correctly. A quick search shows that Git still requires clunky emulation layers like Cygwin/MSYS, and I can't find any integration tools like TortoiseBzr for Git.
With Mercurial in Windows, I had several minor issues (insensitive paths, symlinks, ). They were usually fixed eventually, but I felt that the same quality of testing was not applied to running on Windows as for the other platforms. Bazaar also had better documentation for integrating with native applications like Visual C.
Answer: EDIT: Perhaps add a "dvcs", "distrubutedversioncontrol", "distrubuted"
I've used Mercurial on Windows with no problems. You can use TortoiseHG or just use the command line. Mercurial does require Python, but that is easy to install in Windows as well.
Mercurial Binary Packages
Comment: Last I checked, TortoiseHG doesn't support 64-bit Windows. Has this been corrected?
Comment: 2 years later: TortoiseHg supports 64-bit windows by now (and has for a while.)
Answer: I agree with basszero. I'm using mercurial under windows and it's as easy and reliable as it can get. My development team is spread over Europe (well Dublin and Vienna :-).
We use VPN to commit or sometime the built in webserver (hgserve). Both work fine with no problems out of the box.
Also diff3 open source tool works perfect with mercurial and TortoiseHG out of the box.
Answer: If you are concerned about an easy to use interface:
The bazaar folk now include TortoiseBzr in their windows binary package.  That's got to be a pretty strong indicator that they think it is up to snuff.  I don't know what the maturity/stability of TortoiseHg is, but there certainly isn't a decent GUI interface for git yet, and the MSYS git build still needs some work IMO.
If your team are comfortable with or prefer the command line, then either bazaar or mercurial would probably work well for you, and are both probably about the same in terms of learning curve.  Git's learning curve is much higher.  It is like the swiss-army knife that is almost wider than it is long, with all the little gadgets and do-dads in it and hanging off it, with the springs so tight that you occasionally slice a finger open trying to prise a blade out.
Answer: In my experience using GIT on windows is a major pain.  But I have been using Fossil SCM for some time now, and I think it actually fits your needs exactly.
It also has a built in Ticket system and a Wiki.  And the whole program is contained in 1 file and it works right out of the box.
I totally recommend it.
Here is a link to the site http://www.fossil-scm.org/
Remember, this site is self hosting, what that means is you are looking at the web interface to fossil it self, when you look at tickets and the wiki and documentation, you actually are using fossil.
But if your project has millions of lines of code and is a few gigabytes in size, you have to use GIT, there is no way around that problem.
Enjoy.

DVCS Choices - What's good for Windows?


Will I get desktop Ubuntu after connecting Samsung Galaxy Nexus to TV via HDMI?

Question: I have a Galaxy Nexus phone, I´d like to know, if I get a full desktop Ubuntu after I connect it with a TV via HDMI. I can´t find the answer. If it´s true, there´s no need for me to have a laptop :-)
Answer: At the moment you get the same video output via HDMI as you have on the phone's screen. It's nice for watching movies but this is the only useful use case right now. Hopefully the docking mode will be implemented soon.


When was the term "field" first used in maths?

Question: My understanding is that the term "field" in science was first used in physics, while the mathematical term, at least the algebraic one, was more recent.
Does anybody know when the first occurrence of the term appeared, and if there was any connection with the physical meaning?
Comment: Please clarify if you are asking about the *algebraic* notion of a field or the *geometric* notion of a (vector) field? They are completely different concepts.
Comment: I am more interested in the algebraic use, but if you have some data about the use of a vector field they are welcome too
Comment: Then please make that clear in the actual question you are asking.  You write about "the mathematical term," but both the algebraic and geometric concepts of field are absolutely mathematical terms.  Of course the geometric one comes from physics, but it is also a mathematical term.
Answer: See Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics, sub voce : Field :

The term Zahlenkörper (body of numbers) is due to Richard Dedekind (1831-1916) (Kline, page 1146). Dedekind used the term in his lectures of 1858 but the term did not come into general use until the early 1890s.
Eliakim Hastings Moore (1862-1932) was apparently the first person to use the English word field in its modern sense and the first to allow for a finite field. He coined the expressions "field of order $s$" and "Galois-field of order $s = q^n$." These expressions appeared in print in December 1893 in the Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society III.75. The paper was presented to the Congress of Mathematics at Chicago on Aug.25, 1893.
At any event, a decade later Edward Vermilye Huntington [in 1904] wrote:

Closely connected with the theory of groups is the theory of fields, suggested by GALOIS, and due, in concrete form, to DEDEKIND in 1871. The word field is the English equivalent for DEDEKIND's term Körper; KRONECKER's term Rationalitätsbereich, which is often used as a synonym, had originally a somewhat different meaning.

It does not seem to me that there is indications of a relation with Maxwell's concept of the electromagnetic field ...
Comment: It's funny that while Deleting chose Körper, in English they preferred "field"...
Comment: @mau did you mean *Dedekind*?
Comment: Damn autocorrection!


Monte Carlo real life examples

Question: I want to introduce Monte Carlo methods for a group of 16-18-years-old high school students.
Besides classic examples (coin flips and count of heads/tails, rolls of a pair of dice) which other examples could I do?
I thought to present the solution of the birthday problem by simulation, but I would
like some other problem that mimics a real life situation. Any suggestion?
Comment: Another idea: computing probabilities in the game of Risk is nontrivial. I don't know of any way other than simulation to find the probability that e.g. an attacker with 30 armies can defeat a defender with 20 armies. I have used this very problem for projects in programming courses. Most students found it fairly interesting since most students were familiar with the game.
Comment: Estimate $\pi$ by dropping sticks on a ruled region of the plane, via Buffon't needle problem. E.g., [here](http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/estimate-pi-by-dropping-sticks/).
Comment: Have you already looked through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_method#Applications?
Comment: The book "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt describes an interesting simulation performed with a die, 4 bowls, and a collection of matchsticks (which can be replaced by toothpicks of you are worried about 16 year old pyros). In the context of the book it is a simulation about throughput in a 4-department plant, but it also has a queuing-theory flavor. A nice description of it is found here: http://maaw.info/MatchBowlExperiment.htm
Comment: What *sort* of Monte Carlo are you doing? Are you looking for physical examples (like dropping needles or rolling dice) or computer examples. If by computer, are you using canned software (e.g. Excel) or writing short programs? If the latter, in what language?
Comment: My purpose is to present some real life examples (choose the right parking, sport betting, queueing up, etcetera) using canned software (Excel).
Answer: Anything with probabilistic estimates should work. As a demonstration, an idea mentioned already by @Joseph O'Rourke, that is, estimating $\pi$ using Buffon's needle is excellent. Estimating area of a shape by calculating the number of random points that fall into it, could also work, but it is not as illuminating.
For some examples that are closer to real life, you could estimate the proportion of red cards in a stack by picking a few random samples (explain connection to pools and voting). You could also estimate average height in the class by picking a few random samples and explain connection to various statistical estimates on population and how it differs from census data.
Game-related algorithms use Monte Carlo a lot. You could make them play multiple random games of tic-tac-toe and for each put $+1$ on every square of color that won and $-1$ on every square of color that lost (zero otherwise). Sum all these numbers and see how it corresponds to good/bad moves (a few hundred playouts should be ok, so it would work for a big class; for a smaller class use symmetries and average the four corners and the four middles). See also a small script here.
If you have too few $\geq 9$ sided dice, teach them first how to make $12$-sided die from a $6$-sided die and a coin (or two $6$-sided dice). Then also teach them how to make $5$-sided die from a $6$-sided die simply by repeating the throw if the result "falls outside the range" (or in general $k$-sided die from $n$-sided die for any $2\leq k < n$).
You could also try them various algorithms that use Monte Carlo approach like quicksort:

You are given a sequence of numbers.
Sort it naively if the sequence is of length $\leq 4$ (to make it less tedious).
Pick a random number $x$ from it and split the sequence into two subsequences $\leq x$ and $> x$.
Repeat recursively for each subsequence.
Write down $\mathrm{result}_1, x ,\mathrm{result}_2$.
Answer: How about the famous Monty Hall Problem—stick, or switch?

(Image from YouTube.)

There is a nice Python simulation described
at this link.
A sample run verifies the counterintuitive $\frac{2}{3}$ vs. $\frac{1}{3}$ probabilities:

Answer: Here are 2 computer examples using random numbers and a unit square.
!. Find the area of a circle in the unit square.
2. Two people decide to meet between noon (0) and 1 o'clock at a certain location with the understanding that the longest either should wait for the other is 15 minutes (.25 of a unit.) What is probability of a meeting taking place?
In both cases 2 random numbers are generated (x and y)
In case 1 the distance from (0.5, 0.5) to x,y is computed and if <= .5^2 then plot & color the point green else red.
In case 2 the x and y represent the different times that each arrives.
if |x-y| <= 0.25 then plot & color the point green else red.
In both case count the number of red/green points.
Answer: Disease transmission might work well. Assume a certain percentage of unvaccinated students (some localities have high single-digit percentages) in the school when one person contracts measles, for example. About 90% of unvaccinated people who have close contact with a measles patient in the first four days or so will catch the disease. If students keep track of who they contact daily in classes, sports, etc., you could run a few cycles to see how fast an outbreak spreads given various levels of unvaccinated populations. Not only is this highly relevant to real-life vaccination decisions and policy, but it could be extended to more sophisticated models if you consider how soon patients are quarantined, etc.
Answer: Here is an Excel example. It simulates the winnings of a person (or persons) who buys a \$1 "Pick 3" lottery ticket (which wins \$500 with probability 1/1000, hence nets \$499 with probability 1/1000). For 1 player it looks like:

In A2 I have the formula =IF(RAND()<0.001,499,-1). In A3 I have the formula =A2+IF(RAND()<0.001,499,-1), which I copied down 363 rows and then plotted.
I also did it for 10 players, with the same formulas plus a sum of the final results (with conditional formatting to display red if a net collective loss). It looks something like this:

The point of the simulation was to better understand the following "paradox". I worked in a factory with several hundred employees for two summers when I was an undergraduate (this was in the mid 80s before the rust belt became rusty). Many times during those summers I heard of workers there winning the lottery. This created the strong psychological impression that winning this lottery was a fairly easy thing to do. I don't have the numbers, but I got the impression that a couple dozen workers were buying Pick 3 tickets almost every day in such a way that there was 1 or 2 winners per month. The simulation illustrates how it is possible to be in a small group of friends where at most points in time several of your friends are winners but nevertheless the group of friends is steadily becoming collectively poorer in time.
If you are interested in the spreadsheet itself, send me an e-mail and I'll send you a copy.
Answer: Correctness of algebraic and trigonometric and other identities can usually be tested quite effectively by plugging in random argument-values, and seeing whether the outputs match.
Maybe this doesn't count as "practical" for them, though, ...
Answer: Returns on a stock portfolio.
Moneychimp will give you data, the S&P 500 return for each year since 1871. The classic exercise is to suggest we start with some amount of money, say $1M, at retirement time. We assume a targeted rate of withdrawal each year, and run the simulation, i.e. randomly choose the return for each year, generally based on the market average 9% and standard deviation of 18.7%, and see if you outlive the portfolio. Then, of course you run it a few thousand times.
When I hear the phrase "Monte Carlo simulation" this is exactly what comes to mind.

Monte Carlo real life examples


Are Computer Vision and Digital Image Processing part of Artificial Intelligence?

Question: There are some fields of Computer Vision that are similar to Artificial Intelligence. For example, pattern recognition and path tracking. Based on these similarities, can we say that the Computer Vision is a part of Artificial Intelligence?
Answer: Artifical Intelligence is a rather fuzzily-defined field. It includes lots of subject areas. Sometimes that's because they replicate some behaviour or mental ability of creatures used to solve problems, and sometimes it is because they were the focus of "classic" AI, and have remained classified as part of AI. These problems include navigation, searching, solving combinatorial or logic puzzles, complex systems control, communication. Many of the problems can include converting visual input to something more useful to the rest of the system.
Computer Vision by comparison appears more tightly-defined. However, it quickly becomes less so when you try to consider what the eventual outputs should be. To what extent does a computer vision system need to "understand" the visual inputs in order for other system components to make sense of them, and use them correctly? Here are a couple of examples to illustrate my point:
Image captioning
For instance, work in automated captioning effectively includes natural language models. The input to the system is an image. The computer vision half of that system does not output a class or direct measurement of something inside the image. Instead it outputs a vector encoding of the description of the whole image - something that the language model can decode into an English sentence.
The vision model and language model are trained together, so this encoding can be very loosely considered an internal "ideagram" that represents the contents of the image and allows the vision and language models to share representations.
Agents using vision systems for decision-making
Another interesting example is recent work on Deep Q Networks, used to give superhuman performance when playing some Atari games. This used a neural network architecture (CNN) already known to be good for image classification problems, and used it to directly connect the pixel output from a game to a system which learned optimal behaviour. This is more clearly work in AI - creating a learning agent that works across a general set of problems - but at its core is a CV system.
In this case, the input is four consecutive images (although there are variations which learn from the stream of individual frames), and the output is a vector which scores the value of taking one of the possible controller actions (left, right, up, down, fire etc). Variations on the system directly output which action would be preferred from the CNN.

You could take this further and require that a vision system produce some kind of explainable, transferable, shared world model for other systems to interact with. An embryonic version of that approach is effectively how the captioning system works. It is not at all clear whether such an imagined design is strictly in the field of CV or some other part of AI.
Whether such outputs are considered part of computer vision or more generally part of AI is less of a pure scientific classification issue than an opinionated or political one (e.g. due to funding either an AI research team or a CV one).
The similarities between current computer vision approaches and ongoing work in AI, such as heavy use of deep learning models, would suggest that CV is strongly related to AI. Intuitively I would say that CV is part of AI, perhaps a key specialism of it, roughly equivalent in scope to Natural Language Processing. However, the practical outcome of that is only important to people who have labelled themselves "AI researcher" or "CV engineer" etc.
I also think the same arguments apply to other studies of artificial perception, most notably speech recognition.
Comment: There is also a habit of techniques that started out being considered as AI becoming just engineering once we've worked out an algorithm to do it (and therefore require less 'adaptive' intelligence).
Comment: This answer contains good points, but I think you're exaggerating a little bit. Definitely, computer vision is part of AI, in the same way that RL, NLP, expert systems, etc., are part of AI. Now, if you ask me if image captioning is just a CV problem, that's a different story. CV is taught in many universities as part of an AI program. Throughout the years, many techniques that have emerged and that are now considered part of CV have not been necessarily labelled as AI, but the AI field has also evolved over the years (as you suggest).


Get joint distribution from pairwise marginal distribution

Question: Assume we have 3 random variables $X_1,X_2,X_3$, and we know the pairwise marginal distribution $P(X_1,X_2), P(X_2,X_3), P(X_3,X_1)$, but we don't know anything else (such as conditional independence). Can we get the joint   distribution $P(X_1,X_2,X_3)$?
Answer: No.
Consider a trivariate distribution with bivariate (standard, independent) normal margins, but with half the octants having 0 probability and half having double probability. Specifically, consider octants ---, -++, +-+, ++- have double probability.
Then the bivariate margins are indistinguishable from the one you'd get with three iid standard normal variates. Indeed, there's an infinity of trivariate distributions which would produce the same bivariate margins
As Dilip Sawarte points out in comments he has discussed essentially the same example in an answer (but reversing the octants which are doubled and zeroed), and defines it in a more formal way. Whuber mentions an example involving Bernoulli variates that (in the trivariate case) looks like this:
<code>  X3=0      X1                  X3=1      X1
          0    1                        0    1

    0    1/4   0                  0     0   1/4
 X2                         X2
    1     0   1/4                 1    1/4   0
</code>
... where every bivariate margin would be
<code>            Xi
          0    1

    0    1/4  1/4
 Xj
    1    1/4  1/4
</code>
and so would be equivalent to the case of three independent variates (or indeed to three with exactly the reverse form of dependence).
A closely related example I initially started to write about involved a trivariate uniform with alternating "slices" in a checkerboard pattern of greater and lower probability (generalizing the usual zero and double).
So you can't compute the trivariate from bivariate margins in general.
Comment: +1. Another standard example--the simplest possible, and closely related to yours--is to let the $X_i$ be independent Bernoulli$(1/2)$ variables.  The full distribution can be tabulated since there are only eight equiprobable outcomes. Their marginals and pairwise marginals are the same after conditioning the $X_i$ to have an even number of zeros (just cross out the other rows in the table and double all their probabilities), but the two joint distributions obviously differ.
Comment: +1 The trivariate distribution is written out in detail in [this answer of mine](https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/189206/6633) except that I used the octants $+++, +--, -+-, --+$ instead. It is, of course, related to the Bernoulli random variables mentioned by @whuber which example goes back to Bernstein, I believe.
Comment: Aksakal The copula itself completely specifies the dependence structure, not the marginals. The fact that you can keep the marginals but change the copula is a simpler version of the same issue here.
Comment: But, in less artificial cases, maybe some bounds could be made?
Comment: there's got to be a copula solution here. Sklar's theorem has extension to n-dimensional case, and there you have only marginals, not the bivariate marginals which have more information


What are reasons to use or don't use the hibernation in Debian?

Question: Except the system, kernel upgrade when the restart is required. Are there any other reasons to use or not to use the hibernation?
I don't use the hibernation, because i fear that it'll bring me troubles.
Comment: Question is unclear...
Answer: When hibernation works, it works.  If it doesn't work, then you just reboot.  It is effectively the same as not using hibernation in the first place.
The usual caveats apply, you should make sure you don't have any unsaved work, and be aware if you have files open from a network that might not be there next time you wake up the pc.
My suggestion would be to use hibernation unless you have troubles rather than not using in case you have troubles.
Answer: I appreciate the faster boot time from hibernation.  Occasionally, the system doesn't come back, but a hard reset fixes that.  I usually close most applications (except mail and iTunes) before hibernation to ensure I don't lose anything in the event of a failure.
The only problem I've had with hibernation is many update programs launch on system startup.  The don't launch after hibernation, so I often don't see updates until hibernation fails.  For this reason, and as a general system refresh, I do a full shutdown once a week.
I've never had a hibernation failure cause more trouble than needing a hard reset, or in some cases, two.


Is there a list of old browsers that only support TLS 1.0?

Question: I am looking to Block all old browsers that support only TLS 1.0.  Since TLS 1.0 is out of PCI Compliance, it is a safety measure that I want to take.  But I am having trouble finding a list of these old browsers.  Can anyone help?
Comment: You want to block them? By userAgent string? Why not simply disable TLS1.0 server side?
Comment: @StackzOfZtuff: Common sense would say he probably wants to find out how many browsers (=> users) would be impacted by such a change before actually making the change...
Comment: Can you clarify whether you mean that you control the servers and want to prevent them from accepting connections to these old browsers? Or do you control workstations, and you want to make sure you've removed all old browsers?
Comment: @Mehrdad: Yes. But common sense would also say OP should mention that in the question...
Comment: @sleske: That's literally the opposite of what you do when something is common sense.
Answer:
I am having trouble finding a list [of old browsers that only support TLS 1.0]

Lists of browsers with specific features
Trouble finding a suitable list might be partly because such a list might be large, incomplete, frequently changing and might need to take account very large numbers of plugins and addons.
As Tripehound mentioned in a comment. A browser might not be on such a list because it has support for TLS 1.2 even if support for 1.1 and 1.2 is disabled by default. This makes relying on a list more risky.
Depending on what you are doing, you may not need a list of browsers (user agents?).
Predicting Impact of barring browsers that use TLS 1.0
If you need to work out how many of a server's customers rely on TLS 1.0 you can enable TLS version logging in Apache and probably in other webservers etc. After a suitable period (e.g. a week) you would have some good statistics about the number of customers affected.
Preventing use of insecure protocols by browsers
It is often possible to configure web-servers and other services to not support TLS 1.0 - thus blocking browsers that don't support more recent versions.
Comment: This is the most complete and most efficient way to handle this problem. Disable 1.0 on the *server*
Comment: I would assume that the OP is trying to determine how large the impact would be of disabling 1.0 before throwing the switch.
Comment: When TLS 1.0 is used isn't _necessarily_ the same as when it's the only option available. While, I suspect, most browsers that _can_ do better than 1.0 will be configured to do so, there may be some that could do better but aren't (currently) configured to do so. IIRC when IE first added the ability to do TLS 1.1/1.2, the options to use them were disabled by default (although later updates enabled them by default).
Comment: @PeterGreen but then impact analysis should be done on the server, too. Look at the logs to see when TLS 1.0 is used and measure from that, not from a generic list.
Comment: @TripeHound Since the client-initiated TLS handshake is the same for TLSv1/TLSv1.1/TLSv1.2 and allows the server to choose among the cipher suites supported by the client, the server should always be able to determine whether the client can support TLS > v1 unless the client is being intentionally evasive about it. For example, forcing cipher suite `AES256-GCM-SHA384` (defined in TLSv1.2) to be preferred over `AES256-SHA` (defined in SSLv3/TLSv1) on the server side will always end up choosing `AES256-GCM-SHA384`, proving the client supports TLSv1.2.
Comment: Your point about "support" versus "being enabled" is, however, well taken because there are many TLSv1.2-capable MSIE installs out there where TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 are simply disabled in configuration – which is a crying shame.
Answer: You can use our good friend Can I Use, which tells us that TLS v1.1 is supported since:

Chrome 22
Firefox 24
IE 11
Safari 7
Opera 12.1
iOS Safari 5.1

Global support is 95.61%. It may vary a bit based on your target markets.
So disabling TLS v1.0 would mean rejecting HTTPS from a bit over 4% of browsers out there.
You probably want to compare against your own Analytics for the business impact on your own site.
Note that there are lots of other parameters that affect security, including ciphers and various other settings.
Mozilla published several TLS profiles with varied compatibility/security tradeoffs. There's also a tool that will provide the TLS server configuration for each of these profiles (for Apache, Nginx, HAProxy).
The highest security ("modern"), but lowest compatibility, has its cut-off point at Firefox 27, Chrome 30, IE 11 on Windows 7, Edge, Opera 17, Safari 9, Android 5.0, and Java 8.
The intermediate level has its cut-off point at Firefox 1, Chrome 1, IE 7, Opera 5 and Safari 1 (but doesn't support Windows XP).
Of course, the latest and greatest also needs support server-side!
Comment: @Pureferret, I'm not saying IE11 doesn't support it, I'm saying it is supported since IE11. It can indeed be enabled on older versions of IE, but one usually cares about the impact on the general public who won't go change flags and settings, using it as it is configured "out of the box". The 3 versions of IE on which this could be done represent about 0.54%, so I'm not sure they matter anyway.
Comment: @Pureferret we still don't know what the OP actually wanted though... Know the browsers which will be affected before stopping TLS 1.0 or know how to block those browsers, so we're just speculating...
Comment: Actually if you not the flags, some of them can be enabled, so to say IE 11 doesn't support it seems disingenuous.
Comment: +1 for the very useful "Can I Use" list, but for the metrics, I would emphasise that "It may vary a **lot** based on your target markets.". We don't know if OP is talking about a worldwide or region-specific service (Asia metrics differ greatly from Western Europe as instance), if he's targeting specific audiences, etc.
Comment: In most cases the metrics are quite similar, though there seems to be a big exception for China. But as stated, the ideal thing is to use one's own site analytics based on the list of browsers. A site targeted to US security aficionados will of course not have the same results as a site targeted to Chinese grandmothers :-)
Comment: Ironically, the CanIUse website itself [does not support TLS v.1.1](https://github.com/Fyrd/caniuse/issues/4198).
Answer: Try the SSL Labs list
SSL labs has an HTML list.
They also offer a nice JSON list. TLS 1.0 seems to be encoded as highestprotocol being 769.
Using PowerShell you can parse it like so:
PS C:\> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://api.ssllabs.com/api/v3/getClients -OutFile getClients.json
PS C:\> Get-Content .\getClients.json | Out-String | ConvertFrom-Json | foreach {$_ | select *} | where {$_.highestprotocol -like "769"
} | select name, version, useragent, highestprotocol | sort name, version, useragent

name        version     userAgent
----        -------     ---------
Android     2.3.7       Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.7; en-us; Genymotion ('Phone' version) Build/GWK74) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ver...
Android     4.0.4       Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; Android SDK built for x86 Build/IMM76D) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Vers...
Android     4.1.1       Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.1; en-us; Nexus S - 4.1.1 - API 16 - 480x800 Build/JRO03S) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Ge...
Android     4.2.2       Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Nexus 4 - 4.2.2 - API 17 - 768x1280 Build/JDQ39E) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like G...
Android     4.3         Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.3; en-us; Nexus 4 - 4.3 - API 18 - 768x1280 Build/JLS36G) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko...
Baidu       Jan 2015    Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Baiduspider/2.0; +http://www.baidu.com/search/spider.html)
BingBot     Dec 2013
BingPreview Dec 2013
BingPreview Jun 2014    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/534+ (KHTML, like Gecko) BingPreview/1.0b
Firefox     10.0.12 ESR
Firefox     17.0.7 ESR
Firefox     21
Firefox     21
Firefox     22
Firefox     24
Firefox     24.2.0 ESR
Firefox     26
Googlebot   Jun 2014    Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
Googlebot   Oct 2013
IE          10          Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 925)
IE          7
IE          8
IE          8
IE          8
IE          8-10
IE          8-10        Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/6.0)
IE          9
Java        6u45
Java        7u25
OpenSSL     0.9.8y
Opera       12.15
Safari      5.1.9
Safari      6.0.4
Tor         17.0.9
Yahoo Slurp Oct 2013
YandexBot   May 2014

(No idea about the double entries for e.g. IE 8.)
Update: Cipher redirect
Not sure if this is what you're after, but if this is about providing a nice error message to non compliant clients you may be interested in this old answer of mine: https://serverfault.com/a/644167/253701
Comment: That list is inaccurate/incorrect because the TLS version used isn't solely dependent on the browser. More specifically, IE 10 and lower will use the maximum TLS version supported/enabled by the operating system and *can* have TLS 1.2 enabled but will not do so by default. Likewise, older versions of Java (OpenJDK 7?) supported TLS 1.1 and 1.2 but did not have it enabled by default - presumably specific applications and configurations would have it enabled.
Comment: @Bob Perfect answers are unlikely to be necessary here.  As someone pointed out, to achieve PCI compliance you just disable TLS 1.0.  More likely the question is about the impact of disabling TLS 1.0, which only requires a good answer, not a perfect one.
Comment: Try `invoke-restmethod` some day. Could save you some typing for json parsing.
Answer: As others already wrote, why do you want that list? If it is for testing that your site correctly blocks TLS 1.0, you can e.g. use FireFox and in about:config set both security.tls.version.min and security.tls.version.max to 1.
Now Firefox will only accept TLS 1.0 and should be blocked if you use it to access your site.
I assume other browsers have similar settings.
Reference
Answer: This Knowledge Article from SalesForce lists out the major browsers' TLS support well.
Comment: To be fair, the question asks for a list, and posting that list here is not very useful. Although the answer is to not use a list, this reasonably answers the question.
Answer: To improve cipher security, you shouldn't just block certain user agent strings, since the client (or maybe even a middleman) can force a ciphersuite downgrade in newer browsers as well, and browsers can send bogus user agents. Don't trust the client.
The secure way is to block TLS 1.0 traffic completely. But it would not be very user-friendly to do that and let the browser handle the error message.
What you want to do is allow establishing a connection, but check the agreed ciphersuite before delivering any content over it, and if TLS 1.0 is used, display a descriptive error page. ("The connection is insecure, most probably your browser is too old.") Whether reading the ciphersuite of a https connection is possible in the webserver software you use, I cannot say.
Answer: Although I agree with the other answers that disabling TLS 1.0 server-side is the best way to shut it off and that the server logs are best suited to measure the impact, knowing what your excluding from your webservice is important, as you may have special use-cases.
Can I Use and SSL Labs have already been mentioned, but I'd like to add Wikipedia to the list. In my experience it's one of the most complete lists when it comes to SSL/TLS browser compatibility.
Also don't forget to disable unnecessary cipher suites. This might already fulfill security needs, without disabling a complete protocol version. When turning off TLS 1.0 you should also disable cipher suites that only work with it.
Before disabling (or enabling) anything be sure to know what you're doing. Always read recommendations before changing things and make sure to test your configuration.
Answer: The university of Warwick in the UK made a great help page on this, it has lists of what devices will and will not work after removing TLS 1.0 and 1.1.  Have a look:
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/its/servicessupport/web/sign-on/help/tls1-eol/
They have sub pages at the top for each OS and what's supported.
In most cases, running Firefox or Chrome will get you new SSL, even on old devices/OS's.
Otherwise, the TL;DR is that Windows 7 and XP remain unsupported, Windows 8 works with IE11 installed.  Mac OS Sierra (10.12) and later works with safari.   iOS 9+ works, older ones do not.  Android 5.0 Lollipop and later works, Kitkat and older do not.


Blinking cursor on boot after upgrade

Question: I have a blank screen with only a blinking cursor after upgrade via deselect responds to nothing! Have tried options F2, still zip on reboot
. What do I do?
Answer: Try Dropping to the root shell. (Hold shift on startup) Then select the drop to root shell option. Make sure that you did a full upgrade and it wasn't interrupted halfway through or something and if it was then try reupdating from the terminal.

Blinking cursor on boot after upgrade


What are good beginner books to follow for classical guitar (self study or otherwise) ?

Question: I've come across a lot of different series and 'methodologies' (Aaron Shearer, Mel Bay etc) books - and it's very confusing for the beginner when there's no teacher to guide him or her.
Comment: related: http://music.stackexchange.com/q/1977/1344
Answer: For classic guitar I recommend:

The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Vol. 1
The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Vol. 2

These were published in the early 1970s by the great virtuoso Christopher Parkening with Jack Marshall and David Brandon. They are highly regarded by guitar teachers. The newest edition comes with a CD so you can hear what the lessons sound like when they are played correctly.
From the publisher's description: "The method covers: rudiments of classical technique, note reading and music theory, selection and care of guitars, strategies for effective practicing, and much more. The CD includes 99 demonstration tracks."
Comment: I did not downvote, but the answer would be helpful if you can elaborate on why you think these books are good.
Comment: Why the down vote my dear down voter? It is better to provide some explanation than this arbitrary vote.
Comment: Upvote for reminding me of this good (according to my subjective memory!) resource... though I can't elaborate on why either!
Answer: If you do not have access to a teacher, I recommend choosing a program that will provide you with corrective feedback so that you may fix your mistakes in order to progress. In my experience, lacking this feedback you may unknowingly develop poor habits, both musically and technically.
Fixing your mistakes requires seeing and hearing correct playing. So, a multimedia instructional program may be your best choice. I recommend looking at Frederick Noad's books with CDs/DVDs. (He published his first multimedia instructional program in 1963, which came in the form of a book and weekly television program. See attached photo of my copy.) Today, you would probably do well to try Noad's updated text:
http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Book-Classical/dp/0825694000/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1310553812&sr=8-7
Noad's books are well-respected by many classical guitar teachers. So, if you decide to ultimately take lessons, you may find the transition to be a smooth one.
Comment: +1. I do have a teacher, but he has not really laid out a structured program for me. Unfortunately, this is the best I can get right now. So yes, DVDs are helpful. I've looked at a few, including William Kanengiser's videos. But I still don't see any way around the feedback aspect - that can only come from a teacher.
Answer: I havent looked at beginner books recently. But I can offer a rule of thumb:

A Real Classical Guitar Book will contain no tablature. It is very important to "take the plunge" and master staff notation.

The book I used and was very happy with was The Romero Method, by Celedonio Romero, but it looks like it's out of print. :(
There is a book by Son of Romero that's probably worth checking out. (These guys were breaking into The Tonight Show, while Segovia was breaking into Carnegie Hall.)
Comment: upvoted b/c good rule of thumb; no opinion on the books mentioned (I haven't read them)
Answer: As one who is teaching himself to play classical guitar, I have found the following method books to be excellent. They are in no order:
Frederick Noad. Solo Guitar Playing: A complete course of instruction in the techniques of guitar performance* (4th Ed).
Aaron Shearer. Classic Guitar Technique (3rd Ed). Book and CD. (ISBN-10: 07390-57103).
Julio Sagreras.  Mel Bay Julio S. Sagreras Guitar Lessons: Books 1-3 (English and Spanish Edition) [Spiral-bound]. (ISBN-10: 0786627239).
Jeffrey Goodman.  A Beginner's Guide to the Classical Guitar. (ISBN-10: 1439267499).
Robert Benedict. Sight Reading for the Classical Guitar, Level I-III.(ISBN-10: 0769209742).
Robert Benedict. Sight Reading for the Classical Guitar, Level IV-V. (ISBN-10: 0769212859).
Answer: The Aaron Shearer series of books (link to Volume 1) are well-regarded standards. They were first published in the 1950s or 1960s and are still in print.


Friends, Are We Philosophers and What is the Purpose of This Site?

Question: Is this site for philosophical questions or questions about philosophy?
I asked a philosophical question (what is an author) and it got closed, since it was "off topic".
I thought the site was for philosophical questions also, so I'm confused why it was closed. (I may have read the on topic description, but I may have misread it. )
Comment: Just emended title a tad to create continuity in titular relation since this is a PERENNIAL question on this site. People often come here to "DO" philosophy and are shocked that we "DON"T" philosophy. Plus, whimsy makes truth palatable.
Answer: Philosophical questions and questions about philosophy are hard to disentangle at times, but as a rule of thumb, it is definitely more correct to say that the site is indeed suitable for questions about philosophy, with a given textual context.
That's not because we dislike philosophical discussion or original ideas, but because these simply do not fit well with what it means to be part of the StackExchange network, which we are first and foremost.
For more context and arguments, see our most important meta thread: Friends, we are not philosophers. Don't be deterred by the title, it is well explained within the text and the answer.
One major thing to take away is that

[T]he point is not that none of us are philosophers (which would be false), it is that we are not here in our capacity as philosophers, but in our capacity as subject matter experts about the field of philosophy.

Just as a person on Physics.SE will obviously not conduct physical experiments or develop original theories on the site, but will share or expand their knowledge about experiments and theories in the field of physics.
Answer:
Sinn und Bedeuting, wie ich lieb' Frege
Ja, ich weiß viel mehr als du.
Brennt einen Sehnsucht in unserer Logik
Zwei und zwei immer macht 'deux'.
— Fritz Lang, German metaphysician

Thank you for asking the question, Doragon!
While I'm a new contributor (only a year or so), this is a most excellent question, and from around Beta this and several tangential issues seem to be at stake, for what one might consider the soul of this community. If you are interested in more of the background, as I am, in having a profound answer, please read these artifacts:

What is our mission statement?
What is considered off-topic?
What are the criteria for marking answers as correct in philosophy?
Friends, what are the criteria for marking answers as correct?
Are we allowed to express our own opinions?
Is it off topic to ask a question that isn't about philosophy but philosophers have asked?
Is thinking (and discussion) disallowed on the Philosophy site?

Almost ten years, not all of the bugs have been worked out, so please be aware there are different interpretations on how to use the mechanisms of voting and closure. We seem to have no by-laws to specify a policy to regulate said mechanism. In fact, you'll find radically different interpretations on how to use voting and closure. A good start for contemporary issues are the following:

FAQ
Would it be better to show some amount of humbleness considering close votes?
Friends, how could a question about an idea with its own article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy be closed as off-topic?

Certainly, with the minimum of regress, a strong foundation exists for establishing the principles of self-moderation. As far as I have determined in respect to governance, there are no actual by-laws on this site. My HOA has them, my daughter's school and brownie troop, and even my best friend's gaming clan has them. If they are here, I promise you I will find them. To be fair, the convolution of the documentation might most aptly be characterized as hoary and in need of combing. But as my personal interest in philosophy includes understanding the impact of technology practice on philosophical methods, I aim to contribute in the Theses-in-Wittenbergian sense on this front. I aim on addressing many points of contention. (Aus mehr als einem Grunde wird, lesen Sie Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum).
It is a rather common expectation that when people read and come to Philosophy Stack Exchange they often have their question closed rapidly and are told that while we are called "Philosophy Stack Exchange" it's best to understand that "Friends, we are not philosophers" and that technically speaking, we don't do philsophy. Personally I wonder why anyone, especially beginners who show an interest in philosophy, would be confused by that, but as is made clear "We are here to learn -- not to vent, bully or distract". Perhaps we might consider a name change to dissuade the notion we do philosophy.
:) Of course, I write those words tongue-in-cheek because if there's any community that should maintain a sense of humor in regards to their contributions in society, it should be deep-thinkers. In my not so humble opinion, the greatest philosopher in the world is Diogenes of Sinope whose pursuit of truth represents the best use of philosophy. But, I recognize such predilections are rather objective and offensive. Philosophy can be done as if we are non-probabilistic Turing Machines in a coopertition for the next great academic publication, certainly. But as a relatively new contributor who finds philosophy an end itself rather than a means of self-affirmation of my intelligence, I may accidentally offend the mien of those who see no reason for camaraderie or humor to have anything to do with philosophy. See Stanford Encyclopedia's entry 'dour-us philosophicus'.
Lastly, as a new user myself, let me make you aware that as a group of highly intelligent or highly educated contributors (sometimes even both), you will find yourself among many different perspectives, particularly on what constitutes the nature of philosophy itself. You will find necessarily that each has not only his, her, or (substitute non-binary here) approach, but their own idiolect. These differences sometimes lead to different interpretations about finer nuances of mechanism and policy, and from my perspective, these have taken a toll on the soul of the community. Once, this very forum was bubbling with enthusiasm. See How can we promote Philosophy Stack Exchange?. But my sense is the thrill is gone, oh baby, the thrill is gone. One reason for that is many who seek counsel here don't do their homework starting with the FAQ and that can be frustrating for those of us who do. To wit:

According to the counter (I'll presume it works), In almost 9 years, out of the tens of thousands of visitors, we have managed to persuade exactly 286 persons to visit (presuming it hasn't counted my use of the document multiple times). As a former teacher, sounds about par for the course.
So, we welcome you heartily, and if you persevere, and don't sufficiently annoy the moderators who seemingly enjoy absolutely unlimited power like King John before Runnymede (I joke, of course. They are the brightest and friendliest among us. And most handsome. And wisest. And hopefully tolerant with a sense of humor???), you'll certainly learn a thing or two. Unless you do philosophy, because if you haven't heard, we are not philosophers. ;)
Comment: I agree that the discussions  and decisions on policy are all over the place and, frankly, quite outdated. I don't have any problem with questioning and discussing them, I welcome any contribution and hope it leads to fruitful outcomes. Reviving this community is something I would like to see and help. So if there is something I can help with, feel free to ping me and/or open a chat room, may it be (made) private or public.
Comment: Just one not-that-funny reminder from the answer to the post I linked to: "the point is not that none of us are philosophers (which would be false), it is that we are not here in our capacity as philosophers, but in our capacity as subject matter experts about the field of philosophy". Just as a guy on Physics.SE will obviously not conduct physical experiments or develop original theories on the site, but will share his knowledge about experiments and theories in the field of physics.
Comment: @PhilipKlöcking Thanks for the clarification. I hadn't realized that there was any genuine distinction between our capacity as philosophers and as subject matter experts about the field of philosophy which exactly why I'm here. To learn about the philosophies of philosophy that believe that capacities of philosophy encompass subject matter expertise and about the field of philosophy, those that believe that the capacities of philosophy don't encompass subject matter expertise about the field of philosophy, and those that either equivocate, embrace the contrapositive, avoid, etc.
Comment: @PhilipKlöcking Would we have a meta post to address those differences? :D And if we did, would it be better placed on the non-meta side if I were to ask? (You needn't answer. They're all rhetorical in nature.) I appreciate what you give to this community. It is lucky to have a philosopher who has both the capacities as a philosopher and the subject matter expertise about the field of philosophy. (Whatever their relation.) Tchuß. :D


Is it possible to make yogurt and cheese from spoiled milk?

Question: I get raw milk and to somehow pasteurize it, I boil it. The milk strongly curdled showing that it is spoiled and rotten (definitely, not suitable for drinking). Is it totally bad milk and I should throw it away? or it still can be used for making yogurt and cheese?
Comment: I was going to close this as a duplicate of [Can soured raw milk be used to make yogurt?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/18481) but I guess there is a distinction - that question is talking about milk that is only on its *way* to spoiling, for which the answer is "maybe", and this one is about milk that's actually spoiled, for which the answer is definitely "no". Still, I think the OP might have inferred that if soured milk is a bad idea, then spoiled milk is a *very* bad idea.
Comment: Are you saying that the milk curdled when you boiled it, or that it curdled later? If it curdled when you boiled it, that's normal. Milk doesn't do well at high temperatures.
Comment: @sourd'oh it's not a normal curling like forming cream, it generates sponge-like bunches.
Comment: @Aaronut thanks for the informative description.
Comment: my question is did it curdle during boiling? and then next question, why boil? Just bring to 180 degrees.
Answer: Even if it is possible, it is a very, very bad idea as you don't know what cultures or pathogens are in the already spoiled milk.
Fermented dairy products should only be made from fresh milk in good condition—and in most cases, that milk should be pasteurized while fresh absolutely as soon as possible from the source cows.
Comment: To add to this, it is certainly "possible" to do (since curdling is curdling is curdling), but decidedly unwise. Many varieties of Streptococcus grow very well in milk, and many of the wild varieties are well-known pathogens. Assuming you made it into cheese and then completely cured it, that would do nothing to remove the high levels of the toxic waste products produced by those pathogens that contribute to those pathogens' associated illnesses.
Answer: I have found that if the milk has completely separated on its own into curds and whey, the whey can be used to cook grains or as a soup base, where it will be boiled. I also pour off the whey that collects on top of a tub of yogurt as it gets used, and add that to my grain-cooking water. The curds, however, smell funky and and I haven't had good results utilizing them. They don't automatically make ricotta.
Answer: I suspect that you might have buttermilk, as recognized in Southern Asia and the Middle East. There, it sounds like they do just what you did, and then process it. Did you smell it? Did it smell sour, or rotten?
The Wikipedia entry for "Traditional Buttermilk" will clarify what you have. Here is an excerpt:

Originally, buttermilk referred to the liquid left over from churning butter from cultured or fermented cream. Traditionally, before the advent of homogenization, the milk was left to sit for a period of time to allow the cream and milk to separate. During this time, naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria in the milk fermented it. This facilitates the butter churning process, since fat from cream with a lower pH coalesces more readily than that of fresh cream. The acidic environment also helps prevent potentially harmful microorganisms from growing, increasing shelf-life.
Answer: I've been boiling spoiled milk, separating the sponge like solids and eating them all my life. I find them delicious, and never experienced any adverse effects. I expect it does depend on the way the milk got spoiled. I often add a bit of yogurt to the milk when I suspect it may be a bit off, then let the yogurt bacteria breed in it for a while before boiling. I guess it could be dangerous, but so far I'm happy with this procedure.
Answer: It is a good idea to utilize sour milk for buttermilk production. If its acidity is too high, it can be reduced by adding pasteurized chilled water after the curd has formed.
Answer: If you see your boiled milk is spoiled not to worry. Refrigerate milk for a few hours and then strain water completely. Once this procedure is complete you will see small cheese remains; then add some sugar for taste and cook it for 10-15 minutes until the water is exhausted. Your yummy cheese sweet dish will be ready to serve.


Copyright notices and multiple developers

Question: Suppose a big project with GPL license has several developers, most of whom working on a few source files. Is it appropriate/possible that the copyright notice in each source file include only the names of those developers who have worked on that single file? In other words: who are the copyright holders of a single source file and when somebody is allowed to add his/her name to the copyright notice?
Comment: Take a look at this. https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/886/copyright-and-contributing-to-an-open-source-project/
Answer: What is the creative work that the developers contributed to? Is every file an independent creative work for the purpose of copyright? Or does a software constituted from multiple files present a single and indivisible creative work?
In general, consensus seems to be that software copyright can be considered in a very fine grained manner, down to individual source code lines. However, the FSF also asserts that a larger software system in its entirety can be a derived work of all its components.
I do not think that those standpoints are contradictory, so that it is very well possible to track copyright holders on a file by file basis. Then, any contributor who makes a nontrivial change to a file holds partial copyright to that file, and would be allowed to add their copyright notice.
In practice, I think this is a fairly bad idea. It makes more sense to track contributors on a per-component basis.

Copyright notices do have legal relevance but they are in no way required for someone to be recognized as a copyright holder. Many copyright laws do encode the presumption that a person designated as the work's author is the copyright holder, which suggests

that there should be an indication of the contributor's authorship somewhere
that copyright notices should not designate some individuals as authors but not others

This can be resolved both by providing very complete per-file copyright notices, or by providing no per-file copyright notice at all (!).
It is difficult to tell whether smaller contributions amount to a copyrightable derived work. A project policy that every change counts will overstate the list of copyright holders. If the project has some policy that decides a cutoff point, that point is almost certainly wrong, and such a policy will attract politics and squabbling.

therefore, correct per-file copyright notices are very difficult and require extra effort

Not every contribution is a copyrightable contribution. In particular: not every contribution is code. It seems unfair to attribute only copyright holders.

My personal preference is to add a pseudo-notice "© <year> the <project> contributors" to individual files, though that doesn't count as a copyright notice under U.S. law. The full list of contributors can then be listed in a central place, regardless of whether they are copyright holders. Per-file authorship information is more accurately tracked by version control.
Comment: @Arham If you feel that way, I recommend you to mark it as an accepted answer as well as vote up the answer.
Comment: Thank you. The website discourages such comments but I find it a little impolite not to express gratitude for such a high-quality and detailed answer.
Comment: @J.A.P, I assure you that I'm well familiar with the routines in stackexchange websites. :)


Twitter client with Real Time Notifications?

Question: Is there a Twitter client (or just a utility) that pushes real time Twitter feed / mentions notifications? By real time, I mean notified as soon as the tweet is posted, like what MetroTwit does in Windows.
Answer: Hotot's had support for user streams(aka real-time updates) since quite some time. If the Chrome Extension isn't not what you're looking at, you can install the native client.
It is available in Ubuntu Software Center, click here to install it
Answer: Try Polly, I think it's brilliant. Don't know whether it's real time but it's quick enough for me to not notice.
The launchpad site is here Polly.
Or this is the PPA: ppa:conscioususer/polly-unstable
Just to note: It's currently in Alpha development stage but I haven't noticed any bugs as of yet.
Comment: It does support real time updates, as mentioned [here](https://launchpad.net/polly/+announcement/9182)
Answer: The Twitter Notifier extension for Chrome shows real time HTML5 desktop notifications.
Answer: TweetDeck provides real time notifications too, but I transferred to Hotot because TweetDeck was too heavy an app for me and requires too much of a bandwidth with my poor internet connection.


How Do I Upload Pages To The Server?

Question: I've heard of FTP but I'm not exactly sure how to use it. What's the best way to get pages from my computer to the server?
Comment: it's probably an OK question, though it's awfully .. beginner
Comment: Are your employers aware that you don't know how to use FTP? ;) - Good question on behalf of the beginners though.
Comment: This doesn't belong on this site.  It belongs on one of the Trilogy Sites.
Comment: ha i wanted to get an FTP question out there
Comment: @jeff it's terribly beginner, but where better to get info if you're a beginner than from a "pro webmaster" site? :) if i'm a beginner and i don't know what FTP is, i see this post and now i know...
Answer: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It provides a method for passing bulk data to a server. There are a number of tools available that you can use to perform FTP uploads to your hosting provider. A popular choice is FileZilla - a free open source FTP program which has fairly good documentation and is available across most popular platforms.
It's important to keep a few things in mind when using FTP - it is not encrypted by default meaning your credentials and content that you send are sent in the clear so are vulnerable to interception. To address this you should connect to your hosting provider using FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS).
Your hosting provider should be able to provide you details with the address for connection for FTP upload and on what credentials you should use to connect.
Answer: Depending your hosting provider, and how you build your website there are a number of tools out there.
As Wolfwyrd explains, you could indeed use tools like FileZilla to upload your files manually.
Other programmes such as the Visual Studio family (right down to the recently released WebMatrix edition) and Dreamweaver include mechanisms that allow you to "publish" your site to a hosting provider - under hood however, these will all be using FTP to transfer the files to the server.

How Do I Upload Pages To The Server?


System State restore

Question: I am unclear about the System State restore. Suppose I restore the System State followed by reinstalling my other Programs (Visual Studio, etc.). In such case the registry value is updated with the new installation. So how does the System State help me here?
Comment: I'm not sure what you mean by "How does the System State help me here?" Thanks. BTW: here is a question about the System State: http://serverfault.com/questions/17624/what-is-a-system-state-backup-for/17682
Answer: Restoring the system state winds the registry back to whatever it was when you did the backup, hopefully removing any registry corruption that hapopened after the backup. If you didn't have your apps installed when you did the backup then obviously restoring the system state will remove their install/config details. This may be a good thing of course, because a failed installation may be why you want to restore the system state back to an earlier version.
Like splattne I'm not sure what your question is.
JR

System State restore


Is there a Free-To-Play item that my character can hold in Runescape that increases experience output, even slightly?

Question: Not sure if this is a duplicate.I have been playing Runescape for five years now, and I have been wondering if there is an item that I can hold that increases how much experience I can get. For example, if I cut down an oak log, I would normally get about 40 experience. Is there an item that I can hold that will increase this to, let's say, 45 experience or higher?
Answer: You can have urns in your inventory that will grant bonus experience in fishing, cooking, mining, smithing, woodcutting and prayer. The lower level urns are free to play items.
Also, cooking on a bonfire will slightly increase the cooking xp gained, as will burning logs on a bonfire instead of burning them normally. The lower level bonfires are free to play.
Answer: For Runecrafting, you can use one of the three Runecrafting Gloves to double the amount of XP earned when crafting runes of the glove's type.
They have a limited amount of uses, and can only be obtained from the Fist of Guthix minigame, but are, in my opinion, worth the cost.