Detect my hardware and install matching drivers

Question: When I install Windows on a machine, it is always a pain to download all drivers: is there any free program that could take care of this? I found a few ones like DriverNavigator but I haven't found any free one.
Comment: As an aside, you rarely want software to autoinstall drivers. drivers usually come with a bunch of marginware that in the best case is useless and in the worst case can damage your system. For example, unless you have an Nvidia sound card, you don't want to install the HD audio drivers along with your GPU drivers.
Comment: Related: [Tool to manage all drivers](http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/q/2238/46).
Comment: Additional tip:  You can use the built-in tool **dism** to inject drivers into the **install.wim** file.  If you put the install files on USB stick (or any read-write location) you can mount the install.wim and inject drivers.  Don't forget to **comitt** changes and **unmount**.
Answer: You can use SlimDrivers Free:

free and portable
Make sure you uncheck the crapware while installing
Scan for missing or out-of-date date drivers
Download updated drivers manually
Answer: You can use ma-config.com :

web app, but installs a client software that does the actual hardware detection
free as in beer, don't know what the license is but it doesn't look like a for-profit website
no crapware, at least not when I last had to use it which was in 2013
uses the driver DB from Tous les drivers.com (means "all drivers.com" in French) which is up to date and provides direct downloads for a wide range of drivers
doesn't force you to install anything and doesn't install anything automatically, it just displays a list of devices for which a driver is needed (whether there is currently no driver or the current one is outdated) and gives the corresponding TLD.com link for you to manually download and install.

Finally, you could also try running Windows Update and making sure to install recommended updates, it often provides drivers in there. While they're not the latest, they usually work fine and that's all you want.
-- UPDATE: driverscloud.com is the new website for this solution
Answer: Windows Update
I have always got on fine with just using windows update.
Except when I don't have network card drivers, but then nothing can help me.
Generally when you install new hardware windows update just opens.
Instructions for windows 7 can be found here., I'm sure you can find them for your version.
This also will not work in older versions of windows. (It works fine in Windows Vista, 7 and 8, I can no longer remember if it works in XP. It definately does not in 98 or prior)
Answer: I personally used the free version of DriverMax for a few years and never had any problems. It is good at identifying unrecognized drivers and offers easy driver backup and restore (keep a regular backup on a USB stick in case you ever need to reinstall Windows)).
The free version only allows you 2 drivers per day, but that is usually enough.
I purchased a year's subscription when I had 3 or 4 PCs to "upgrade" From Windows 8 to Windows 7 and find it money well spent.
Obligatory screen-shot:
Answer: I use Driver_Booster from IOBIT. It's free and allows you to install all drivers in just one click.
Developer's Website:
Comment: Welcome amk! The OP requested a free program.  Please specify in your answer if it is free.  Also, please provide a link directly to the developer.  Thanks!
Comment: it is free, and link has been provided for direct download.
Answer: You can use driver easy. But you have to install the drivers manually.
I made this software to solve the headache of manual driver installation. The software is free and open source. It automates the whole process with a wizard. You just have to specify the .inf file and that's all!!!
Here is the link to download:
https://botien-driver-installer.sourceforge.io
https://sourceforge.net/projects/botien-driver-installer/files/BotienDriverInstaller-x64.exe/download


Convert a .vmx file for use on EC2

Question: I've got a virtual machine that I'd like to have running as an EC2 instance.  Is there any way to simply convert a .vmx to an EC2 image?
Answer: A vmx file is simply a descriptor for the vmware virtual machine. The VMDK is what you will need to convert.
Gareth's first link is a good tutorial on how to convert a VMDK->AMI, but you WILL have to change your kernel, and then you will have to bundle the image. The whole process is described on this link: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/amazon-ec2.html
Alternatively, you can talk to a vcloud provider about uploading your VM without any conversion: http://vcloud.vmware.com
Good luck!
Answer: Amazon now offers this service. Download a tool and it will create an AMI and upload the disk images.
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/vmimport/
Answer: I haven't tried this specific situation myself, but here is a useful link that should help you out.
Since this article was written, Amazon has introduced the ability to run a custom kernel, which may help if the kernel used on your VM is not one of the standard EC2 kernels (I'm assuming you're using Linux here).  See this link for more info.

Convert a .vmx file for use on EC2


Is it a good idea to drink blood to avoid dehydration?

Question: When in an emergency survival situation were you don't have access to clean or at least "okay" water but to wildlife (or it is at least easier to grab a snake for example than to gather water), is it a good idea to drink blood to avoid dehydration?
Comment: I don't believe that's true. People have survived solely on raw fish while stranded at sea. Your GI tract reclaims excess water, which is why stools are not normally diarrhea. So any water your body happens to add plus any water contained in the food will be reabsorbed in your large intestine, the net result being a water gain. You'd have to show me a credible source to believe otherwise.
Comment: @CareyGregory Thanks for the input. I've created a question regarding this topic: http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/13363/should-i-eat-or-not-when-dehydration-is-a-potential-threat :) Hope it's okay, that I've quoted parts of your comments.
Comment: If you have access to wild game then you don't need to drink blood. There will be enough water in the meat you eat to keep you alive under most circumstances.
Comment: You shouldn't eat when dehydration can become a problem! If you have nothing to drink, then do not eat. Eating anything, even watery foods, takes water from your system to create the slurry that will be able to move through your GI tract.
Answer: While various sources suggest drinking some blood in emergency will help, the risks outweigh the benefits.
From 5 Myths of Dehydration:

Sure, there's water in blood. But whose or what's blood are you planning to drink? Some of the traditional cattle cultures of Africa still consume cattle blood, often blended with milk. But this is done for protein and minerals, rather than hydration... While the consumption of turtle blood and other animal blood has helped to keep oceanic castaways alive, the risk doesn't usually justify the gain. Drinking the raw blood of any creature could result in the contraction of a pathogen.

As most animals that you are likely to catch need water, use this as a brief stopgap (a few days) while you find their water source, which is hopefully not too far away.
Comment: Not only pathogens. There was a suggestion that in large quantities could lead to iron poisoning (blood foods typical of some countries like the blood soups, curd, etc can give that problem if you eat too much of them, tourists are often advised about that particularly if they use regularly iron supplements already) although a researcher that interviewed several people that drink plain blood said noone of them ever complained of any problem. So maybe its wise to not drink too much and maybe pick an anemic snake.
Comment: @Erik vanDoren Can we now anticipate a question on how to identify an anemic snake?
Comment: @ab2, yes, I guess the answer would be the pale ones? ;)


Xubuntu 13.04 some images won't load properly in any browser

Question: I've had this problem for a couple of days now and I have no clue what might be causing it. When entering a particular website, it won't load the same images over and over again. At first I thought it was a problem with Chrome, but I it's the same with Firefox and Chromium.
This is how I see my subscriptions feed in YouTube:

And this is how I see Chrome's Web Store:

I've tried the following things so far without any success:

I've deleted the cache of FF and Chrome numerous times
Reinstalled Chrome a couple of times and even switched versions (from 26.0.1410.43 to 28.0.1500.71)
I've tried 'Empty cache and Hard Reload' from the context menu of the Refresh button in Chrome when the F12 key is pressed.
Even deleting the browsers' folders from ~/.cache won't do the trick. The same images won't load every time.
I completely reinstalled my Xubuntu and in the beginning there wasn't such a problem. However, after an hour or so (after I finished installing my stuff), it appeared again. In Windows I don't have such an issue with the same Google account(s).
Incognito Mode doesn't help.
Disabling all extensions;
Disabling Pepper Flash and enabling Shockwave Flash from chrome://plugins;
Reinstalling Java OpenJDK 7

Due to the fact that a forum post suggested it might be a graphics driver issue (although regarding an AMD card), I thought it may have something to do with my new gpu. A few weeks back I used Intel HD Graphics but can't confirm that the problem didn't occur then. Now I have a GTX 760, using the 319.32 version of Nvidia's drivers. Could this be related somehow?
Some people having similar issues suggested it might be a problem with the kernel (3.8.0-26-generic). However, a fresh install of Xubuntu 13.04 has a 3.8.0-19-generic kernel and after installing the updates, you can choose between -19 and -26. My gpu's drivers are installed for the -26 kernel and when launching the -19 (without gpu drivers installed) the problem persists.
Other people stated it might be a conflict with xfce, but God, I can't stand the newer versions of Gnome.
I don't know what to do, please help - it's driving me insane.
Comment: Are you behind a proxy?
Comment: No. Nor system, neither browser. By the way, I forgot to mention that some people on the Google support pages regarded this as an ISP issue but I'm not sure that's possible. Others said it was due to a connection to a Wi-Fi network. Although I don't use wi-fi to connect to the internet with my PC, I disabled it from my router but still, no use.
Answer: Oh my God, I just resolved the issue. It was due to a couple of iptables rules which were meant for anti-exploit protection of a gameserver I'm hosting but it seems that some of them interfere with my browser experience... I'm going to look for a security workaround, at least now the pages load properly.


Free android app that can RECEIVE sms messages

Question: I need an app that can receive sms's for free on android or possibly iOS to sign up for services. All the free apps are the two same apps reposted and actually cost money or don't receive SMS's, only send them. The ratings and download number are also very positive regardless of the apps being a scam. Does someone know of a legitimate app that I download and receive SMS's to a phone number that doesn't cost money?
Comment: @Mawg, I didn't have a phone that worked in the country I was in and needed a wifi phone.
Comment: Just curious - what's wrong with your 'phone's built in SMS app? Or are you asking for an app which also provides a 'phone number? If so, please update your question; thanks
Comment: I see. Thanks for explaining (+1). You might want to update your question to make it clearer. What you are after is probably *not* an SMS an SMS app. SMS can only be sent over the telephone network, to your Directory Number, which is associated with your SIM card, which you have said that you cannot use in the country where you are/will be ... ->
Comment: Which leaves you two options 1) an app like WhatsApp, which can ne used on WiF, or 2) such an app, but it will write any messages received to your 'phone's SMS data and will somehow manage to convert whatever you send to an SMS before delivering it. The latter can only be achieved by sing a server somewhere, which generates SMS message. It cannot be done in 'phone only, using WiFi ... ->
Comment: Are you just looking for a chat app? Or must it look like SMS, both receiving and sending?  Would you accept an app which requires those with whom you communicate to install it too, or not? If not, is your 'phone iOS or Android (lose the other tag)? Must if be free, or do you have a budget? My is to get a cheap second hand Android 'phone and pout you SIM in it, for simplicity's sake; send & receive SMS as normal and use WifI calling with Skype, Viper, WhatsApp, etc
Answer: After trying about ~20 apps. FreedomPop is the first phone app on android that worked for free to receive an SMS. Google's app turned out to be junk- Wouldn't advance past the opening screen. I have successfully signed up for services now using FreedomPop so the numbers are recognized online.
It's called text free & call free in the store but named freedompop after you install it and has a medium (3.9) score which shows ratings don't appear to mean much sometimes. The app that is titled Myfreedompop in the store is apparently a scam that charges you without asking so be careful to pick this one(at least this version has worked today).

Update: Found another app that worked and received SMS: TextNow android app.
Update 2: Found a third app that worked: textFree
The number can be used for a month on these free which is more than I need just to receive an SMS verification message.


Turning off cell broadcast messages in HTC One X Plus

Question: I have been receiving about 50 flash sms a day, with my service provider name TIM RS 51, from the number 50. As I read here, it might be a issue with activating and deactivating cell broadcast on the phone. However, I could not find the path suggested for the deactivation (Setting/Call/Other Call Settings). The option does not exist on this path. Any help?
Comment: Depending on your Android version, either a duplicate or at least related: [Turning off cell broadcast messages in Ice Cream Sandwich](http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/24039/16575)
Comment: Eliana, could you please add the information what Android version your device is running (the name of the device might be useful as well)? Those settings appear on different places, depending on Android version and sometimes even on device. You will find this information in *Settings->About phone* usually.
Comment: Some more digging: My *LG Optimus 4X* has it nowhere in its options, but it has an additional app pre-installed ("Cell Info"). Also, some other places to check include [this XDA thread](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1946265), an [issue at google code](http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=41539) (about not being able to turn it off), and a [video at Youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juLMhR_Ijls).
Answer: I show the setting under
Settings | Wireless & networks | More... | Cell broadcasts

with three options to choose from:

Show extreme threats
Show severe threats
Show AMBER alerts

(Android 4.1.1 / Galaxy Nexus)
Comment: I cannot find that on my Optimus 4x (Android 4.0.3). Could you please add which Android version you refer to, Al? I mean, I wouldn't wonder if that again is a special "LG cleanup" (the Optimus also misses the detailed battery usage stats with the bars for network, wifi, screen on, awake)...
Answer: It's Settings->Call-> *uncheck* Cell broadcast -> *click* OK to the confirmation question.
Comment: Unfortunately, there is no checkbox or option about cell broadcast under settings/call. I cant find this option anywhere on the phone, specially not under Settings/Call/Cell broadcast. Thanks anyway, do you have anyother idea?...Android version is 4.1.1 and phone model is htc one x plus.
Comment: That does not resemble the option under Android 4.1.1 - that looks more like Gingerbread or earlier....


How to help my 4-year-old son who has a stuffy nose but doesn't understand yet how to blow his nose?

Question: My 4-year-old son just started to get sick and he has lot of snot in his nose. He doesn't quite understand how to blow his nose yet, but when he tries he gags. Is there anything that I can do for him without having to go to the store (everything is closed)?
Comment: Practice makes perfect!!
Answer: If you have a suction device (a blue bulb syringe or similar used on babies to clear secretions), this is relatively easy to do. You can increase the effectiveness of this by instilling a few drops of saline solution (one tsp table salt to two cups warm water) in each nostril with the head tilted back, then suction. Repeat several times per day.
Steam is fine for kids of all ages. The safest is to just put them in a bathroom with the shower running hot, steaming up the room. (keep them away from the hot water.) It will loosen secretions and make them easier to blow or suction out.
Increase fluids, both by drinking more and humidifying the air (a kettle on the stove helps.) This will thin secretions making blowing the nose easier.
Practice nose blowing. Exhale through the nose holding one side closed, then the other. If he gags, he's probably inhaling the mucous. Practice.
Use the very softest tissues you can find. Nothing is worse than blowing your nose when it's raw. You can also protest the nostrils by applying a bit of vaseline or bacitracin to the outside and underside of the nose.
Don't make this a power struggle. If he chooses not to blow his nose, he lives with a stuffy nose.
Good luck.
Answer: It seems horrible until you get into a situation like this, but the NoseFrida is a life-saver.
Answer: If you happen to have wintergreen oil, rubbing it on his chest will usually decongest. However, it may sting and is hard to get used to as a child. I speak from experience.
In addition, boiling water/showering and breathing in the steam is helpful, but I would not recommend it for just 4 years old, as it may be a safety hazard.


How do I take a break on the spot in a moment of extreme stress or feeling overwhelmed?

Question: What can I say/do when I am about to explode (for any possible reason) and need to stop or take a break on the spot even if I am in the middle of something - due to feeling overwhelmed, stressed, extremely frustrated or any other high emotional-aggressive outburst at work - without putting my job at risk?
Comment: In the middle of what? If you're just sitting working alone, you can probably just take a break right then and there without saying much / anything, but if you're in the middle of a meeting, it might be a bit more difficult.
Comment: This question is too vague/too broad to give meaningful answers: "for any possible reason", the middle of "something", "any other" outburst. And since you're not telling anything about your job, how can we answer anything about possible risks?
Comment: If it gets there, and it really shouldn't very often, I just get up and walk away.  I think maybe there's underlying issues though if this is happening regularly?
Comment: Yes, most of my day-to-day work involves communicating with multiple people and juggling multiple problems/requests/etc.
Answer: It does depend what you're in the middle of.
If you're just sitting working alone, you can probably just take a break right then and there without saying much / anything.

Ask for a break
In some situations, it could be as simple as:

Do you mind if we take a few minute break to regroup and get some coffee or a snack?

Or something a little more assertive:

I think now would be a good time to stop for a quick break to regroup and get some coffee or a snack. What do you think?

Ask for a bathroom break
In other situations, you can probably get away with something like:

Do you mind if I take a quick bathroom break.

(and actually go to the bathroom - you don't want to be a liar - you could even just splash some water on your face or something)
This is probably more for a one-on-one setting with your senior, in case you don't feel comfortable with the first option.
No respectful person will question your bathroom habits, unless it's seriously getting in the way of your work, or it's unbelievably often, even for someone with valid medical reasons.
Plan appropriately
Under other circumstances, you could perhaps try planning your meetings with a break or two in the middle, assuming this builds up rather than just coming on suddenly.
Discuss it with your boss
This still may not cover all situations.
If other situations are common, you should perhaps consider raising the issue with your boss - as long as you choose your words carefully, and he/she is understanding, it shouldn't go badly, and you should be able to work something out.
Extremely overwhelmed / stressed are probably the words you want to use - I would steer clear of "explode", "aggressive" and probably "frustrated" - those might across as you wanting to hurt someone, which is definitely not an image you want to portray.

Note that you should probably deal with the cause of needing these breaks - perhaps you're unhappy at work, perhaps there's some underlying reason, either way, it's likely to get worse. If you can't identify the cause yourself, you should perhaps consider going to see a psychologist / psychiatrist.
Comment: Fixing the cause is definitely the long-term approach - but I think all of us sometime need to take this kind of breather from time to time and it's easy to do: "Hey, look I'm sorry but do you mind if we take a couple of/five/ten minutes here to regroup and get a drink and/or snack"
Comment: @HorusKol Yes, that could also work. Edited my answer.
Comment: +1 for bathroom break: if you're sitting in a stall, nobody will question you, regardless if you're using the toilet or just trying to catch your breath and calm down. Instant privacy.
Answer: Breathe. For as many breath cycles as you can afford in time (even one can help - personally I aim for at least three cycles, at most a few minutes worth), move your focus away from your work and just notice your breath coming into your body and then leaving your body. Usually by the third breath, my shoulders will let go and my mind will feel begin to feel clearer.
This is an idea promoted by Janice Marturano (former VP of General Mills) in her book  Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership (2014). She recommends ten minutes of breathing (I have never made it that long):

Bring your attention to the sensations you notice as the breath enters
  and leaves the body. Whether you feel the breath most strongly in the
  nostrils, in the chest, or deep in the belly, aim and sustain your
  attention on the sensations of the entire in-breath and the entire
  out-breath in that area of the body.
When you notice your mind has drifted off - for example, running
  through your to-do list, rehearsing what you are going to say to
  someone, or playing a little movie in your head - redirect your
  attention to the sensations of your breath. There is no need to change
  your normal breath and no need for deep breathing exercises. Just
  notice the sensations that are already available to notice. There is
  nothing to change, control, or fix. Just be aware of the way the body
  experiences each in-breath and each out-breath.

If you are really upset and are physically affected by adrenaline, you may need to move as well. A few minutes walk, thinking about the feel of your feet on the ground instead of anything work-related, can help relieve the flight/fight feelings. Personally, I find that if I can get out of the building, even for one minute, into fresh air and sunlight, it makes a huge difference.
The trick in breathing or walking, though, is to stop thinking about work, to stop thinking at all!


What OST is played in episode 685 when Fujitora is talking about colosseum's warriors teaming up?

Question: What OST is playing in the background of episode 685 right after the end of the first half of the episode when Fujitora is talking about colosseum's warriors teaming up?
Comment: Hi, welcome to A&M Stack Exchange. I assumed the image is the scene when the song is playing? If so, I replaced it with textual information because images are not indexable/searchable. If not, then consider [edit]ing the question and add more details. Thanks.
Answer: This OST comes from One Piece Movie 5, its name is : The Marine Swordsman's Battle Cry
Here is a link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOkvZQknY6E


In Krita, using the Rectangular Selection Tool how can I delete and get transparency?

Question: I am trying to figure out how I can make a selection, delete the contents within the selection and get transparency. Right now when I make the selection and press Delete I get the area filled with a white background which is not what I want. FYI, I have Krita configured with Background 'As first layer' and not 'As canvas color'.
Comment: See [this](https://krita.org/en/item/updated-krita-colortoalpha-filter/)
Comment: Either delete, or hide the background layer.
Comment: Billy Kerr, I only have one layer showing and I can't hide or delete the one that I am working on.
Answer:
Select the Rectangular Selection Tool.
In the Tool bar at the top of the canvas, enable Eraser Mode.
Now when you make a selection and press delete, it will erase instead of filling the selection with white.
Answer: ADD: The questioner has edited the question. The edit shows that his problem wasn't "the canvas"
Original answer:
I have used Krita only for some tests. One of my findings:
There's a basic concept "canvas". When starting a new image one can select white or other background color, define it to be opaque and set the background to be - not a layer, but the canvas.
This is asking troubles. When you delete something or make it transparent, the canvas comes instead.
I have not found how to get rid of the canvas. Thus I have only a partial solution for future projects:
When starting a new image, define the background to be a layer. Then it can be easily removed or you can erase a part of it.
An example of opening a new drawing:

After making a selection and pressing DEL:

NOTE: any erasing method should do the same if there's no canvas! If there's canvas, all erasing methods and also making the paint transparent bring the canvas visible.
If you already have something important painted in an image which has opaque canvas, you can use the following workaround:

start a new image which has one transparent layer, no canvas!
goto the image which has the canvas, select and copy a layer to the clipboard
paste to the new image


Bitcoin-Qt - backing up unencrypted wallet then encrypting it

Question: If I back up unencrypted wallet.dat somewhere safe (TrueCrypt volume) and then encrypt the wallet by Settings / Encrypt Wallet, will my backup still be useful? I think the message after encrypting the wallet said something about other unencrypted backups being useless as soon as encrypted wallet starts to be used - how could that be possible at all, I don't believe that claim and I hope it's not true :/
Answer: Besides storing your current private keys, bitcoin wallet file also contains some pool of unused private keys. When encrypting wallet, this pool is flushed.
If you make some transaction using new (encrypted) wallet then change is sent to one of addresses from the pool, which is not present in old (unencrypted) wallet.
For example, you had 1BTC incoming transaction and spend 0.1BTC, then remaining 0.9BTC will be send to a change address. Then old (unencrypted) wallet will not be able to use this 0.9BTC, and they will be lost. But if you haven't done any transactions involving your coins, the old wallet will work.
Comment: Awesome explanation, thank you! I understand now... just this: so when I change my password, there should not be the same issue, right?
Comment: PS: my last question: I want to use 8-character password -> is this really not enough? Does making it 10-chars as recommended make it unbreakable?
Comment: @DavidKrmpotic: 1) From source code it seems the key pool is *not* renewed when *changing* passphrase, so old backup should be usable. But I'd recommend to back it up anyway just to be on the safe side. 2) Bruteforcing a bitcoin wallet is not limited by some external means (like CAPTCHAs etc), so good password for a web service might be not secure enough for a wallet. The recommended length is at least 12 *random* characters.


What should I look for in hiking binoculars

Question: I'd like a pair of binoculars for hiking.  I don't have a specific use other than for looking off of overlooks, at animals, etc.  What are the important things to look for in a good set of binoculars?  There appears to be a very wide range of price and features to choose from.
Comment: Ever since I've watched through Leica & Swarovski looking through any other brand binocular has been a dissapointment.
Comment: There is not going to be a generic answer to this. It will be a trade-off involving price, features, and weight. I have a nice pair of binoculars, but I wouldn't take them hiking because they're big and heavy. But other people might not might the weight.
Comment: This question is great for me - we keep using the free Nat Trust binoculars, but they're not that'd great, good info in all the answers here, will definitely help in buying some.
Comment: Do you need Binocular - For hiking the weight savings of a monocular should be seriously considered.
Comment: A quality camera with optical zoom will often provide better results than compact binoculars. If you already carry a camera, it may be all you need
Answer: I researched this and there are a few factors
Aperture - This is the diameter of the objective (or front) lens and affects the amount of light taken in.  Aperture is very important for low light situations.  If you plan on using your binoculars near dawn or dusk, or under canopy, then you want a larger aperture.  This is the second number used to describe binoculars.  So 4x30 binoculars would have a 30mm aperture.  Aperture unfortunately tends to linearly correlate with weight.
Magnification - Simple zoom.  The first number and indicates the zoom factor.  So 4 in our 4x30 example magnifies by 4 times.  9 should be more than sufficient for most hiking.  Mountain hikes with long open lookouts may call for more.
Lens Coating - Lens coatings will significantly reduce glare and improve quality.  At a minimum you want "Full coated" which means that all lens-air surfaces are coated.  Multi-Coating will generally improve glare reduction and is exactly as it sounds... multiple different coatings.
Roof vs. Porro Prism - Roof prism will be smaller, lighter, and more durable, but will provide a smaller field of vision as compared to porro prism.  For hiking you want the durability and lightness gained with roof prism.
Water/Fog Proofing - These features are critical if you expect to be in wet or damp environments.  I have purchased (and wasted money on) more than one pair of cheap binoculars that did not have this.  Waterproofing is usually accomplished with O-Rings, but fog proofing requires that the internal air spaces be filled with inert gas.
Comment: Through scopes when hunting yes, and the physics should be the same.
Comment: Have you had any success with large apertures in low-light conditions?
Comment: I would add compass as a nice feature to have in binoculars  for hiking. There's not a lot of use in it in our age of GPS and GLONASS, but I loved it in old days then we still had paper maps.
Answer: Optically, even cheap binoculars are very good these days so unless you need something special I wouldn't use this as a differentiator when looking.
Instead the three I see as most important are size, weight and robustness.
If they are going with you everywhere you need to make sure they will fit in your pack, not be too heavy and be able to take the odd drop, being bashed off trees, getting wet etc.
Answer: Let me share my rather limited experience.
Low-end
A 50BGN ~= $25EUR 12-50x50*:
There are several small loose parts of plastic inside the binoculars. They obscure small parts of the lenses. Not a very big problem, and I accept it for the money.
The 50mm will collect more light through the large input lenses and provide crisper viewing,  working well near dawn/dusk. However, the thing weights more than half a kilo - prohibitively heavy for any kind of backpacking.
The variable zoom is useless. Zooming works, but the resolution is limited by the lenses and therefore no additional details appear.
Edit:
Lightweight
My second binoculars was 12x35, extremely lightweight, waist-mounted. Perfect for hiking, until I sat on it. Lightweight and rugged seem to exclude each other.
Midrange
My third binoculars is ~100EUR and it seems to be the sweet spot. You can see Jupiter or the Moon's surface!
* The first number (in this case a range from 12 to 50), represents the zoom factor. The second number, in this case 50, represents the diameter of the input lenses in mm
Answer: If you are looking for binoculars suitable for hiking, you should look in the category of 'compact binoculars'. So, what are some of the characteristics of these binoculars?
They should be small and lightweight. Hikers usually carry a lot of weight in their backpack, especially when setting out on a long trek. Heavy binoculars are difficult to store in a backpack since they take up plenty of space. Furthermore, it is not comfortable to carry them strapped around the neck for too long. Compact binoculars boast an ideal weight and size for such occasions (the objective lens measures somewhere between 28 and 36 mm in diameter). They can be easily stored in a backpack and even fit in some bigger pockets. You will not experience any neck tension when wearing them strapped around the neck, even for longer periods of time.
I advise you to get either 8x or 10x magnification binoculars as they are the most popular. Get 10x if you wish to observe more details; get 8x if you wish to have a wider field of view. Keep in mind that the shaking of hands is more noticeable when using 10x magnification binoculars. Binoculars with magnification bigger than 10x should be mounted on a tripod when observing to maintain a steady image.
Roof prisms are more popular than Porro prisms when it comes to binoculars suitable for hiking as roof prism binoculars are not as bulky as the Porro ones. Porro binoculars are known to provide a better light transmission rate than the roof prism ones, but compact binoculars are not designed to be used in the dusk, which is why this feature is irrelevant for such use.
Compact binoculars are not only great for hiking, but also travelling, camping, birdwatching, and many other activities. They can also be used by children because of their small size.
You can buy this type of binoculars for as low as 50 or as high as 2000 EUR. The differences are mostly in the build quality, optical quality, number & quality of accessories provided, country of manufacturing, and the length of the warranty period. We would advise you to spend at least 100 EUR for the binoculars to avoid disappointment.
If you wish to read more about the topic, learn about the features of binoculars in each price class and find out which are the best-performing binoculars in each price class, check out the compact binoculars buying guide on this link: https://www.optics-trade.eu/blog/compact-binoculars-buying-guide/
Note: I have experience in this field as I work at the Optics-Trade webstore.
Comment: -1, your answer reiterates the contents of the other, quite old answers and ends with something close to an advertisement.


VALA GTK Header Bar with switch distorted

Question: I'm trying to create a Window with a HeaderBar, and in the HeaderBar there will be a Switch. But, the switch gets sized vertically, and gets distorted (non proportional), is there some fix?
Answer: You need to set its valign property to center:
<code>Gtk.Switch toggle = new Gtk.Switch();
toggle.valign = Gtk.Align.CENTER;
</code>
Also, it's worth having a look at Granite.ModeSwitch
EDIT: I strongly recommend Alessandro Castellani's Vala Tutorials. It covers everithing you need to know to get you started.
Comment: I'm just starting programming in Vala and Gtk. I'm using valadoc documentation, but it lacks more deep examples and in some cases it does not show all properties and methods (like valign), you have to browse the class hierarchy, it takes some time.
Some options are non intuitive, for instance, boxes have 3 extra parameters on pack_start() or pack_end() where you can set if the widget should fill or add extra padding.

Thank you.
Comment: Hey @Edney, glad I could help. Gtk.Switch inherits valign from the Gtk.Widget class. I just started playing with Vala almost a month ago, and yes, digging through the documentation sucks, but it's worth it, and it is a big part of the job :D. I also spend a lot of time on GitHub, looking at how other existing applications are built. But a good proper IDE would help a lot...
Comment: Auto completion would help (lol), thanks again


Top panel and launcher missing in new installation of ubuntu 13.04

Question: I have just installed ubuntu 13.04 on my ThinkPad laptop. I am missing the Unity launcher on the left and the Unity panel bar across the top. I only found references to the same problem for upgrades, so I tried everything written here, here and here with no success.
However, referring to the second link, I ran ccsm and found my Ubuntu Unity Plugin unchecked. Checking it required to also enable the OpenGL and so I did. But, apparently I am unable to enable the OpenGL. Trying to enable it manually...and the checkbox gets automatically unchecked after few seconds.
Please help.
Update: I have Intel graphics driver, maybe the problem is specifically with it?. I also tried running ccsm after logging using CTRL+ALT+F1 like given here. I was able to enable OpenGL and the Ubuntu Unity Plugin there, but still, no effect on my display, also after reboot.
Answer: I "solved" this by installing Kubuntu. Just wanted to put into use an old laptop for my son so it didn't really matter to me.


Why didn't the Allspark repair Bumblebee's voice processor?

Question: In the first Transformers movie we see Frenzy regenerate its entire body in a couple of seconds once it finds the Allspark. Whether Frenzy initiated the repair or it occurred simply by being in the presence of the cube isn't clear. But in either case why didn't the Allspark repair Bumblebee's vocal processor before Bumblebee shrunk the cube?
Answer: It is a detail that most likely got overlooked by the production team. But also may be because this led to the rather funny running gag where BumbleBee cannot speak, and talks only through radio snippets. Sadly no in-universe explanation for this.
Answer: It does fix his voice box thingy as he talks at the end of the movie if I'm not mistaken, asking optimus permission to stay with the boy
Comment: This doesn't really answer the question.
Answer: The all spark DID repair bumble bees voice projector (albeit as Transformers 2 stated only temporarily). The problem was only that bee was so used to his "own" method of talking that he just used that instead of trying to talk and thus only did talk at the very end of the 1st film when he had something important on his heart.
Why it was only temporarily repaired though was never stated as far as I know.


Dynamic taxonomy in permalink made all other posts NOT FOUND?

Question: I added my taxonomies in the permalink instead of the Custom Post Type's slug, and it works fine. I'd even say everything was working fine but changing the WP installation to Multisite broke all other posts and pages (not the CPTs).
The permalinks are generated correctly every time as ?p=123 or other guessed urls, so the post info is found, but not found for the loop.
This is how I got the taxonomy in place of the CPT's slug:
1) The post_type rewrite is defined as %listing_type% and it works fine, as follow:
'rewrite' => array(
            'slug' => '/%listing_type%',
            'with_front' => false,

2) And the following functions replace the %listing_type% and "listing_type" string from the urls and term links, generated by e.g. wp_list_categories(), respectively (removing the CPT's name from the url)
  function listing_type_link_filter_function( $post_link, $id = 0, $leavename = FALSE ) {
    if ( strpos('%listing_type%', $post_link) === 'FALSE' ) {
      return $post_link;
    }
    $post = get_post($id);
    if ( !is_object($post) || $post->post_type != 'listing' ) {
      return $post_link;
    }
    $terms = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID, 'listing_type');
    if ( !$terms ) {
      return str_replace('/listing_type', '/', $post_link);
    }
    return str_replace('%listing_type%', $terms[0]->slug, $post_link);
  }

add_filter('post_type_link', 'listing_type_link_filter_function', 1, 3);

  function term_link_filter_function( $termlink, $term, $taxonomy ) {
    if ( strpos('listing_type', $termlink) === 'FALSE' ) {
      return $termlink;
    } else  return str_replace('/listing_type', '', $termlink);
  }

add_filter('term_link', 'term_link_filter_function', 1, 3);

Now, I'm almost certain that everything was working fine before I made it a Multisite. I'll research how to safely un-do it (the multisite thing) and post the update later.
Any idea what could be breaking the posts and pages NOT in the above CPTs?
If I remove the %s from the post_type slug, everything works fine.
UPDATAE
I noticed other working examples had a rewrite rule for each custom permalink, so I added it, and VOILA, the posts are fixed now, but the pages are still broken
THIS PARTIALLY WORKS (posts only)
global $wp_rewrite;
$wp_rewrite->extra_permastructs['listing'][0] = "%listing_type%/%postname%";
    add_rewrite_rule("([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$", 'index.php?post_type=listing&listing_type=$matches[1]&name=$matches[2]', 'bottom');
    add_rewrite_rule("([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$", 'index.php?post_type=listing&listing_type=$matches[1]&page=$matches[2]', 'bottom');

The above code (inside the CPT definition function) only fixed the posts, but the pages (what the second add_rewrite_rule line was ment for) are still broken.
Answer: Add your rewrite rules to top, not bottom. Every rule that matches will abort the process. So if there's only a single match before, your rules will get skipped.


How to totally block inbound mail on cPanel / WHM?

Question: Is it possible to completely block inbound email on WHM / cPanel (without blocking sendmail / PHPMail from working)? If so, what config steps are required?
Comment: Sadly I don't think its as easy as that because as far as I know there is no feature that allows you to disable that feature. Personally I would just edit the MX records or ignore it.
Comment: Yes, when creating an account select 0 as mail accounts, if you have already created accounts then simply modify those accounts and change the email limit to 0 and remove any existing email accounts.
Comment: This stops users from creating accounts, but I doesn't stop the WHM account from getting a default email account of its own. This default account is the catchall and can't be removed (from WHM: "The default account cannot be deleted and has no quota.")
Comment: Well you could edit the master ZONE file and remove the MX entries. This will prevent any emails being received period.
Comment: I thought there might be a service I can permanently disable?
Comment: I feared that. iptables perhaps...
Answer: Go to Home »Service Configuration »Service Manager and uncheck Exim Mail Server. This will disable Exim which is cPanel's SMTP server of choice.
This will however disable outgoing mail too. To workaround this, I suggest using a mail relay.
Another option is to go in to cPanel, and click Default Address - You can disable the catch-all and set all mail to send back a :fail: notification from here.


Any geospatial irrigation data for the UK?

Question: Are there any geospatial datasets for irrigation in the UK?
I've had a look through https://www.ceh.ac.uk/data but there isn't anything for agricultural irrigation in the UK.
Answer: It's not spatial, but searching for irrigation on data.gov.uk I found a Defra report about water abstraction for agricultural use (link on this page): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/agri-environment-indicators
It looks like the underlying data from the EA has not been released yet though - you could ask for it under an EIR request via firstname.lastname@example.com
(although, because it hasn't been released as open data it probably means it's not in a single and easily available dataset at the moment)
Answer: Quandl has the following free databases, but they are not geospatial. I hope they are a good start though.
World Bank World Development Indicators: https://www.quandl.com/data/WWDI
Search for "irrigation UK" in the database and you should see a dataset for % of total agricultural irrigated land in the UK.
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development: https://www.quandl.com/data/OECD
Search for "irrigation UK" in the database and you should see datasets for England and Wales showing total freshwater and fresh groundwater irrigation.
Geo3 Data Compendium: https://www.quandl.com/data/GEOCOMP
Search for "irrigation UK" in the database and you should see a dataset for Irrigated Land in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
[Disclosure: I work for Quandl]


Do questions about game soundtrack (lyrics etc.) belong here?

Question: For instance, I'm intrigued by the lyrics in the song "Sorceresses" in the Witcher 2 game and would like to know what it means. Is this the right place to ask?
Comment: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/q/20523/23
Answer: It seems to me that soundtrack questions are similar to this type of question:

Plot and characters in games

which are specifically mentioned in the FAQ. We have questions like the Portal 2 soundtrack question that badp linked above, questions about game location ... there are even questions about custom music within games and non-English lines in games*. Those all seem to be questions about the environment within games.
Having said that, I think the content of the question is still important. I think if you want to know what the lyrics are, that's a question that fits the site well: it's practical and answerable. If you want to know what they mean, that could possibly be the type of question where every answer is equally valid (and thus the question would likely be closed), unless someone were able to track down a post on an official site that said "This is why we chose those lyrics".
*note that the answer to this question turned out to be "they don't mean anything", but I think the type of question is more important than the actual example, as indicated in the meta discussion. (If it helps, imagine that they asked "What are the Nazi soldiers saying in the original Castle Wolfenstein?")


What is an Airworthiness Directive?

Question: Aircraft which have been in service for a long time often have a lot of entries in their logbooks for Airworthiness Directives (ADs). What are they, and why are they important?
Answer: Straight from the FAA:

Airworthiness Directives (ADs) are legally enforceable rules issued by the FAA in accordance with 14 CFR part 39 to correct an unsafe condition in a product. 14 CFR part 39 defines a product as an aircraft, aircraft engine, propeller, or appliance.

When an aircraft or other component is found to have flaws or other issues, the FAA will issue an AD specifying a solution to be applied to the item. The AD must be complied with, often by a date or total time on the airframe. The action required could simply be an inspection (often recurring after, say, 100 hours of time in service), while in other cases requires modification, strengthening, or replacement of parts.
One of the more prominent cases requiring ADs to be issued was the V-tail Bonanza, which had issues with the tail's structural integrity under high loads.
The cost of complying with an AD falls on the owner/operator of the aircraft. Failing to comply with an AD renders the aircraft unairworthy. It also could incur FAA penalties, but more importantly, it could result in structural damage or failure, and in some cases ultimately cause a fatal accident.
Comment: Failing to comply with an AD has one other *critical* impact: ***It renders the aircraft unairworthy.*** Aside from the regulatory implications, most insurance companies void coverage if the aircraft was operated while not in an airworthy condition. So if you failed to comply with say [AD 71-21-08](http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAD.nsf/0/88D674DFE2DDC204862569990050F352?OpenDocument) (that requires changing a fuel selector cover), and your landing gear collapsed on your next flight (*clearly* not related to the cover) your insurance company may just say "Tough rocks pal!"
Comment: Hah, yeah, totally overlooked that. Really good point; I've updated the answer.
Answer: An Airworthiness Directive is a legal notice, issued by either the manufacturer and/or the FAA, alerting an owner to an issue with the aircraft or system which presents a hazard to flight safety as well as instructions on how to remedy this problem.  It's similar to a recall notice on an automobile with the added mandate by the government that the aircraft is not airworthy until the AD is complied with.
It is very important that the owner retain records in the aircraft's maintenance logbooks that affective ADs have been complied with by an authorized AMT.  This is one reason that logbooks are so valuable to a prospective buyer and a big red flag and loss of value to a potential seller if they are missing, as any new owner would then have to spend their own time and money to ensure that the airframe complies with all affective ADs and would not be considered airworthy by the FAA until this was accomplished.

What is an Airworthiness Directive?


What pressure should I run my Mountain Bike tires at?

Question: Should I run my mountain bike at the suggested PSI/Bar on the tire/rim?  Or should I run it a bit lower?  Or is it more about conditions?  Should I run lower if I am running on softer terrain?
Comment: The related question for road bike tires is: http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/2744/what-pressure-should-i-run-my-road-bike-tyres-at
Comment: I dont really like tubeless they save time with punctures but when your doing extreme downhill they lose pressure too easily
Answer: Tire pressure is generally a trade-off between three things:

Rolling resistance (more pressure == rolls easier)
Pinch flat resistance (more pressure == less chance for the tube to tear when a rock squashes the tire toward the rim)
Grip (with less pressure, the tire can conform better to rocks, roots, and other terrain giving a larger contact surface)

If you are riding terrain where grip isn't too much of an issue (flat or low-angle dirt and dry rocks for example), then higher pressure will keep you going fast without pinch flatting.
If you are riding steep downhills and/or on slippery open rock outcroppings, grip will be more important than rolling resistance, so use as little pressure as won't pinch-flat quickly.
There is a 4th trade-off as well: weight. You can buy double-sidewall downhill tires that allow you to run very low pressures (such as 25psi) without any danger of pinch-flatting, but these can weigh almost double what normal cross-country tires do.
As mentioned in other answers, your tires don't have to be the same pressure. Usually grip is more important on the front tire since most of your weight is on it while descending difficult downhill sections. Similarly, when riding on flat or climbing, most of your weight is over the back tire, so rolling resistance and pinch-flat resistance are more important for the back.
I personally ride with a low-pressure (30psi in a tire rated 35-65psi) double-sidewall downhill tire on the front and with a higher pressure (50psi in a tire rated 45-65psi) cross-country tire on the rear. I sacrifice some weight, but otherwise get the best of both worlds: fabulous grip going down and easy rolling on the flats and climbs.
Use your best judgment in going below the rated pressure of the tire, as pinch flats become more likely. If you go below the rated pressure, be sure to test it out on hard impacts (such as a rock-corner) on easy terrain before throwing yourself at high speed down a mountain where a blow-out would be catastrophic.
Comment: There is a 5th trade-off: comfort. Keeping the tyre pressure lower makes for a more comfortable ride, with the disadvantages you pointed for lower pressure, mainly rolling resistance and pinch flat resistance.
Answer: Generally run what the tire says. If you know the terrain is slick rock or really loose and will require more contact between the tire and the surface then make them a bit softer. This will increase the chance of pinch flats though so be careful.
I almost always run my front tire a bit softer than my back since most of my weight is on the back tire. Just something I've found that I prefer.
Answer: It really depends on that the trails are like as well as your weight. If you are riding really flowy trails with few obstacles, jumps, or drops, you can probably ride a bit under 25psi if you are light. THis will give you significantly more traction and control.  If you are riding trails with jumps and drops, you will want to air it up more.
With rockier trails, you will want to ride at a higher psi to avoid pinch flats. These are the kinds of trails that I typically ride and I usually go with 30 - 35 psi in the front and 35 - 40 psi in the back.
Answer: I would say that you should run the lowest pressure you can without the tyre rolling off the rim on corners or burping on rocks.
The assumption that harder tyres have less rolling resistance is not necessarily true, here is a study showing the opposite. [updated link, if it breaks again, search Google for "Rolling Resistance Eng Illustrated".  The document was originally written by Schwalbe Tires]
Comment: Fabulous link. Thank goodness for the scientific method!
Comment: Unable to recover the document.
Answer: I agree with the other answers, but my strategy is to run the lowest pressure I can while consistently avoiding pinch flats. There's too many variables to come up with a general answer (bodyweight, trail type, tire manufacturer), but I find that something in the mid-30's is safe for me (200+lbs, xc race courses). If you want to play it safe, find a safe pressure and add 2-3 psi.
Also, always check your tire pressure, taking the few minutes before most rides keeps you riding longer.
Answer: A tip my friend showed me at the weekend was to take to take a wheel and find a pointy rock. Lean all your weight gently onto the wheel. If the wheel doesn't hit the pointy rock then you're not likely to suffer from a pinch flat. If the rock easily touches the rim then the pressure is too low.
This should account for a number of critical variables such as the volume of the tyre and the weight of the rider and the reasoning that you'll hit the rock at speed or on one wheel only (normally each wheel only takes 1/2 your weight).
Comment: Very interesting, +1. However, I guess the dynamic loading of DH could be significantly larger than static loading the tyre, for example by a factor of 10.
Answer: Some very good answers, but I think it's also worth saying that the sidewall gives a maximum not suggested pressure on all the bike tyres I've seen.
The only time I ever run my mountain bike tyres at their maximum is if I'm riding on the road and in a hurry.
Answer: None of the answers mention tubeless tires.
A tubeless tires has no tube so no tube to pinch.
The primary purpose of tubeless is for lower pressure.
Need both tubeless rims (wheels) and tubeless tires.
Can get conversion kits for regular rims.
Tubeless comes in fully tubeless and tubeless ready.
With tubeless ready you need to use a liquid sealant.
Tubeless ready is a more common.


Why couldn't the Jewish people return to live in Egypt? Till when was this valid? At some point later in history Jewish people did live there

Question: One of the commandments of a Jewish king is not to have too many horses, so that the Jewish people won't go back to live in Egypt, where the best horses came from. Question: till when was this valid? We see that there was a community and great Rabbis who did live in Egypt later on. And why not live in Egypt?
Comment: Related: "[Return to Egypt: Allowed](https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/2636/1368)"?
Comment: This seems like a duplicate of that, no, @TamirEvan ?
Comment: @msh210 Maybe... The prohibition of a king having too many horses angle makes me unsure. (See my comments to the two current answers.)
Comment: A direct quotation of the commandment would be helpful here.
Answer: The prohibition of living in Egypt has  never changed. The question is to who did it apply to in the first place?
There are various opinions among the Rishonim Among them are that it only applies to
(1) When the Egyptians residing in Egypt themselves were the descendants of the Egyptians who lived there in biblical times . That stopped being the situation after Sancherib and the Assyrians conquered it and made mass population moves
(2)It only applies to leaving Israel to settle in Egypt. Not coming there from another country
(3)It only applies when Israel is ruled by Jewish kings ( A bibical kingdom. Not the modern state of Israel. )
There are various other explanations for why Jews have lived in Egypt. The common denominator is that there are limitations to the circumstances  when the Torah prohibited living there
Comment: (1) If we are allowed to settle in Egypt because Egyptians of today (and for a long time now) aren't really [biblical] Egyptians, does that mean that, if we crown a king today, he will be able to have as many horses as he likes? (2) Regarding option #3: Why would Israel under a Jewish king be prohibited, but Jews without a king allowed?
Comment: "( A bibical kingdom. Not the modern state of Israel. )" How do you know this? Surely those rishonim didn't explicitly discuss the modern state of Israel
Comment: (Ritva Yoma 38A) אין האיסור ההוא אלא בזמן שישראל שרויין על אדמתם is always a reference to a time when    we are not in Golus
Comment: Sounds like a good description of today to me. Nothing about the form of government. Maybe we may have to wait a few years for rov Jews to be in Israel, but definitely not what you wrote.
Answer: How could Jews justify living in Egypt in spite of the commandment not to do so? Over time, some commentators softened the commandment. First,
the Talmud allowed temporary returns:

You may not return [to Egypt] to dwell there, but for the purpose of business or war you may return. [Sanhedrin Y 10:7]

Some said the commandment only applies to the entire Jewish people, not to a subset. Others said it applies only to Jews leaving Israel, not any other country, for Egypt. The Radbaz argued that if you are forced to stay in Egypt by the government you must comply. Rabbenu Bahya said it applied only in biblical times. The Semag and Ritva said the prohibition no longer applies because today's Egyptians are not the descendants of those who lived in Pharaoh's day. Ritva added that the prohibition applies only when Jews rule the Land of Israel. (Note that they didn't then, but do now!)
Comment: (1) If one can temporarily stay in Egypt for business, why can't the king, or others in his name, go there for the business of buying horses? (2) )If the commandment only applies to the entire Jewish people, why can't a king have many horses? (3) For those who say it doesn't apply today, what do they say about a king, if one is crown in Israel in our time, buying many horses?
Comment: I personally believe the commandment meant exactly what it says. That's why Egypt is judenrein today, for the first time since biblical days. Hashem eventually gets what He wants.
Comment: Poor Maimonides, he lived there for a decent stint!  I suppose it was for business as \he was the king's doctor ... ;)
Comment: @MauriceMizrahi (1) My point was less to criticize the reasoning for allowing Jews to settle in Egypt, and more asking how it fits in with a king [not] having many horses (that this question brings up). Without addressing this, you're really only answering [the other question](https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/2636/1368), but not this one. (2)"_Hashem eventually gets what He wants_". I thought Hashem wants us to [decide/choose to] keep/observe His commandments. If He was going to eventually make Egypt judenrein, one way or another, why bother commanding us?
Comment: 1- The commandment of the king not having too many horses was tied to Egypt having plenty of horses to sell. But the Sages warned us about never trying to fulfill the assumed intent of a commandment and violate the commandment itself.  2- Hashem commands us, and if some of us don't obey, He nudges events to force compliance.


Coudet Clarinet and Transitioning From Flute/Alto Sax

Question: What is a "Coudet Clarinet"? I'm a flute/Alto Sax player and was wonder if this is different from a "Clarinet" also how will the transition be?
Answer: Coudet is simply a brand name.  Assuming you're looking at the standard Bb clarinet, the fingerings are essentially same as for the sax, with the caveat that a clarinet's "Octave" break is an octave plus a fifth rather than an octave.
As to transitioning, well every instrument has different embouchure and breath control needs.


LCD / LED panel power consumption

Question: Does an LCD or LED monitor consume lot more power if the pixels are changing their colors or does the backlight have way more impact on power consumption, which makes changing pixel colors' power consumption negligible?
Answer: I also measured the power consumption of my LCD monitors with a power meter at zero brightness. Dynamic contrast is off and to be honest, it's totally pesky so it is allways off anyway. After some hours I checked my measurements with the meter.
Results:
My monitors consumes more power when displaying full white!
Dell P2414H monitor - AH-IPS panel with LED backlight measured at zero brightness

total white 10.0 Watt
total black 8.5 Watt

Fujitsu Siemens P20-2 monitor - S-PVA panel with CCFL backlight measured at zero brightness

total white 30.0 Watt
total black 28.0 Watt

You may think that I mixed up measurement results, but it is not ! I dare everybody to measure his/her monitor and post results !
The claim that every LCD/TFT monitor consumes less with total white is untrue.
I cannot measure monitor with TN panel as yet because I haven't got. I will measure a TN monitor at my workplace and will post results.
Added info:
Fujitsu Siemens P20-2 monitor measured again with strobe effect youtube video:
When playing Youtube video "Black and White Strobe Light" full screen the consumption is 28.5 Watt average at zero brightness. The backlight have way more impact on power consumption. This monitor consumes 45 Watts (when display black) and 48 Watts (when display white) at 100% brightness. Full screen strobe 46.5 Watts.
Comment: The question asks if a static picture consumes less power than a dynamic one.
Answer: Added:
Its the backlight that consumes power;
The LCD part is like static RAM but refreshed at a slower rate and the storage is a voltage that controls brightness of a pixel. Some dynamic power from mux'ing the row/columns, but basically ITS THE diffused white BACKLIGHT that consumes power... as indicated in more detail below.

Monitors are the biggest power sinks you can manage on laptops. It also is hardest on the eyes. So remember to minimize the brightness to minimum needed.  LED's now have a luminous efficacy of  60 ~ 120 lumens / watt and CFL's are maybe 50 lumens/ watt on 3mm tubes on edge lit backlights. but for residential T8's 70~100 lumens/watt is possible. in 5000'K.  So when displays are spec'd at 500Lumens say per sq m. the efficacy determines the power dissipated. But with Zone controlled LED backlights as @sandan indicated, you not only get  lower power consumption from zone dimming based on black content, but also improved contrast ratio.
Comment: Also, this is factually wrong. I actually measured LCD power consumption, and the colour displayed *does* affect power draw, albeit not dramatically.
Comment: sandun dhammika didn't mention zone-controlled LED backlights anywhere. What are you talking about?
Comment: Fake Name I answered the questions and gave additional relevant facts on power consumption with LED/LCD, it is not factually wrong. Re-read both....
Answer: Yes and no.
Some modern LCD/LED monitors does. It can dynamically change it's back-light
illumination level dynamically.And conventional LCD monitors, controllers won't
do it.
[example google black edition was designed to save energy]
On the other hand OLED technology, yes it does. In OLED it don't have a back-light.
Just pixels are tiny LED cells. They are specially made polymer organic LEDs.
[Plastic electronics is a hot topic in here these days.]
Answer: I actually measured the power consumption of my LCD monitors with a power meter at one point.
Basically, barring confounding factors (like dynamic contrast, as others have pointed out):
Darker colours require more energy to display.

The change is quite small in comparison to overall display power consumption, but it held true across multiple display panel types (TN, IPS), and backlight sources (CCFL, LED).

This was an answer for the question Does a webpage with a black background save energy? on Skeptics.SE. As such, it refers to Blackle.com, which is a (bogus) website that supposedly "saves energy" by displaying google with a black background, rather then a white background.
It got deleted because apparently it was "Anecdotal" (and no one ever actually clarified what it would require to make it not "anecdotal". I took measurements, reported them, and the methodology used to take said measurements. What more do they want?)
Anyways,
Acer S211HL (LED Backlight):

18.1-18.5W - Google Homepage (e.g. mostly white screen), browser in full-screen mode.
20.4-20.7W - Blackle Homepage (e.g. mostly black screen), browser in full-screen mode.

Samsung SyncMaster 245BW (CCFL Backlight):

63.5-63.9W - Google Homepage (e.g. mostly white screen), browser in full-screen mode.
64.5-64.9W - Blackle Homepage (e.g. mostly black screen), browser in full-screen mode.

MacBook Pro 17" Sandy-Bridge (LED Backlight, possible confounding aspects (it's a laptop))

20.5-21.2W - Google Homepage (e.g. mostly white screen), browser in full-screen mode.
21.7-22.3W - Blackle Homepage (e.g. mostly black screen), browser in full-screen mode.

So, with LCDs, darkening the screen consumes more energy.
It seems the power variance is somewhat dependent on the LCD in question. However, I tested three different LCDs, which use different panel types (TN, IPS), Backlight sources (LED, CCFL), and the increase in energy to display a black subject was common across all of them.
All these monitors were driven via DVI (well, the MacBook is whatever internal bus it uses), at their native resolution. The Acer is connected to a Mac Mini, and the Samsung is a Windows Box. If I wanted to be really thorough, I would use the same video source for all three monitors, but I don't think it's needed here.
The power draw is specified in ranges because the readout measurement on the Kill-A-Watt is somewhat noisy. I took measurements by letting the monitor sit at the specified display image for a minute or two, then monitored the maximum and minimum value displayed on the Kill-A-Watt. Those are the numbers reported for the range in each monitor's power draw.
Note that Kill-A-Watt meters are rated to have a measurement accuracy of 0.2%, calibrated from the factory. Just because they're inexpensive does not make them necessarily inaccurate.
I used Chrome in Full-screen mode on all platforms.

The Only situation where something like Blackle would be of use, or indeed beneficial is with OLED Screens. These screens effectively have a backlight-per-pixel, and they do indeed save power when displaying dark scenes.
However, with any modern single-backlight LCD, the only effect on power draw is the actual panel's power draw, which increases as the transmitted light decreases, the inverse of what Blackle claims.
Comment: That's a great answer, and *we* trust your research, but it would be considered anecdotal on Skeptics because it uses original research.  Skeptics requires that all claims (like "An Acer S211HL dissipates 18.1-18.5W on the white Google home page" and the rest of your facts) have verifiable sources, just like on Wikipedia.  See [the Skeptics intro](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) and [their meta](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/522) for more info.
Comment: Old CRT's consume more power to display white than black, I don't know how old Blackle was, but it could have made sense in the early 2000s.

LCD / LED panel power consumption


GD star rating function problem

Question: If anyone can help me out with this you'll be a life saver.
I've been trying to use the wp_gdsr_render_review() function to add the results to my theme with no success. The results appear fine if I use the GD star rating widget so they are definitely being stored okay. Is there a known problem with wp_gdsr_render_review()? I created the function using the build tool.
Here is the exact code I used:
wp_gdsr_render_review(get_the_id(), 54, 'oxygen', 16);
Please help!
Martyn
Answer: Turns out the same functionality can be achieved with wp_gdsr_render_article() if you set it to read only

GD star rating function problem


How to simulate slippage

Question: I'm backtesting a trading strategy, using free OHLC data from yahoo or google.  I'm simulating friction by lopping a flat percentage (say 0.5%) off my returns for each day that I make a trade.  Whats a good way to simulate slippage?  I tried 'torturing' my returns, by pretending that I always buy at the day's high and sell at the day's low, but that was depressing.  Is there a good compromise between naively assuming my trades execute at the day's close and 'torturing' my trades?
Answer: Slippage is multi-facetted, however, I think the main element to slippage is going to depend on the sophistication of your execution approach.   Also, in your case there are 2 types of slippage:

execution slippage (i.e. cost above mid to get your fill)
tracking slippage (how much price difference between actual close and your fill price)

Execution Approaches
Here are a few ways one might try to execute near the close price (I'll assume the use of limit orders).  Each of these has a different impact in terms of execution slippage:

put in a very aggressive order in the final minute(s) that is priced to cross deep into the ask book (if buying) or bid book (if selling).  By deep mean buy at ask + some price enrichment such that if the inside book is taken out before your order is received you still obtain a fill.
project some closing price estimate before EOD and put in a standing order for that price some period before close
try to cross aggressively on the inside price, adjusting order at high-frequency

The first approach may have the most execution slippage, but does not require HF order placement and replacement.  The second is optimal in terms of execution costs, but projected target may deviate from actual close.  The 3rd is tighter than the first (often) in terms of execution costs, but requires HF data/execution to do well.
Price Action
I don't believe an analytic approach on OHLC will ever work as cannot determine without seeing the microstructure or intraday price action. For instance consider trying to buy near the close in each of these scenarios:

upward momentum
downward momentum
sideways / flat

If one attempts to buy in upward momentum you will be chasing price and will likely need to enrich your order significantly to get a fill (hence more slippage).  (this is the most frequent scenario, since if you are buying there is probably reason for others to be as well).
If one is buying in downward momentum then the fill is incredibly easy to do, as the market is biased towards sellers.  Hence a passive order (such as buying at the bid) or even bid - some spread is likely to be filled.
If price action is sideways passive (at the bid) or aggressive orders (crossing to ask) should both be effective and hence have low execution slippage.
Conclusion
Slippage is a function of execution approach and local price action behavior (vol, buyer/seller bias, etc).  So, in my view you should obtain higher-frequency data and simulate your signal and execution algo to get an accurate picture.  This will not be wasted in that the same logic can (and should) be used to automate your execution.
If you are looking to do large size, then your execution algo will be something more complex where you make multiple buying (selling) entries into the market.
Comment: Thanks for the detailed response!  I don't think I'm quiet at the point to justify paying for higher frequency data. I've got a model I'm back-testing using free daily OLHC data, and I'm trying to figure out how accurately I can simulate trading, given these constraints.  Currently, I'm probably looking to make about 1 trade per week at very low volume, so execution automation isn't a high priority for me.
Answer: You can use MOC (Market on Close) orders to realize the closing price on NYSE or NASDAQ.  The price you get will be the official close.  You should check to see whether the free data you are getting contains the consolidated (last price across all venues) or primary (last price on the primary listing exchange for the stock) for its closing prices.  If it contains consolidated prices then you could find that you realize different prices than your backtest.  It should still be relatively close however.
Comment: Actually, according to https://epchan.blogspot.com/2015/04/beware-of-low-frequency-data.html the error in consolidated close prices can make a losing strategy appear highly profitable in backtests.
Answer: Given that you're tradeing low volumes ($<1\%$ of volume, I take), I would not assume more than 1 bps slippage in your case.

How to simulate slippage


Why do birds move their heads abruptly?

Question: When we humans look around, we pan smoothly from one side to the other. Birds on the other hand seem to point their head in one direction for a while, then abruptly point their head in another direction and stay in the new position for a while. Then they continue with the abrupt movement. Why is that?
Comment: Was exactly my question.
Answer: Most species of birds have 2 foveas, the temporal fovea and the central fovea.

temporal fovea, which is like ours in the sense that it looks straight
  ahead and offers binocular vision (i.e. the temporal foveas of both
  eyes point in the same direction). But birds also have a central
  fovea, which points sideways and is, obviously, monocular (i.e., the
  central foveas of both eyes look in opposite directions).

So the bird has a choice of which fovea it wants to look through.

It can look straight ahead with its temporal foveas, to the left with
  the central fovea of its left eye, or to the right with the central
  fovea of its right eye. And this is not a hypothetical possibility:
  Birds actually do switch between foveas all the time! This is why they
  tend to swing their heads erratically in turns of about 90° (reference).
Comment: Do you have any more references to back this up? An unreferenced answer from another Q/A site (Quora) can hardly be seen as a reliable source.
Comment: @fileunderwater changed the whole answer and added a proper reference. Hope that helps.
Comment: If the bird can look sideways,why move it's head at all?
Answer: Many birds, especially birds of prey and owls, have eyes that are proportionally much larger than that of similar-size mammals. Most birds are only capable of limited orbital movement, typically 10—20°, as with larger eyes there is little or no room for the required musculature.
This, in addition to having two foveae as <code>@The Last Word</code> mentioned, necessitates that a bird move its head to change viewing angle. The relatively rapid movement of a bird's head is analogous to that of the more subtle, but still rapid movement of your eye as you view different subjects within a frame of vision without moving your head.
Birds have more vertebrae (13-25) in their neck to provide additional flexibility, which provides for their quick head movements. Some birds, such as owls, can turn their head 270 degrees. Other birds have a wide field of vision because their eyes are located on the sides of their head. This degree of flexibility or field of vision provides birds with good compensation for being unable to move their eyes.
These characteristics, combined with the physiology of two fovea, make the abrupt, seemingly unusual movements of birds' heads more easily understood.
For additional insight, consider the book Bird Sense: What It's Like To Be a Bird by Tim Birkhead or Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure and Function by Noble S. Proctor and Patrick J. Lynch; both of which I own and can recommend.
Answer: As i understand it:
Birds can't move their eyes around the way we can (excepting cormorants and maybe some others), and the result is that they don't have stereoscopic vision when they don't move their heads. More than that, their field of focus is very small if their heads are kept still. That last is also true for us.
The chickens we raised have their eyes even more on the sides than pigeons. They would look at us with one eye ---- then the other eye, then the first eye again, etcetera. This gave them a wider field of view and a stereoscopic view of us and their environment.
Try: Look at a letter somewhere near the center of your screen. Without moving your eyes or head, how many words can you make out up, down, left, right of your point of focus. If you can't move your eyeballs (as birds can't) you can only get the wider view by moving your head.
Plus, pigeons are prey animals and therefore have eyes on the sides of their heads which lets them see movement a lot further behind than we can. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view) We have a horizontal field of view of about 210 degrees and "Pigeon FOV is around 340-degrees horizontal and about the same 135-vertical degrees as humans, but their vertical field is even more asymmetrically oriented toward the ground."(https://www.quora.com › What-does-a-pigeons-field-of-view-look-like)
Answer: "We" don't, always.  In addition to the factors in other answers, there's a simple matter of size and inertia at work.  If you look at small mammals like squirrels or mice (and presumably small monkeys, though I've never observed one for any length of time), you'll notice that ALL their movements seem to be quick and "jerky", because their heads and other limbs are small, and so have little inertia.  (It's a matter of scale that's not limited to animals.  Consider how small engines or fans can spin much faster than large ones - motorcycle vs diesel truck, computer cooling fan vs wind turbine, &c.)
Larger animals like humans (and dogs, horses, &c) CAN move their heads quite quickly, as when they're startled by something, but it takes effort and is rather uncomfortable.  (Try it!)  But virtually all familiar birds have small heads, though it'd be interesting to look at something like a pelican or toucan that has a large beak.

Why do birds move their heads abruptly?


What is the largest number of humans in space at the same time and what vessels were they on when it happened?

Question: What is the largest number of human beings in space at the same time, and what vessels were they on when it happened?
Comment: The top answer is no longer true as of September, 2021 - the record is now **14**.
Answer: The record appears to be 13. This has happened at least three times, once in 1995 and twice in 2009.
March, 1995:

There are many other interesting records related to human spaceflight. On March 14, 1995, a record number of thirteen people were in space at one time. Seven of them were Americans that were on the STS 67 Endeavour, three cosmonauts were on the Mir space station, and an astronaut from the United States, along with two cosmonauts, were aboard Soyuz TM21.

March, 2009:

Soyuz TMA-14: Three people aboard, including space tourist Charles Simonyi and the new Expedition 19 crew for the station which numbers two, a Russian and an American. Launched Thursday and will arrive at the station Saturday morning.

Space Shuttle Discovery: Seven people aboard, returning from the space station after delivering the last pair of U.S. solar wings to the orbiting laboratory, boosting it to full power during their STS-119 mission. The shuttle is due to land Saturday in Florida to end a 13-day spaceflight.

International Space Station: Currently home to three astronauts, one each from the United States, Russia and Japan. Two will return home April 7 with Simonyi to end their Expedition 18 mission.

July, 2009:

The population boost came from the influx of seven newcomers aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, which docked Friday at 1:47 p.m. EDT (1747 GMT), and opened its hatch into the station a couple hours later.

"The crew of STS-127 is extremely happy to be here," replied Endeavour's STS-127 commander Mark Polansky. "Thirteen is a pretty big number but it's going to be an outstanding visit for us."
Polansky came with pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Chris Cassidy, Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Dave Wolf. Waiting onboard the station with Padalka were Roman Romanenko, Michael Barratt, Robert Thirsk, Frank De Winne and Koichi Wakata.
Comment: Does this need to be updated, considering this 14-April-2010 group photo of [STS-131 and Expedition 23 all in Kibo](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/21759/12102)
Comment: Was not there an overlap with a Chinese flight at some time?
Comment: @ernestopheles The [three Chinese launches with three crew members](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_2F#Launch_history) do not appear to coincide with [ISS expedition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_Space_Station_expeditions) launches.
Comment: I so hope this answer will be outdated quickly, again and again.
Comment: If you consider space to start at 80km, then this record was broken when Richard Branson's crew was in space on July 11th 2021, when 16 people were in space simulataneously.
Comment: @EverydayAstronaut here's the update you've been waiting for :)
Answer: Today (2021 Sept 16th) there are 14 people in orbit and above 100 km altitude (Karman Line):

7 in the ISS
4 in SpaceX Inspiration4
3 in the Chinese Tiangong space station
Comment: Voted up because of the comment about going into *orbit*. Neither Virgin Galactic nor Blue Origin currently go into orbit.
Answer: The latest record is 19, from December 11, 2021.

10 on the ISS with two overlapping SpaceX crews, in orbit.
3 on the Chinese Tiangong Space Station, in orbit.
6 on Blue Origin's sub-orbital NS-19 flight that lasted 11 minutes.

On July 11th 2021 16 people were in space1 at the same time.

Seven people on the International Space Station: Three Americans, two Russians, and one from both France and Japan.
Three Chinese on the Tiangong Space Station.
Six people on Virgin Galactic's Unity, including Richard Branson, two pilots, and three Virgin Galactic employees.

Note that SpaceX goes to orbit, whereas Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin currently do not. That's worth keeping in mind when considering these records.
1Unity reached a height of 88km, and any flight above 80km is considered space by NASA and the US military. The FAI, though, defines space as beginning at the Karman line 100km above the surface of the Earth.
Jonathan McDowell from the Center for Astrophysics has a very nice overview here:
https://planet4589.org/space/astro/web/pop.html
Answer: EDIT (12 December 2021): We actually broke the record yesterday. For a few minutes, there were 19 people above the 100 km line. 13 of them were in orbit, 6 were on a sub-orbital flight (maximum altitude 107 km). These were:

Raja Chari (SpaceX Crew-3), ISS expedition 66
Thomas Marshburn (SpaceX Crew-3), ISS expedition 66
Matthias Maurer (SpaceX Crew-3), ISS expedition 66
Anton Shkaplerov (Soyuz MS-19), ISS expedition 66
Pyotr Dubrov (Soyuz MS-19), ISS expedition 66
Kayla Barron (SpaceX Crew-3), ISS expedition 66
Mark Vande Hei (Soyuz MS-19), ISS expedition 66
Shane Kimbrough (SpaceX Crew-2), ISS expedition 65
Megan McArthur (SpaceX Crew-2), ISS expedition 65
Akihiko Hoshide (SpaceX Crew-2), ISS expedition 65
Zhai Zhigang (Shenzhou 13), Tiangong space station
Wang Yaping (Shenzhou 13), Tiangong space station
Ye Guangfu (Shenzhou 13), Tiangong space station
Laura Shepard Churchley (NS-19), sub-orbital flight
Michael Strahan (NS-19), sub-orbital flight
Dylan Taylor (NS-19), sub-orbital flight
Evan Dick (NS-19), sub-orbital flight
Lane Bess (NS-19), sub-orbital flight
Cameron Bess (son of the former) (NS-19), sub-orbital flight

We almost broke the record this week.
Today (10/11 November 2021), there are 14 people in orbit: 3 Americans, 2 Russians, 1 Frenchman and 1 Japanese on board ISS; 3 Chinese on board the Chinese space station; and the 4 astronauts (3 Americans and 1 German) on Crew-3.
That number would have been 18 if SpaceX had not postponed the launch of Crew-3. As things went, Crew-2 returned with 4 astronauts before Crew-3 could get on the way. The original plan was to have the two missions overlap by several days.
As a side note: The website www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com used to be a useful tool to answer such questions. Unfortunately, it has been stuck since November, and I'm not sure it will continue to be maintained.
Comment: The answers to this question should be auto-sorted by date
Comment: Cool info, but it's really a comment, not an answer.
Comment: @OrganicMarble Fair enough. I hope my recent edit turns this into an actual answer.


Making text scroll correctly with a textbox

Question: So let me just get this right out of the way, I'm using SDL1.2 (Lispbuilder-sdl specifically, as I'm using Common Lisp), so on to the problem. I'm trying to make a scrollbar that can scroll text in an text-area, I already searched for an answer on this (google, here, etc) and I found this:
And since a picture says more than a thousand words, here's a screenshot of the issue (The scrollbox is 30 pixels in height):
So what I essentially want, is for the last line to be drawn when the box has gone all the way down, rather than continue scrolling after.
So a few notes before the code:
text-scrolling is only doing vertical scrolling as I want to solve this before making it work horizontally as well, the scrolling portion of the code (that handles moving of the scroll-box) supports both.
Hitboxes are used for the collision checking, something I'll rewrite at a later time, but essentially it's a rectangle with an absolute position that is used by collision-checking for the mouse (in this case, outside of this it holds more parameters than just position).
I use aux (local variable) for objects (such as the scroll box within scroll-bar), let (also local variable) is used in all other cases (especially if logic is involved).
<code>;;Text-area scrolling:

(defun get-max-box-pos (scroll-bar)
  (- (h scroll-bar) (h (get-scroll-box scroll-bar))))

(defun text-field-shown-lines (text-field)
  (floor (/ (h text-field) (sdl:get-font-size " " :size :h :font (get-text-font text-field)))))

(defun line-pixels (text-field)
  (* (- (get-line-amount text-field) (text-field-shown-lines text-field)) (sdl:get-font-size " " :size :h :font (get-text-font text-field))))

(defun get-movement-rate (text-field scroll-bar)
  (let* ((max-box-pos (get-max-box-pos scroll-bar)))
    (- (ceiling (/ (line-pixels text-field) (if (= max-box-pos 0) 1 max-box-pos))))))

(defun text-scrolling (text-field scroll-bar texts &key (color (shf:get-color black))
                             &aux (scroll-box (get-scroll-box scroll-bar)))
  (scrolling scroll-bar)
  (setf (get-text-y text-field) (* (get-movement-rate text-field scroll-bar) (y scroll-box))))
</code>
So the thing I can't figure out\need help with, is how to calculate how much to move with, to ensure all the text can be scrolled (irregardless of the size of the scroll box), and not be too far apart.
Answer in the link provided (and my solution done before I checked that) causes it to move beyond.
Most of relevant\needed code (outside of drawing, instances, loops, etc):
<code>;; Classes:
(defclass pos ()
  ((x :initarg :x :accessor x)
   (y :initarg :y :accessor y))
  (:documentation "Positions of an object, used as a super class for circle and rect"))

(defclass rect (pos)
  ((w :initarg :w :accessor w)
   (h :initarg :h :accessor h))
  (:documentation "A rectangle"))

(defclass text-field (rect)
  ((surface :accessor get-surface
        :initarg :surface)
   (text :accessor get-text
          :initarg :text
          :documentation "text to be used on the text-field")
   (text-x :accessor get-text-x
       :initarg :text-x)
   (text-y :accessor get-text-y
       :initarg :text-y)
   (state :accessor get-text-field-state
      :initarg :state)
   (color :accessor get-box-color
      :initarg :color)
   (alpha :accessor get-alpha
      :initarg :alpha)
   (font :accessor get-text-font
     :initarg :font
     :Documentation "Font used by the textfield")
   (background :accessor text-field-background
           :initarg :background)
   (amount-of-lines :accessor get-line-amount
            :Documentation "The amount of lines the text-field hold"
            :initarg :line-amount)))

(defclass scroll-box (rect)
  ((surface :accessor get-surface
        :initarg :surface)
   (color :accessor get-box-color
      :initarg :color)
   (direction :accessor get-box-dir
          :initarg :dir
          :documentation "what cordinate to scroll")
   (hitbox :accessor get-hitbox
       :initarg :hitbox)
   (active :accessor is-active-box?
       :initform nil
       :documentation "if the mouse is currently engaged in this box")))

(defclass scroll-bar (rect)
  ((surface :accessor get-surface
        :initarg :surface)
   (show :accessor show-scroll-bar?
     :initarg :show)
   (scroll-box :accessor get-scroll-box :initarg :scroll-box)
   (hitbox :accessor get-hitbox :initarg :hitbox)
   (bar-color :accessor get-bar-color :initarg :bar-color)
   (box-color :accessor get-box-color :initarg :box-color)))

;; The scrolling code:

(defun scroll-box-active-mouse? (scroll-box )
  "Changes the active state of the scroll-box if mouse is clicked on it"
  (and (shf:mouse-collision-check (get-hitbox scroll-box)) (sdl:mouse-left-p)
       (setf (is-active-box? scroll-box) t)))

(defun out-of-bounds? (box-pos box-size bar-size)
  "Checks if the scroll box is out of bound of the bar"
  (cond ((<= box-pos 0)
     'start)
    ((>= (+ box-size box-pos) bar-size)
     'end)))

(defun get-new-scroll-box-pos (mouse-pos bar-pos bar-size box-pos  box-size)
  "Returns the new position of the scroll box and it's hitbox in relative to the mouse position"
  (let ((bounds (out-of-bounds? box-pos box-size bar-size)))
    (cond ((and (string-equal bounds 'start) (< mouse-pos (+ bar-pos (round (/ box-size 2)))))
       (values 0 bar-pos))
      ((and (string-equal bounds 'end) (> mouse-pos (- (+ bar-size bar-pos) (round (/ box-size 2)))))
       (values (- bar-size box-size)
           (+ bar-pos box-pos)))
      (t (values (- (- mouse-pos bar-pos) (round (/ box-size 2)))
             (- mouse-pos (round (/ box-size 2))))))))

(defun scrolling (scroll-bar &aux (scroll-box (get-scroll-box scroll-bar))
                   (hitbox (get-hitbox scroll-box)))
  "Call to automatically check for, and cause scrolling.
Destructivly change the positions of scroll-bar, scroll-box(and it's hitbox)"
  (scroll-box-active-mouse? scroll-box)
  (when (is-active-box? scroll-box)
    (cond ((string-equal (get-box-dir scroll-box) :y)
       (setf (values (y scroll-box) (y hitbox))
         (get-new-scroll-box-pos (sdl:mouse-y) (y scroll-bar)  (h scroll-bar)
                     (y scroll-box) (h scroll-box))))

      ((string-equal (get-box-dir scroll-box) :x)
       (setf (values (x scroll-box) (x hitbox))
         (get-new-scroll-box-pos (sdl:mouse-x) (y scroll-bar) (w scroll-bar)
                     (x scroll-box) (w scroll-box)))))))
</code>
Edit: To clarify the 30 pixel box, it's 30 pixels (abritrary size, point is to have a pre-defined size of it) as I want to be able to do scrolling with a box that's already of a specific size (such as say, a circular sprite used for the box\scrolling, rather than a gray box).
Edit 2: I'm still not able to figure it out,  anyway here's a pastebin snippet of the code to be able to run by itself(so any and all unrelated code removed, etc, only left in what is needed to get things up and running\working). Obviously need a Common Lisp enviornment with either quicklisp or ASDF to load up lispbuilder-sdl (ttf), and cl-utilities (read top comment of the snippet), personally using vera font, but obviously shouldn't matter since sdl gets the font height eitherway.
line 434 is where the scrolling of the box is done\start (anything before this point is drawing, classes, etc)
Line 472 is where the text-field scrolling is done, and where I am having problems
Line 478 is where the text is being moved
Line 504 is the main function (where you have to change the font path)
Comment: I can only help with the scrolling stop at the moment. If you know the height of each text line (in pixels), you can add all heights together to get the complete size that should scroll and where the scrolling should stop.
Comment: Yeah I have access to the height of each line, and that's kind of what line-pixel does(horrible name, lol), it gets the total amount of pixels not shown in scrolling, essentially.

Changing it to be the total amount of pixels of all the text doesn't amount to much difference,  as the math will find the same amount to scroll by:

box-height / bar-height * text-total-size = 1.6, but no such thing as 1.6 pixels, so rounded up to 2 pixels, leaving the space.
Answer: For anyone else stumbling on this in the future, the only solution I found is to stop the text from scrolling(leaving a empty-space for the scroll-box where moving it will have no effect anymore), which I think is what Daniel_1985 alluded too in his comment.
The only way to circumvent the scroll-box empty-space issue(That I have found), is by having it resize based on amount of elements to scroll(however you decide to do and calculate scrolling).
So if someone do know, or manage to figure out how to do this without resizing the box, and not leaving any empty space for either elements in the field, or the scroll-box, I'd love to hear it!