facebook c# sdk page tab application

Question: First of all, sorry for my newbie question...
I am google-ing for something like that for days, but still no luck.
I can't find any examples for using the Facebook C# SDK
with Facebook Page Tab applications.
Unfortunately most examples are for Facebook Canvas applications
and I can't make them work with a Page Tab application.
I really need to see a working example of the following:

Get whether the User Liked my page, or not.
If the User Liked my page, show an "authorize" link/button.
On clicking the "authorize" link/button, ask for User's permission to:
 access his info, post to his wall, etc.
(using facebook's usual dialogs for that)
After the User accepts, redirect him to the "member's only" page.
(...inside the tab application frame. not a canvas-type frame)
Whenever an "authorized" User comes back to my tab app,
he should be automaticaly redirected to the same "member's only" page.
(I suppose if I have an example for the previous steps,
I won't have a problem figuring this out)
Answer: Building app for canvas is the same as making it for Page tab. The only difference is the so called "fangate" (liker/non-likers).
This can be used out of the box only on page tabs and the only thing you need is to decode the signed request passed by facebook.
There is good explanation for doing this with C# here:
Decode Signed Request Without Authentication
Comment: many thanks for your help!  I will try it the soonest and I will update
Comment: Finally I managed to make this work with Facebook Graph Toolkit!    [link](http://fgt.codeplex.com)

facebook c# sdk page tab application


PTMs of proteins via mass spec?

Question: I understand that mass spec is widely used to study PTMs like glycosylation of proteins, but how can mass spec determine correct PTM structure of say glycosylation if two glycan structures have the same mass but different arrangement (i.e. isobaric)? Also, how can mass spec determine the difference between structural isomers?
Comment: Based on fragmentation patterns.
Comment: @WYSIWYG: could you elaborate (in an answer)?
Answer: I am not a MassSpec expert but this is what I understand from my spectroscopy basics:
In tandem MS (MS-MS), the ionized analyte generally undergoes or made to undergo fragmentation (breaking up into smaller ions). Fragmentation allows you to study finer details. It is also essential for de-novo peptide sequencing. Different fragmentation techniques, such as Collision Induced Dissociation (CID) or Photofragmentation, yield different kinds of secondary ions.
You can intuitively understand that Fragmentation of structural isomers will yield different kinds of secondary ions (using the same fragmentation technique). The choice of fragmentation technique depends on the molecular nature of the analyte. In the article that I mentioned previously, they use laser induced photofragmentation to dissociate glycan-ions.
Even small molecules, which had been classically studied by MassSpec, undergo isomerization after ionization in order to stabilize the ion. Reactions such as reverse-Diels-Adler can also happen. The pattern of reactions would differ between structural isomers. For basics you can refer to a book on Spectroscopic techniques by Silverstein

PTMs of proteins via mass spec?


Should I bring design diagrams to a software developer interview?

Question: If my current workplace allowed me to bring masked versions of design diagrams of a (solo) software project that I worked on, would it be a good idea to bring them to interviews? Would interviewers appreciate this?
Comment: Just to clarify: are you considering asking your current employer if you can show a potential employer details of some of your work projects? Or do you have their permission already? Or is it a project done in your free time for yourself?
Comment: When I interview software developers, I don't want to see diagrams, I want to see code.
Comment: Hi Alex, I think taking code would be going to far. I don't think the company would let me take that with me.
Answer: This sounds like a bad idea.  Even if your current employer for some reason knows you are interviewing and is ok with you bringing design documents on an interview, having those documents is going to raise eyebrows at the interview.  The interviewer will certainly ask if you have permission, and in the back of his or her head is going to be the thought "is this guy going to take our design docs and flash them around?".
As an alternative just brush up on your work (if you need to) and be ready to discuss (in general) the work you have done, technologies used, how you made design decisions, etc.
Answer:
Should I bring design diagrams to a software developer interview?

Unless you are asked specifically to bring them, or bring samples of your work, I would leave diagrams at home, because:

Bringing diagrams is not standard interview protocol (most people talk through their design).
Your design might be faulty or wrong, or misinterpreted by your interviewers.
Your design might be inappropriate (too simplistic or too complicated).
The diagrams may be of poor quality.
Your diagrams might be irrelevant to the conversation, but you might be tempted to show them anyway.

It is much better and easier to decide during the interview if your design is relevant and appropriate. If it is, you can always draw it on a white board.
Your ability to walk through a solution or design on a whiteboard is a desirable skill, and much less risky than trying to prepare a single design that may or may not be relevant or appropriate.

If my current workplace allowed me to bring masked versions of design diagrams of a (solo) software project that I worked on...

I would not do this -- using a masked diagram may be worse than no diagram at all, if detail, context, or integrations are missing.
Comment: I feel this would be a stronger answer if it explained why points 2+3 are true. A lot of people don't seem to understand that different work environments are very different, and I feel something said about what working for one environment could be very out of place for another environment.  This having been said, I've already given this my +1.
Comment: @EdGrimm a very good point. A well-designed diagram created at an enterprise financial institution might not be very useful at a retail product company, and vice versa.
Comment: From what I've heard, merely a couple of decades ago, a well designed software diagram (or any kind of diagram, really) from one particular car manufacturer would've been offensive at another particular car manufacturer. I just ate supper at a restaurant whose software designs would be considered ridiculous by most restaurants I've been to. (They have a dynamic menu which can be controlled by any cashier, either highlighting all of the items that match particular dietary constraints or what is new, or showing a marketing blurb for any item, usually with an ingredients list,)
Answer: As somebody who does technical interviews:

Bring the things you were asked for. It never hurts to have a few slides summarizing your previous work, but show these if asked, or if you are asked freely to introduce pu them there.
Do never contact an interviewer by sending him documents to "support you story" if he did not ask for it.
Do not forcibly try steer the direction of the interview to the topics you imagine
Do not pull out some documentation of your previous work without being asked during the interview - this is for me an extreme version of trying to get in control of the situation

From the perspective of an interviewer:

I have a catalog of questions, we need to go trough some of these - taking to much control from your side will take time. (and while I am lenient toward questions which are answered in a wrong way, if I have questions with a good answer in the interview time, it's not good)
When trying to steer the direction of the interview into previous experiences, be careful.

I had candidates lecturing me on how good their method/algorithm would fit to our problems. I accept that but then I go full force into having them explain the meaning of this in detail. And it's much harder for me to discard a wrong answer if you put all your technical weight behind it and still don't see the forest full of trees.
In that case you don't demonstrate that you are competent, but that you stubborn and a hammer-nail person

Typically i don't really care what you did before, whats important to me

You can technically communicate in various settings
You can explain the details I asked for - everybody can pick details and explain them, but i basically had physics PhD explain which type of screw was on their setup
You are willing to go away from an approach if there are complex reasons why it should not be done

all unsolicited contact to an technical interviewer is annoying. The company allocated the time for this, the interview will be/was executed, and HR communicates with you. Deviating from this protocol shows a certain lack of professionalism.
Answer: YES, YES and YES.  Seeing how deeply competitive tech is everything you do has to make you stand out from the other candidates.  Anyone can talk to someone about a project they have worked on but what has HUGE impact is if they can see your project.
You can just simply ask them in the interview if they would be interested in seeing your project. Most clients will say yes.  Then you can see in project and you can then tell them about the project, and stories of the learning that you gained from it.
It makes you a more 3 dimensional person and not just a 'another interviewee'. Plus there is the bonus you can relax more in the interview setting.
A win/win for everyone.


Comment History Checker - See comment score and your deleted comments at a glance

Question:

Comment History Checker ( install ) (github)
This is a userscript which saves all comments you post into a local database (IndexedDB). When you want to review them, go to your profile's Activity tab (example) and click on the Comments subtab. Comments that are no longer visible (and would not be shown on the page by default) will be inserted into the table, and data taken from the Stack Exchange API will be put into every comment row:

Info added to each row:

Score and accept status of the question
Score and accept status of:

The answer the comment was made on, if the comment was made on an answer
Else, the top answer

Number of additional answers
Opacity indicating whether the comment was made on a question or an answer
Comment score (if greater than 0)
Comment deletion cause, if deleted: one of

The post the comment was made on was deleted
You deleted the comment
System removed your "Possible duplicate of" comment due to question being closed as a duplicate
A ♦ moderator deleted the comment, or the system deleted the comment in response to a flag

Question close reason, if closed

The same data will be displayed on other users' profiles, but only comments you make are saved in the database, so deleted comments won't be shown.
Script is active on all Stack Exchange sites, including meta sites.
Why check comment history?
Comment score is an interesting, useful indicator of how much those who saw it agree, but is ordinarily only visible if you manually visit the page with the comment, which is tedious.
If you found the question interesting enough to make a comment on it, this lets you see at a glance if it's been solved
If you couldn't answer, or someone else's answer was received better, you can check it out to see what a better solution would be
Answer scores are occasionally surprising, and one should avoid posting answers in the comments. If a question isn't close-worthy, is answerable, but you only commented, you can see how well answers fared at a glance.
By default, when a moderator deletes someone's comment, they are not notified (nor can they even see when comments are deleted on the activity page), which means they have no opportunity to notice that they did something wrong, let alone try to improve in the future. This script remedies that by drawing one's attention to removed comments and the cause of their deletion. (Note that deleted comments are not necessarily a problem - they may just have been "No longer needed", such as a request for clarification that was dealt with.)

Compatible with browsers which support ES2017 (Chrome 55+, FF 52+). A userscript manager like Tampermonkey is highly recommended.
Direct install link
Source code in Typescript and bundled output available on Github. If you want to build it yourself and/or change things, see here for instructions and tips.
If you encounter bugs or want to request a feature, please raise an issue on Github.
MIT License
Answer: There seems to be a bug with paging. I'm getting this (cropped) when I go to my comments:

but I'm getting the exact same comments on the top when pressing the "2" for page 2. Only comments below the retained deleted comments seems to be paging.. sort of:

page 1
page 2
page 3


Producing energy from magnetic flux loops

Question: I've simplified this down by quite a lot but as far as I understand it, magnetic fields on the Sun's surface twist together and when it gets all a bit too much they release energy.
 My question is why can't we twist magnetic fields here on Earth to produce energy?
Comment: The very short answer: twisting a magnetic loop *stores* energy, it does not produce it.
Answer: We have conservation of energy to contend with. The magnetic energy being released in the upper layers of the suns atmosphere originated in turbulent convection lower down. So in effect the upper layers of the sun (upper here meaning roughly from the photosphere and downward) are acting as a heat engine putting some energy into the suns magnetic field.
So we can't "twist" magnetic field lines without providing the energy to do so. It would
be possible to generate electricity from changes in the earth's magnetic field caused by
the impingement of solar wind born magnetic energy on the earths magnetic field. Any change
in the total flux of magnetic field going through a current loop, generates a voltage. In fact
during geomagnetic storms there is a danger that currents induced in power transmission lines could cause serious damage to th electrical grid system. But this is not a practical way to generate energy, but rather a hazard that our infrastructure has to contend with.
Answer: If we could build a type of deep cycle battery system and attach them to our power lines, we could syphone off cme emissions, as for magnetic fields we us that energy to spin terbines , if we construck sails to collect solr winds , we could use that energy to fuel our international space station. What we realy need to do is build on the moon. But. Twisted magnetic fields , i like ur thinking.


How can I improve my questions?

Question: So I've been asking some questions on stack exchange here, and I got question banned. I read the article at the help center on asking good questions. I can't improve my questions (mostly because they are already answered). I deleted some of my questions (which don't help) but no one thinks they're good! Also, very few people are viewing my previous questions which I think might be a factor. Some tips on asking good questions would be appreciated. Also, do not copy and paste the tips from the help center.
Comment: A good question doesn't depend on how many questions you've asked before. What question(s) are you talking about exactly? In your history are only two questions with negative score (not counting deleted ones). Also deleting a question has a negative impact as well.
Comment: Agreed with dly - can you post some specific examples of questions you'd like feedback on?
Comment: I deleted a bunch of questions, including my first one with a score of -7
Comment: Without example questions we can't help you. Deleted content is not available on Data and the search tools we have are quite limited. If you still have a link to the deleted question that would help a lot.
Answer: Looking at your two undeleted and negative-score questions, "Minecraft multiple data tag command help" and "Fortnite mobile update problem", I can think of some tips. These tips will reference those from the help centre, but they are relevant to these questions:
Show some evidence of research in your questions - evidence that you have attempted to solve the question yourself. A general rule of thumb is that your question should not be able to be solved from clicking one link from a google search. For your Minecraft question, I was able to find two links to solve it by Googling, the two earliest links (the first being yours), despite not having played Minecraft before. I would consider that question to be lacking evidence of research which could explain the downvotes. You could say, for example, that you had attempted this method or searched these websites in an attempt to solve your problem. This could also be used to improve your other question to a lesser extent, where your only evidence of research is restarting the app and deleting/reinstalling.
The second is to give as much information as possible that could potentially be helpful in providing the answer. This is quite relevant for your second question about Fortnite on the mobile, where both the phone make, the software e.g. IOS 12.1.4, and the Fortnite app version (both previous and what you are attempting to update to), could easily be relevant to your question and is easily accessible information. A screenshot of the error message is helpful too so viewers can read the exact error message you received. Did you attempt this on other devices such as a Nintendo Switch and have the same issue? Is this the only time you've had the issue, or does this happen repeatedly? That last one is particularly relevant for your question, since you said you solved it by reinstalling the app - do you need an alternate solution if that was the only time you had the issue?
Looking at your other questions, those tips can be applied for most if not all of them.
Generally with question bans, it is recommended to edit and improve your previous questions to make them more likely to be upvoted, which can help lift a question ban. Even answered questions get views later (and your Fortnite one is still unanswered). You could update your questions based on those tips, even those without a negative score. And, as Blueberry Gumdrops said, don't delete questions - you're better off editing and improving those questions.
Answer: There are a few good things you can do in the case of a question ban:

Edit your questions to make them better. This will bump them to the homepage and allow it to get upvoted if you've made it good.
Provide some good answers. This actually helps significantly to lift question-bans.
Don't delete your questions. Deleted questions count against you just as much as non-deleted ones.

It may take some time for the ban to be lifted, but it will happen if you do these three things.
For more information, see What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"?.

How can I improve my questions?


Do users care about having multiple options for payment providers (paypal vs google checkout, etc.)?

Question: I'm working on a sort of CMS with a built in payment system. We plan on having it support multiple payment processors like Paypal, Amazon, and Google Checkout, but I'm wondering if we need to present all of those options to end users or just have the person setting up the server pick one. Are there any studies of the effect of having multiple payment providers on conversion rates? Do buyers appreciate the flexibility of multiple payment options, or is it just one more thing to have to understand?
Comment: "Do users care ..." seems like quite a broad question. More importantly you should want to discover whether *your* users care.
Comment: Found a couple related unanswered questions on Quora, too:
http://www.quora.com/Are-there-differences-in-conversion-rates-based-on-accepting-payments-via-Paypal-Amazon-or-using-a-direct-merchant-account
http://www.quora.com/Do-multiple-payment-options-help-conversion-rate
Comment: Sure it is, as are most of the questions on this site. Gathering the general experiences of others is a great way to get a starting point that can be elaborated on, improved, or scrapped depending on the needs and preferences of the people actually using the system. We don't need to always start with a blank slate.
Comment: People want the best way to pay for stuff. that include their lovely payment providers, those they use every day, also there is a country target where paypal or google checkout does not work
Answer: I work at an eCommerce website and adding PayPal (though buggy) helped out conversion rates. However, adding a bunch did not.
If you are building a CMS I believe it is best that you allow who ever is setting it up to choose which they want presented to users and to use. They might not want their money split up.
Comment: Love the suggestion on building the CMS so that they can choose which payment methods to use.
Comment: Do you have any numbers you'd be willing to share?
Comment: They didnt share with me the numbers. Only that there was an enough of a lift for us to keep paypal and go through the trouble of it going down every other month. (If it wasnt worth it, the would have kicked it to the curb quick like many things here) We only have payal and CC for payment now
Answer: The answer is going to be fairly region specific.  For example, if you were setting up PayPal for a site targeted at a country that doesn't have a high penetration of credit cards, you would likely not see much benefit, and you should look at more regional payment solutions.
Most people only care that their preferred method of payment is available, so you need to know who your audience is and what they prefer before you can know if it's worth doing or not.  Ask a sample of your customers and see what they prefer using.
Answer: I remember reading a paper on e-commerce and payment methods a while back - i think it was from econsultancy. The outcome of which was that the options that should be offered varied greatly dependant upon the country the website operates and sells in.
In the UK credit cards are a very popular online payment method, however for example in Germany credit cards prove a far less popular payment method so ideally you need to ensure that you offer payment methods that allow customers to pay by whatever means they feel comfortable with or have at their disposal.
Answer: It is very much dependent on the people liable to use your sites. The expectations of the user are paramount - as @JohnGB points out, people only care that their preferred method is there - the end users do not want a choice, they only want the one option that they want to use.
Providing the clients with the ability to select - and select choices based on country or community - is probably the way to go. This means that choices can be made early on, and the end users are not being asked to make choices.
Answer: Sure, you have to allow users to choose. US-located users may prefer to use credit card, but non-US users may prefer to use PayPal as not all the countries have convenient credit card environment/services. Also note that pricing shouldn't vary from payment method to payment method (even if you have to pay some fee as a merchant if user select, for example, credit card as a payment option). You may read more about usability issues during checkout process here.


If a track contains two channels, is the track stereo?

Question: If a track contains two channels, does that mean that the track is stereo?
Conversely, is a stereo sound always stored as a track with two channels recorded in the track?
Comment: A stereo "track" is actually two tracks represented as one. Back when tape machines and physical mixers were used, a stereo source was recorded to two separate tracks and brought back through two separate channels, one channel usually panned left and the other right. Now with software, that can all be combined into virtual stereo tracks and channels, but there are two separate streams of audio data.
Answer: multiple channels doesn't mean that its stereo.  It could be Dual Mono where the 2 channels have no correlation to each other or it could be a mono track but taking up 2 channels for "stereo" playback.  A true stereo sound will have to be 2 channels.
Answer: Technically speaking stereo just means two or more sound sources. It is more related to how it is heard than represented. If you played a "stereo" track on one speaker it would be mono. Conversely if you played a mono track out of multiple speakers to make it sound like there is more than one source of audio "surrounding" the listener it would be stereo. The pleasantness of this works better if there is correlation between between the two but that's not required for the definition of stereo.
As an industry standard a "Stereo Track" is generally considered two channels on the same track or two channels each intended to come out of a different speaker. The words track and channel can get confused and interchanged depending on the medium however. Take a cassette tape for instance. It has four tracks physically. It plays two tracks at a time for the stereo effect. When you flip it over it plays two tracks from the other side of the tape. The reason we call a cassette stereo is because of its general use. On the other hand if you had a 24 track tape that's just 24 mono tracks that may or may not be used in a stereo way later when mixed down to a stereo environment.
Digitally it's simply an organization tool to make things easier when editing and mixing. In the same way you could have a multiple channels within a track that don't do stereo things so the label is changed to something like dual mono. It's just a tool that does mostly the same thing with a different label to help us organize. In general the "Stereo Tracks" are usually panned hard left and right for each track where the "Dual Mono" tracks are kept equal on both left and right outputs.


What could be reasons why incest is wrong?

Question: Rather than explaining with religious restrictions, how could you explain why incest relationship is wrong? How can you explain with morality?
Yes, I know scientifically, incest generations are more susceptible to the diseases and more. I don't dispute these facts. However, my question is this; Why it is wrong when you think beyond science and religion.
Comment: Incest is defined differently in different cultures. It is a cultural taboo, no science behind it. Cleopatra was the result of 29 generations of brother/ sister marriages. Different cultures define differently exactly what is taboo.
Comment: 1. If in doubt about whether your question is on topic or not, ask on [meta] first. 2. 'science' and 'religion' both give us information that we need in order to base our morality on something. Without that something, your morality is completely random. 3. That 'incest generations are more susceptible to the diseases and more' is a fact, not a moral claim. It can be used to make a moral claim: 'Incest is bad, because ...'; but others may use the fact to claim the exact opposite. Science is not a moral framework.
Comment: Science itself doesn't make moral claims. It doesn't say "It **is good that** ..." but "It **is the case that** ...". You can use these truth claims in a moral framework, i.e. making moral claims (e.g. "Because [it is the case that ...], it is good that ..."), but science doesn't do that itself.
Comment: You say science is not a moral framework. However, before this sentence you say; scientific facts can lead us moral results. I didn't understand your answer.
Comment: @nocomprende Not really a philosophy question. There have been a lot of studies done in anthropology on it. Lot in anthropology literature, but can't give specific references as haven't read about it in well over 40 years.
Comment: @SwamiVishwananda yes, I always wondered why someone "should not" marry a person who is related only by marriage. The explanation someone offered here is that it would possibly affect other relationships. Finally, an answer to that perplexing question!
Comment: @Zeyneb: Can you clarify whether you are talking about relationships between siblings, or also about relationships between adults and their children or grandchildren?
Comment: Considering your restrictions, isn't this a question for psychology? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect
Comment: i think you assume foundationalism, whereas some things are as self evidently wrong as contradictions
Comment: also, fwiw it seems to me that incestuous relationships always **reduce** to their taboo. e.g. working on the sabbath, not really
Comment: @SwamiVishwananda Whether to legally allow cousin marriage can be a scientific question though. Darwin felt a deep conflict about marrying his cousin, because of the science.
Comment: https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/q/91259/30545
Answer: First of all, you need to specify which system of ethics you want to base your judgement of incest on. People tend to think that "right" and "wrong" are absolutes (even when removed from religious considerations), when in fact "right" and "wrong" can only be specified with regards to specific systems of ethics, of which there are many.
Second, you need to define incest more precisely: In some cultures, incest includes relations between cousins, and between relatives by marriage, etc, while others consider only relations between direct blood relatives to be incest. Henceforth, I will consider only relations between siblings and parents to be incest.
In your question, you add the additional twist of seeking reasons "beyond science and religion". This would rule out any consequentialist ethics like utilitarianism, since you are looking for something other than the negative consequences of incest, typically based on genetics and medical science. It would also rule out virtue ethics and some deontological ethics based on religious considerations.
This would leave us with non-religious deontological ethical systems as our only system for figuring out whether incest is wrong or not. I can only think of two such approaches:

Kant's categorical imperative: An action is morally acceptable if it can be universalized, meaning that it should be allowed in every situation, not just the current one. So can incest be universalized? The answer is most likely "No", and incest is wrong. There are far too many situations where allowing incest would disrupt family structures and relationships. In particular sexual partners can break up whenever the relationship no longer satisfies them, whereas the parent-child and sibling relationships are permanent ones that underly the very way our society is structured. Can you imagine a family holiday dinner where the a brother and sister had just broken up after a months long relationship? A man may divorce his wife to be with another woman, but what would happen to our social structure if men started divorcing their wives to be with their daughters?
Natural rights: Alternatively, one could argue from a point of view of natural freedom. As long as you are not harming others, you can do what you please. In this case, one has to admit that there is nothing wrong with incest per se. Presumably, those engaging in incestuous relationships would have to make sure that this never leads to procreation, since then they would be harming the eventual children by giving them a higher chance of genetics defects, but otherwise they are free, as consenting adults, to engage in whatever relationship they want to. Indeed, there are countries where incest between consenting adults is legal.
Comment: I like the explanation based on relationships. For adults, this is the reason: we resist being connected with others in "too many" deep ways. It is just too problematic.
Comment: Since you mention cousins: In some places this was dependent on who the parents of the cousins are (brothers, sisters, or mixed). The reason: If we _believe_ that two people are cousins, they might actually be half siblings because some of the parents cheated.
Comment: This is a pretty iffy application of the categorical imperative. Certainly you haven't shown that willing incest entails willing a contradiction, just an inconvenience.
Comment: In most western countries incest is legal, AFAIK. Just marriage between close relatives is prohibited.
Comment: "whereas the parent-child and sibling relationships are permanent ones that underly the very way our society is structured" Maybe *your* society is.
Comment: @Alice, it is for Kant's hypothetical society.
Comment: Cousins are blood relations. You mean in some cultures marriage is only forbidden between relatives of 1 or 2 degree of seperation.
Comment: Do we need a 'system of ethics' to tell us punching your mother who's given you everything or sex with a 4 year old is bad? Or that's innate? I think any two people should be able to communicate with what's innate, if that is undermined then any form of discussion/assessment between the two of them would be meaningless. At the end of the day even among people that follow the same 'system of ethics' you'd never find two people having 100% identical mindsets — but how does my mindset affect the ethics of punching my mother or sex with a 4 yr old? (1/2)
Comment: The point where system of ethics is necessary is when it comes to its judgement, e.g. he punched his mom. What's the punishment. He had sex with a 4 yrd old. What's the punishment. Is it 6 months or 5 months of jail. Does he have to pay money? Does the offender just need to make the other person happy or no, even after the oppressed has accepted the apology, then he's still a public offender and needs to still be punished by the society?, etc. My answer [here](https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/a/55896/16719) is somewhat free of 'system of ethics' (2/2)
Answer: This looks like a philosophical question - but it isn't. It's touched upon in the anthropological literature, for example, by Claude Levi-Strauss, who using elements of Mauss's The Gift, explained the universal incest taboo via a theory of kinship networks.
He focused specific attention to the fieldwork of Margaret Mead amongst the Arapesh, where she reported when asked does a man ever sleep with his sister, the Arapesh replied:

No we don't sleep with our sisters. We give our sisters to other men, and other men give us their sisters.

When she further pressed the point repeatedly, they said:

What, you would like to marry your sister? What is the matter with you anyway? Don't you want a brother-in-law? Don't you realize that if you marry another man's sister and another man marries your sister, you will have at least two brothers-in-law, while if you marry your own sister you will have none? With whom will you hunt, with whom will you garden, who will you visit?

The point here is kinship. It's also worth noticing that in Levi-Strauss' considered opinion the taboo is universal.
Comment: @no comprendre: all explanations then are 'made up' - including your 'psyche'; the point is this is backed up by field-research; Levi-Strauss is a highly respected anthropologist; the more important point, which perhaps you missed is that this isn't a philosophical question.
Comment: It sounds like a made-up explanation by the people involved to cover their discomfort with the idea of being "too close" to someone psychically in too many ways. The psyche tends to resist being enmeshed or engulfed, lest it be overpowered.
Comment: "*Ain't got no money in my pocket but I'm already here.*" Hic Rhodus, hic salta. Did you know that 67% of statistics are made up on the spot? Research can prove anything. Personally, I don't much care if it is Philosophy or Psychology. But - You are Right On that **all explanations are made up.** Congratulations! Now maybe we can study Nonduality.
Comment: But this is only true for monogamy. And sex is not marriage. Siblings can't marry in eitger way in many countries.
Answer: Moral revulsion ?
One reason advanced for the immorality of incest is the supposed universal revulsion which the practice inspires. In general I think that the moral emotions are important and need to be taken into acccount. But since incest is a contextual concept, historically and socially specific, there can hardly be a universal revulsion against it since 'it' means different things in different cultures. Father/ daughter, mother/ son, step mother/ step-son, step-father and step-daughter, sister/ brother, grandmother/ grandson/ first cousin/ first cousin : the concept can elastically include all of these and more or exclude some of them. All we can safely say is that incest is widely taken to apply to sexual intercourse between people forming a familial core - it is as vague and imprecise as that. Do you - whoever is reading this - feel equal revulsion to all the relationships listed ? Do you feel anything so strong as revulsion in all cases ? That between first cousins, for instance.
Incest - or incest-plus ?
Sexual relations between consenting adult first cousins is seldom harmful as such in any sense I can think of. (How ?) The problem with incest, or the major moral problem, comes when the conditions of incest are damagingly different.
Incest often causes harm; it can do so, physically and psychologically, especially when it occurs between adults and minors within the family unit. It can represent an abuse of power relationships, again especially when it occurs between adults and minors. It often links with the repression of, and disrespect for, women : part of a syndrome which has the crude and casual use of female children for sexual gratification at the far end.
It is the combination of incest with such conditions as these that makes the main moral case against incest so far as I can see.
Incest and autonomy
If personal autonomy is a value, it develops with a loosening of ties with the familial core. It entails 'becoming one's own person', moving out from the core to the risky, unpredictable, varied and enriching experience  - including sexual experience - of non-familial relationships. This isn't a matter of abandoning the family but of enlarging one's experience beyond it. Incest, which closes the door on this enlargement of experience, is not a gateway to autonomy.
Comment: (+1) for "abuse of power relationship", that would be my answer. I would argue that non-abusive consensual incest between siblings (if that's possible) is ok, if contraceptives are used. Parent/child incest is inherently abusive, and thus never ok.
Answer: Assuming that a society is structured in families, the absence of the taboo would mean that those responsible for infants would legally have sexual access to those they should protect. Thence sexual abuse would be rampant - more than it already is.
So the taboo protects a moral good: relative sexual freedom for children.
Comment: This fails to address the situation where everyone is over the age of consent.
Comment: @CriglCragl - No, "the situation where everyone is over the age of consent" is just collateral damage.
Answer: I really like the note mentioned Alexander, that is in an incest relationship there is no concept of divorce. I mean it would eventually lead to a divorce between siblings. But we all know that family is a great support and blessing for us and there's already enough internal struggle in between so let's not add anymore :)
Same can be said for a 4 year old girl. You can touch her, so why not have non-penetrative sex with her in her sleep?
There is a natural shame in doing it (There may also be a desire, but still the shame is there). Same shame exists for your siblings. The only difference with siblings is it's consensual and with an adult.
Additionally:

It would make inheritance complicated. A sister may also be a mother, etc.
Families would be in contact with a smaller population and learn less from others. It's like them living in their own village. (Normally people/groups who only marry their own kind/group have a lower level of tolerance for othering. The more diverse you more you're adaptable you become and more you can understand others. (I don't mean accept everyone, but some differences make total sense, some make zero sense) If you move to a new city you learn something new, if you learn a new language you learn something new, if you marry a different person you learn something new. But with with incest you're planting a seed of social restriction onto yourself and your children.)
There are genetic concerns. Inbreeding which is very similar creates many genetic issues. See here and here Now imagine if this happens 2-3 generations in. The effect would be magnified. From the article it says:

However it is estimated that 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are
  married to first cousins, and a third of children with recessive
  genetic disorders are born to that community.

So to conclude it's to be avoided for complications in inheritance, creating social restrictions, genetic issues.
Answer: I mainly just want to defend this as being a philosophical question. In particular, it is an exemplary case to distinguish between consequentualist and virtue ethics, and to examine the roles of intuitions and biology in ethical decision making. Hume used incest to reject appeals to naturalism for moral universalism:

"But to choose an instance, still more resembling; I would fain ask any one, why incest in the human species is criminal, and why the very same action, and the same relations in animals have not the smallest moral turpitude and deformity? If it be answered, that this action is innocent in animals, because they have not reason sufficient to discover its turpitude; but that man, being endowed with that faculty which ought to restrain him to his duty, the same action instantly becomes criminal to him; should this be said, I would reply, that this is evidently arguing in a circle. For before reason can perceive this turpitude, the turpitude must exist; and consequently is independent of the decisions of our reason, and is their object more properly than their effect. According to this system, then, every animal, that has sense, and appetite, and will; that is, every animal must be susceptible of all the same virtues and vices, for which we ascribe praise and blame to human creatures." A Treatise On Human Understanding, Book 3 part 1 section1.

What are people saying, they know what is philosophy better than Hume?
There is a really good discussion between Richard Dawkins, who limits his consequentialism in this case to biology, and Sam Harris who widens the analysis of consequences, here.
This topic is important for philosophy exactly because it crosses these various demains, and so highlights the conflicts we can face with simplistic moral theories.
Answer: I agree with you that the only reason against incest are genetics.
I assume that societies who have detected the resulting genetic diseases have incorporated the incest tabu into their moral values, sometimes even amplified by religious prescriptions.
I consider the moral of a society a set of rules and values determined and established by the society in question. According to this view the incest tabu is a moral rule.
In my opinion moral laws are set by society, not detected like laws of nature.
Comment: It's a rather non-philosophical tangent, but I'd like to point out that there no need for societies to *detect* genetic diseases or to associate them with incestuous relationships. Being disgusted by incest is simply adaptive because you're more likely to have healthy offspring. The moral and legal proscriptions against incest are derived directly from the disgust response, and not from any reasoned consideration of the consequences.
Comment: @nocomprende: I read (but cannot remember where) that will kids grow up together, they can form strong feelings similar to friendship, but become sexually unattractive to each other. But that siblings who were separated and meet as adults often find each other very attractive due to their similarity. Whether that is true I don't know.
Comment: @Era yes, and the disgust response shows in animals who are too closely related also, it is how they try to avoid too-close mate choice. Disgust in this case (animals and people) is cued by scent: if you are too closely related to someone, they smell bad to you (for mysterious reasons). Of course, anyone with a disease or genetic problem could smell bad also, so there is a one-size-fits-all detector for that. I think that any proscriptions would more likely be based on long experience of how these relationship choices would destabilize other relationships - psychology.
Comment: @Era Why then there are so many people who see nothing objectively wrong with consensual protected incestous sex? Objectively means they still might not want to be involved.
Comment: @rus9384 One reason might be that we now understand the (reproductive) health risks associated with incest, so having the understanding that protection prevents this risk reduces the innate inhibition for some people (note that there may or may not be psychological health risks, I've heard this asserted but I don't know any evidence for it myself). Also, I don't think that any disgust response or moral belief is absolutely universal. Moral beliefs about sexuality, in particular, have been evolving to become more permissive over the recent centuries in Western culture.
Answer: Under a naturalistic worldview there is off course nothing wrong with incest. If two consenting adults would have sex then why should being blood relatives stop them? After all what adults do behind closed doors has nothing to do with us. Atheism defends the right of sexual freedom as long as it is not hurting anyone and no one can deny this is a beautiful coming together of two souls.
Really it would be hypocrisy from those same people who advocate gay marriage to somehow now grow a conscience when  it comes to brothers and sisters. What if two brothers want to get married? I thought a marriage certificate is everyones right?
I wish that one day we can escape religious oppression and then brotherly love can take its rightful place in society.
Comment: Atheism is about the (in)existence of god(s). It does not defend sexual freedom - though of course many atheists will do so.
Comment: 'Not hurting anyone'. Someone under the age of consent may not be hurt by having sex, they may even initiate it. It is classed as statutory rape because these cases are so hard to prosecute, and it lowers the burden of proof to just showing it happened. And so to protect young people from exploitation. Law will always be about more than 'enabling freedom'
Answer: The only other reason, if you exclude science and religion, is that the love is the same between close family members, so no real love can be made.
To made new love requires a distance between two opposite poles (like positive and negative on a battery).  Even in the Garden of Genesis, Adam and Eve couldn't have made (i.e. created) much love.  There just wasn't that much experience to separate the two individuals in order to come back with something new.


Can I lower vending machine prices?

Question: I want to maximize the bang for my buck. BioShock 2 had the "Vending Expert" gene tonic, which lowered vending machine prices. Does BioShock Infinite have anything similar?
Comment: I assume you tried the 'make-machines-friendly' vigor already?
Answer: There is a single Discount Dollar Bill machine in the courtyard of the Hall of Heroes that sells a pistol clip upgrade for half the price (side note: buying this upgrade does not affect the Scavenger Hunt achievement). Other than that, you are out of luck.
Using Possession on a vending machine causes it to drop a small amount of money but the prices remain the same.
Answer: Similar, yes, but not the same. The Possession vigor will cause any vending machine to hork up a pile of Silver Eagles, once per machine. So you get some coin out of the machines, but there is no way to affect the prices directly.

Can I lower vending machine prices?


Windows 8 - How do I sign in to Calendar with my Microsoft account?

Question: I first opened calendar in Windows 8 and it asked me to sign-in my Microsoft account. I tried a couple times but it said wrong password. Therefore, I clicked cancel. How can I try again now? Is there no way now for me to sign-in and reap whatever benefits that brings to me? I am using Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation.
Answer: From the Start menu do a search for users.  make sure you search under "Settings" click on the USERS result which should take you to the PC Settings.  from here you can setup and link your accounts this is where it pulls your calendar info from not the calendar app itself if that makes sense.
Comment: ok thanks. i was just wondering if there was an interface for adding only calendars instead of a system wide account that affects several apps such as mail and contacts.
Answer: I have figured it out. Microsoft seems to be hiding even app settings into the settings charm in the charms bar. To access the accounts interface: go to the charms bar. click settings. click account. You may now make any account related changes.


Is it possible to observe interference from 2 independent optical lasers?

Question: It seems that if the coherence length of a laser is big enough, it is possible to observe a (moving) interference picture by combining them. Is it true? How fast should photo-detectors be for observing of the interference of beams from two of the "best available" lasers? What is the coherence length of the best-available laser? More specifically, does there exist any (optical single-wavelength) laser with coherence length exceeding 500 meters?
Comment: Interference only occurs if the phase relation between the two lasers is stable over a "useful" amount of time, I don't know if that is technically manageable but in theory there's no reason why not
Comment: The two lasers have to emit mutually coherent  beams. Otherwise you would just be measuring noise on your new and expensive detectors.
Answer: This paper seems relevant to your question. If I'm reading the abstract correctly, the answers to your questions are:

Q: It seems that if the coherence length of a laser is big enough, it is possible to observe a (moving) interference picture by combining them. Is it true?

A: Yes

Q: How fast should photo-detectors be for observing of the interference of beams from two of the "best available" lasers?

A: 1 millisecond or faster

Q: What is the coherence length of the best-available laser?

A: More than 300 km

Q: More specifically, does there exist any (optical single-wavelength) laser with coherence length exceeding 500 meters?

A: Yes

The abstract in the paper:

Interference fringes produced by a pair of intracavity stabilized diode laser beams, each impinging separately on one aperture of a double slit, are recorded on a linear charge-coupled device array. The peculiar result of the experiment is that the fringe system is found to persist for a time of the order of 1 ms and loses contrast for longer integration times. This implies that the individual linewidths of the two beams from the stabilized lasers are narrower than 1 kHz and that the average drift rates of the central peaks are far less than 0.1 MHz/s. The device was built within the advanced undergraduate electronics laboratory of the department of physics and represents a considerable improvement over previous demonstration apparatuses used to detect interference fringes from independent lasers.

An interesting 1986 review of interference from independent sources:
"Interference between independent photons", Rev. Mod. Phys. 58, 209–231 (1986)
Answer: Detectors as fast as 50 GHz can be easily bought (if you have the money :P). This means that if the difference in the frequency of the lasers is smaller then 50 GHz or wavelength difference is smaller than 60 pm then you can detect the beating using these fast detectors. This wavelength difference can be achieved (sorry but I am not in the mood of finding a papers reporting said achievement), you can even phase-lock the lasers (but then I would not call them independent anymore)
Coherence length of 500 m means coherent time of $t=500/c = 1.7 \mu s$ which means a bandwidth of $\Delta\nu = 600 kHz$, which can be achieved by external-cavity diode lasers.
Answer: personally i work with two pulsed laser source and i managed to use one as master and the other one as slaver succeding in this way to have a perfect sincronization in wavelenght,  phase and pulse frequency.. i've never tried to see interference path between them (I use these just for microscopy purpose) but as Tobias was saying I don't see why that should not work as long as a stable sincronyzation is kept.
I really don't know about the 500m coherence length..
Comment: Here is a PRL which I believe describes Steve's scheme: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/quant-ph/pdf/0603/0603048v2.pdf
Answer: I'm assuming from the phrasing of the question that you would like to see a spatial interference pattern-- bright and dark fringes-- not something in the time domain. As noted earlier, you can easily beat two independent lasers together and get a signal that pulses at the difference between the two. You can also do coincidence counting experiments using photons derived from two different lasers and show that they interfere with each other-- I believe that's the "Hong-Ou-Mandel" experiment, but I could have the name wrong.
If what you want to see is a pattern of interference fringes in space, you need a detector that is both fast and position-sensitive, as the interference pattern will shift around rapidly in time. You would need to take a "snapshot" of the pattern at some instant, before it has time to shift position and wash out the fringes from an earlier time. So, what kind of speed are we talking about?
Well, the pattern between the lasers would be steady for a time on the order of the coherence time of the lasers. A good rule of thumb for finding the coherence time for a fairly ordinary laser is that the coherence length of the laser is roughly equal to the length of the cavity. A typical gas laser of the sort you would readily find on the shelves of your local physics department stockroom has a cavity that is roughly one foot long, which means a coherence time of the time required for light to travel one foot, which is one nanosecond.
So, you would want to be able to pick up the pattern in less than a nanosecond, which means your detector needs to be able to handle count rates of at least one gigahertz. That's not too difficult to manage-- you can get photodiodes with a bandwidth of 50-60GHz pretty easily. In order to see a spatial pattern, though, you really want a linear array of these at the very least, and a CCD camera would be even better. You also need to be able to pick up multiple photons in that span, in order to be able to see the pattern, so you can clearly resolve the difference between bright and dark fringes-- I would say you probably want at least 100 photons/pixel in the bright fringes to be able to get decent fringe contrast. This is doable with fairly basic lasers-- a few milliwatts in the red range of wavelengths is about 10^15 photons/s, or about 10^6 photons/ns, so you can spread that out over a few thousand pixels and still be safe. And, of course, you need a low level of "dark counts" in your detector, so it can readily tell the difference between a bright spot with 100 photons and a dark spot with none.
That's a pretty challenging set of detector requirements. You want, essentially, a CCD detector with single-photon sensitivity and a bandwidth of 100 GHz. I don't think you're going to find that just lying around. Even the fast CCD detectors people use for real-time monitoring of BEC experiments and the like have a frame readout time of a millisecond or so, and those aren't single-photon sensitive. Single-photon detectors tend to be single avalanche photodiodes, which are easily damaged by photon count rates of a few tens of kilohertz. You might be able to construct a detector with these specs, but it would be an extremely difficult problem, and not something that would be worth doing just to see a spatial interference pattern between two independent lasers.
If you can bump the coherent time of the lasers up by a factor of 1000 (which is not a trivial undertaking) then it becomes a little easier to do, but it's still very difficult-- you're looking for a CCD with a frame readout time of a microsecond or so, able to handle photon counts in the megahertz range. Which is still a very hard problem.
Which is probably why it hasn't been done, at least not that I'm aware of.
EDIT: The closest to the sort of thing you're talking about is the Pfleegor-Mandel experiment, which used a statistical technique to show that there were spatial fringes in the interference pattern of two independent lasers. It's a long way from a direct observation of the pattern, though.


How do I get filtered list item into chart web part?

Question: Using Sharepoint 2010 :-I have three Web parts in my page :
1) Chart web part 2) list filter web Part and 3) List web part
my requirement is that I can apply filter on list web part and when I get the result by filtering list ,I want the Chart of only that filtered List Items in Chart web part.
Please give me suggestion ...
I have tried applying filter on list then done connection of that list with chart web part but each time it is showing the chart of all items not the chart of filtered one.
Comment: I am facing the same problem. Did anyone find an answer or workaround?
Answer: I had the same problem, but here are some additional details that may be helpful:
I had 3 web parts on my page: a Chart, a List, and a List Filter.  The chart was connected to the list web part (not to the list itself) and the list filter also connected to the list web part.  If I used the list filter web part, it applied the filter to the list web part as expected, but the chart did not change.  However, if I applied a filter in the list web part directly, that did cause the chart to update.  So I removed the list filter web part from the page.
Now I have just the list and the chart web parts, and simply the restriction that I can't filter any given column to more than one value (that's all that is possible using the filter dropdowns on a list's header row).
I did discover another problem there, though: if my list exceeds the item limit, the paging buttons don't work while the list web part is connected to the chart.


How to behave during beta?

Question: How should we behave and what behaviour should we encourage during beta specifically in order to make our site successful?
Answer: I have never before (knowingly) participated in a beta, but this is what I have heard:

Vote often & smart
Apparently only relatively feq users have voted significantly often so far. We need to seed reputation so we have members with moderation privileges soon. Also, heavy voting encourages new members to participate and demonstrates that people care.
Of course, we should vote honestly, i.e. upvote good contributions and downvote clearly unuseful ones. This also serves to define our scope and comfort zones further. We should also take extra care to explain downvotes for the same reasons.
Ask questions
We have lots of (good) answers, but we need to keep good questions coming. I have not idea how to make myself produce good questions, but well.
Remember to come back and accept (one of) the best answer(s).
Edit to improve
It will be a while until most people know their way around the system (in particular Markdown and LaTeX) and we have a good idea how to tag questions. Therefore I expect we will have to edit a lot in the beginning, and everybody should participate to their best knowledge.
Answer Questions
This should be obvious but needs to be said.
Accept the (or a) best answer
This has to be done for many of the questions we have so far!
Comment: I don't know if "vote like crazy" is that important during the *private* beta; it tends to create questions with a disproportionate number of votes. That said, if nobody gets the Suffrage badge today, we're doing it wrong.
Comment: I see two easy ways to ask good questions here. One is to post exercices from a textbook, but many textbook questions are of limited interest and are best left to be asked organically. A way to seed the site with non-research-level yet interesting questions, even if you're a researcher, is to ask questions well outside your domain of expertise.
Comment: +1 for @Gilles' comment. To encourage users to *vote like crazy* is like asking them to vote blindly, especially on topics they're not familiar with. I'd say 'vote responsibly' instead.
Comment: I thought I covered that with "Of course, we should vote honestly.". Trying to clarify.
Comment: True, but I still wouldn't ask people to *vote like crazy* if this will be interpreted as *vote everywhere*.
Comment: I changed the bold phrase.
Comment: what's weird is that theory-ish questions are dominating the site: it seems to indicate that more publicity is needed to expand the audience ? or is it just a function of the private beta being populated by committers who came via math and cstheory ?
Comment: @Suresh I think both can be true. Naturally, if the most active users now are theoretically inclined people, they will naturally attract the same with higher probability.
Comment: What about seeding questions? (i.e. you might know the answers already and still you ask them).
Comment: @Aryabhata Is a possibility. Would you answer a question you have seeded yourself?
Comment: @Raphael: If no one is forthcoming with an answer after say 3-4 days, I would.

How to behave during beta?


Does the break even analysis contradict the law of supply?

Question: The law of supply shows a positive relationship between price and quantity
However, a firm producing at break even level of output would have to increase the quantity supplied if the price of the commodity goes down in order to break even.
Does that mean that a firm producing at break even level is an exception to the law or that the analysis contradicts the law of supply ? ( please correct me if there are any inconsistencies in the logic)
Comment: This question might help you understanding better the law of supply: https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/12824/why-does-quantity-supplied-increase-with-price-in-economics?rq=1
Answer: The short answer is no.
The law of supply only states that increases in price result in higher quantities supplied, ceteris paribus. Break even is the point where Revenue = Costs.
Your confusion might come from this sentence:

a firm producing at break even level of output would have to increase the quantity supplied if the price of the commodity goes down in order to break even.

If the price lowers, the firm will reduce its quantity supplied. That's it. The specific quantity depends on the variable and fixed costs.
It's not mentioned that the company has to break even - think of a monopolist for example.
Comment: So does that mean that a firm already producing at break even level of output would reduce the quantity supplied even though that leads it further away from breaking even ? Please clarify what would a firm producing at break even level of output would do if the price goes down
Comment: @HN17 the price change affects the break even point. If the price goes up it can afford to produce more before breaking even as it would be making profit if it doesn't increase quantity. If the price goes down it will be losing money if it produces the same amount, so it will produce less (worst case, 0 if it exists the market due to inability to break even with the new price)
Answer: The logic of the OP implies that all costs are fixed. In the very short-term one could say that this holds for many firms: a firm cannot leave rented buildings immediately, it can not fire employees immediately etc. Namely "costs" have the form of financial commitments.
But in the mid term (and I am talking a few weeks to a few months, no more), some of the costs are in reality variable. Then if at the original break-even point average cost was increasing, the reduction of price will lead the firm to a lower quantity (where it will have lower average cost), that may even bring in profits.
And the "Law of Supply" refers not to the very short term, but rather to the mid- and long-term behavior.


Is there a difference between "cilantro" and "culantro" in Spanish?

Question: I've seen the American English "cilantro" (British English "coriander") translated into Spanish as both cilantro and culantro. What is the difference? Are they synonyms used interchangeably, or is the difference regional? If it is a regional difference, where is each word used?
Comment: It's also called "coriander" in American English, but usually refers to the dried seeds, rather than the fresh leaves, and is usually ground and used as a spice.
Comment: @Flimzy: Ah, interesting. I'm not much of a cook.
Comment: But what, if any, are the differences in flavor in cooking? Are they interchangeable in cooking, as they are in usage of their names?
Comment: Take into account that common names for plants or animals don't follow conventions like scientific names. The same common name may designate different species in different places, and the same species may receive different names in different places.
Comment: I love both but actually prefer the Culantro. A very dear friend gave me a Culantro plant.I am anxiously waiting for seeds to plant more of it.
Answer: According to the Wikipedia articles 1, 2, 3, there are three related species:
Eryngium foetidum (en: culantro, Mexican coriander and long coriander; es: coriandro, cimarrón, culantro or recao), is originary from the tropical Americas (probably from Mexico), and has different common names including:

«samat» (Guatemala), «cilantro de monte» (Venezuela), «culantro de pata» (Honduras), «culantro» or «chicoria» (Nicaragua, Panamá, Cuba), «cilantro ancho» (República Dominicana), «recao» (Puerto Rico), «culantro mexicano», «culantro habanero», (México), «culantro coyote», «alcapate» (El Salvador), «sacha culantro» (Perú), «orégano de Cartagena», «cilantro habanero» (España), «culantro cimarrón» (Colombia), «culantro coyote» (Costa Rica).
I don't recognize the leave or the name, but that's probably because I am from Bogotá (relatively cold weather in the mountain) where the Old World coriander (see bellow) is more common.
Coriandrum sativum (en: coriander, cilantro, Chinese parsley or dhania; es: cilantro) is probably originary from the Mediterranean.

While «cilantro» is the most common name in all the Spanish speaking world, the name «culantro» is also used in Perú and Honduras.
Note that the English name "coriander", the Latin coriandrum and the Spanish «culantro» are cognates (word with a common etymology) (from Greek κορίαννον koriannon).  Also the word «cilantro» has the same etymology but has driven further away from the Latin word.
The third related herb is:
Petroselinum crispum (en: parsley; es: perejil) - however there seems to be less ambiguity in the name.
While the three of them are from the same family Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae), this family also include carrots, celery, arracacha, anise, and dill among many other, and aparently the New World (E. foetidum) and the Old World (C. sativum) corianders are not to closely related taxonomically.

As for your question: while there is some synonymy, they are not the same species: «cilantro» is mostly used for Old World's Coriandrum sativum, while «culantro» is mostly used for New World's Eryngium foedidum.
And yes: there are regional differences and both words can refer to either of them in different countries.
Comment: Bravo for an extremely well-written answer. For those outside the Americas, particularly Europeans, I'd like to point out that the *Coriandrum sativum* plant produces both an herb from its fresh leaves and a spice from its dried seed, but **only the herb is ever referred to as *cilantro* speaking English in the United States;** the spice is always *coriander* even in America. Sin embargo, en el castellano de los EE.UU. vemos lo contrario, o sea que ambas formas se llaman *cilantro*,  no importa que sea hojas o que sea frutos. Sólo se distinguen en el inglés de estas partes, no en el español.
Answer: Perejil is different.
Perejil = parsley (petroselinum crispum); looks the same as cilantro, but has a much milder, more neutral taste. (Parsley lacks the distinctive "soapiness" of cilantro that people seem to have such strong feelings about.
cilantro = (Amer. English) cilantro/coriander (Coriandrum sativum). Looks like parsley but with a stronger, slightly soapy flavor. Older generations often call it coriander, as it's known in Britain. Younger generations in the U.S. often know it as an ingredient in Thai, Mexican, Latin American, Indian, Vietnamese, etc., cuisine and usually call the leaves "cilantro," although the seeds and the ground spice derived from them are still usually called "coriander" in U.S. English.
culantro = (Eryngium foetidum), a different plant with different-shaped leaves. All three (parsley, cilantro/coriander, and culantro) are related to one another, and culantro's flavor is often described as a much stronger version of cilantro. In some dishes they can be interchangeable, but often they are not.
Their names, however, are somewhat idiosyncratic in Spanish, varying a lot from one region to another and sometimes going by different names entirely.
Answer: I heard this plant being named cilantro or culantro in different countries across South America:

While the name of its seeds is "coriandro" (a very fragant spice):
Answer: Cilantro is a different leaf than culantro. I'm in south America and we use culantro. Cilantro is harder to find here and culantro grows wild. Culantro has a stronger flavor but about the same taste as cilantro. They both look completely different. Hope this helps.
Answer: From a purely linguistic point of view CI-lantro and CU-lantro are exactly the same thing = Coriandrum sativum, known in Spain since Roman times, way before the discovery of the Americas. That word variation comes from geographical and provincial dialectal differences in good old Spain.
That other totally unrelated tropical herb with a similar yet stronger fragrance, and which grows wild in many parts of the tropics and subtropics, Eryngium foetidum, is neither cilantro nor culantro. It has never existed in non tropical Spain, and today it still does not. But for lack of a proper international word, since it was not known before the discovery of the new world, and therefore had NO NAME in Spanish, people in different parts of the New World use different words to refer to it according to its smell, use and physical appearance. For Coriandrum sativum ONLY, cilantro and culantro are BOTH CORRECT!!!. For Eryngium foetidum, any local denomination goes (including your own personal one...). Eryngium foetidum is known as recao, Mexican cilantro, etc.. in many places.
Comment: @Edgar Sosa-Mièles are you by chance the same person that wrote the answer? If so, you can check [I accidentally created two accounts; how do I merge them?](https://spanish.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts)
Answer: I have never heard of that but I found this. Hope it helps (emphasis mine):

Culantro is a completely different plant from cilantro. Although the two are cousins, they look nothing alike and are quite easy to differentiate by appearance.
Culantro, Eryngium foetidum, has long, serrated leaves and sports a blue flower when permitted to bolt. It is the leaves of culantro that are popular in Caribbean and Asian dishes.
Culantro is also often called spiny cilantro and is not as widely available as cilantro. Check with your market's produce manager if you do not see any in with other fresh herbs.
Comment: As far as i know both are common names for Coriander sativum but that's exactly why scientific names are so important, the same common name can refer to different plants just going to the next town.
Comment: Thank you for the answer, however just linking to an external site is not considered a valuable answer.  Can you summarize the article in your own words?
Comment: Hmm, but the [RAE](http://rae.es/culantro) says *culantro* is the same as *cilantro*.
Comment: @Laura: Indeed; Wikipedia says about *Eryngium foetidum*: "In the United States, where it is not well known, the name culantro sometimes causes confusion with *Coriandrum sativum*".
Comment: That is called Perejil in some countries in South America
Comment: Is it just me, or doesn't *culantro* sound like the punchline of some sort off-color pun/joke?
Comment: All I can say is that I do know 2 types of cilantro/culantro. Which one is called which is another story but one of them smells stronger than the other and has smaller leaves. The smell is about the same and taste is about the same.
Answer: Hope this helps.
http://bonnieplants.com/products/herbs/culantro
In Puerto Rico we use this and in other parts of various islands. It is a wonderful woodsy herb and can EASILY take Cilantro's part... For 3 leaves in one stew it can easily replace a whole bunch of cilantro.Literally a whole bunch. Save yourself the cash and use the Culantro for a better flavor and fragrant delicious stew.I wish you good cooking !
Answer: They are definetly different, since one has long stems with short 3-4 pointed leafs at the end. Mostly used in Mexican and South American foods (Cilantro) and the other has also a long stem but the leaf is in it (Culantro or Reacao) and is mostly used in Caribbean foods. The latest has a stronger flavor and smell after cooked while the first has a stronger flavor and smell when uncooked. The images for each would be the ones provided by Carlos Esquenio Thompson. Americans are mostly used to Cilantro since it comes raw in Mexicans tacos and food cooked by them. While Culantro is most difficult to see in the States. I do used it in all my cooking and the strong smell was questioned by mexicans I used to rent from. The smell the same but again, one smells and tastes stronger when raw, the other when cooked. The Culantro taste, uncooked, is more like almost eating dirt while when cooked has a strong flavor. Meanwhile, cilantro can be eaten in both ways and taste delicious no matter if cooked or not.


If the code to shuffle an array is known, is it possible for the randomized shuffle to stay secure?

Question: I recently was looking at Poker shuffles that were hacked and made to be guessable within a reasonable degree and this was because of the weakness of the shuffles. Is it possible to make a shuffle that is cryopgraphically secure, even if the code for the client and server is available?
Answer: Yes. In fact, most of these broken shuffling mechanisms are actually broken because they're using "secret" shuffling algorithms.
Generally speaking, a shuffling mechanism has two components:

Shuffling algorithm.
Pseudo-random number generator (PRNG).

While the shuffling algorithm can have a certain bias of its own, the whole shuffling mechanism cannot have any less bias than the PRNG itself has. In other words, a shuffling algorithm cannot be any more random than its PRNG. Let's look at one of most efficient shuffling algorithms out there, the Fisher–Yates shuffle.
The source code (or, rather, the pseudocode) of the modern Fisher-Yates shuffle has been publicly available since 1964, with implementations in tens of languages.
To shuffle an array a of n elements (indices 0..n-1):
  for i from n − 1 downto 1 do
       j ← random integer with 0 ≤ j ≤ i
       exchange a[j] and a[i]

However, it still remains one of the most widely used algorithms for this purpose.
If you look closely, the algorithm depends on random integer. This is where the PRNG comes into play. If your PRNG is unbiased and your implementation is correct, then your shuffles should be unbiased as well.
Plenty of good PRNGs which are well-vetted, time-tested, and proven to be unbiased are available. Since a PRNG is deterministic (for the same initial state, it always returns the same value) the security/randomness of the whole shuffling mechanism relies on the randomness of the PRNG's initial state, its seed. This reliance on the quality of the seed is an extension of Kerckhoffs' Principle, since without knowing the seed knowledge of the algorithm tells you nothing.  Luckily, most good PRNGs utilize good "randomness sources" provided by the operating system, such as /dev/urandom.
Comment: Thank you - I was wondering why these were broken... yet we use secure numbers in lots of important parts of encryption and deem them safe.
Comment: You may wish to mention [Kerckhoffs' Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs%27s_principle) explicitly in relation to your final paragraph.
Comment: Sorry, @JonathanGarber . I rejected your edit by mistake. Could you please re-suggest it again? I've already made some of the changes but I'd like to accept _your_ edit. If possible, you may include the part about Kerckhoffs' Principle as you see fit.
Comment: Done. The reference to Kerckhoff isn't important in itself, but more to influence drive-by visitors. Given how vitally important the principle is in modern security, it can't hurt to have it prominently linked to everywhere.
Comment: `/dev/urandom` isn't the best choice if you want guaranteed randomness since if there's not sufficient entropy in the pool, `urandom` will return less cryptographically secure random numbers. `/dev/random` is safer, though it means that your process might block while awaiting more entropy.
Comment: @Johnny Incorrect. http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/3936/is-a-rand-from-dev-urandom-secure-for-a-login-key
Answer: To complete @Adnan's answer: there is code, and there is data. "Shuffling" is applying a permutation on a given space, which is very akin to encryption. So your question can be reformulated as: is it possible to encrypt data securely, when the attacker knows the code ? And the answer is: yes, as long as the attacker does not know the key. The key concentrates the secret. We separated the key from the code precisely so that the code needs not be secret, and we do that because it is very hard to keep code secret.
The Fisher-Yates algorithm (also known, improperly, as the "Knuth shuffle") can be viewed as an encryption algorithm, whose key is the sequence of random values obtained from the random source. The code is well known, but the attacker is assumed not to know these values. As long as the returned random integers are obtained from a cryptographically strong source and unbiased, this is "perfect" (every permutation among the 52! possible permutations of a space of size 52 can be selected with uniform probability). Generating unbiased integers in a given range, from a source which produces bytes, is subject to some subtleties, which can be overcome (see what I wrote on page 3 of this article).
The general case (securely permuting a space of some arbitrary size, not necessarily a power of 2) is covered by Format Preserving Encryption. When you want the complete codebook, i.e. you want the full permutation (that's the case of a shuffle, where you need to know where each card went), the Fisher-Yates shuffle is about as good as you can get. Other solutions for FPE allow partial evaluation (i.e. without having an array containing the full shuffle) but may induce biases (in particular, Feistel schemes are always even permutations). There is little point in trying to do anything else than Fisher-Yates for cards.
Answer: A cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator, with suitable sources of entropy, should meet your requirements quite nicely. A CSPRNG must behave in the same fashion, because being able to predict future values or determine previous values would cause many encryption systems to become vulnerable. Being able to predict random numbers was at the heart of the infamous Netscape bug.
Here is a list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cryptographically_secure_pseudorandom_number_generators


How does a Jogi lead his life? Are "Yogi" and "Jogi" the same?

Question: How does or How should a Jogi lead his or her live? Bhogi is voracious, rogi lives in travail and yogi is ascetic. Are both 'yogi' and 'jogi' the same?
Comment: I think jogi is the pronunciation of yogi in awadhi or bhind dialect.
Comment: Both are some. Jogi is the vikruthi form of Yogi.
Comment: What is vikruthi of yogi? if yogi has vikruthi, he is not yogi at all. I think scriptures may have some explanations.
Comment: Jogi and Yogi are  the same..So u are basically asking **How does a Yogi live?**
Comment: Yes, how does they live? any specific charecteristics? In jyotish , after watching kundalis, they say -  you will live life of jogi. So how do they live?
Answer: Jogi is an अपभ्रंश (apabhramsha) of Yogi. Like, how it's "Jamuna" for "Yamuna", "Jam" for "Yam", "Jashoda" for "Yashoda" & "JAdava" for "YAdava". So both are same.
Yogi means a person, who is in Yoga. Early reference to Yoga in Gita is:

BG 2.53 -
  श्रुतिविप्रतिपन्ना ते यदा स्थास्यति निश्चला।
समाधावचला बुद्धिस्तदा योगमवाप्स्यसि।
  You are diverted (bewildered/mistaken) with Sruti-s (Veda-s). Remaining unshakable, when Buddhi(consciousness) becomes immutable into SamAdhi(intenseness or union), then you will attain yoga (union).

Note that, SamAdhi & Yoga are kind of synonymous in most of the translations.
After this, Arjuna asks same question as yours, i.e. "How does Jogi live?":
(All are from Gambhirananda's translation from below)

BG 2.54 -
  स्थितप्रज्ञस्य का भाषा समाधिस्थस्य केशव।
  स्थितधीः किं प्रभाषेत किमासीत व्रजेत किम्
  Arjuna said O kesava, what is the description of a man of steady wisdom who is Self-absorbed? How does the man of steady wisdom speak? How does he sit? How does he move about?

Here goes your answer:

BG 2.55, 2.56, 2.57, 2.58 - The Blessed said O Partha, when one fully renounces all the desires that have entered the mind, and remains satisfied in the Self alone by the Self, then he is called a man of steady wisdom. That monk is called a man of steady wisdom when his mind is unperturbed in sorrow, he is free from longing for delights, and has gone beyond attachment, fear and anger. The wisdom of that person remains established who has no attachments for anything anywhere, who neither welcomes nor rejects anything whatever good or bad when he comes across it.And when this one fully withdraws the senses from the objects of the senses, as a tortoise wholly (withdraws) the limbs, then his wisdom remains established. ...
Answer: How should a Yogi (a.k.a Jogi, Yati) lead his live?
TLDR (from MB 12.240):

Objective: Unite intellect, mind, the senses, and the all-pervading soul to obtain the knowledge of foremost kind
Who can take up yoga: man or woman belonging to any varṇa (caste)
Residence: caves, temples, empty houses or apartments but don't stay too long at any one place; imitate the wind: asangah - unattached to all things
Disposition to things and other beings

Show uniform behaviour toward all beings - a Brahmin (learned one), a cow (sacred), a dog (detestable) or an outcaste (who eats dog-meat). [BG 5.18]
React in the same manner if one praises or criticizes.
View with an equal eye: a piece of stone or a lump of gold.

What to do and How to practice

Restraining all the senses within the heart, one should concentrate on the Eternal and the Indestructible like a man of the world thinks of wealth and other valuable possessions.
One should practise Yoga after dusk, before dawn, and at dawn of day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a large tree.
Abandon the 5 impediments of Yoga viz., desire (by giving up all purposes), wrath (by tranquillity of disposition), cupidity, fear, and sleep.

What does the word Yogi mean anyway?
The Sanskrit root word for Yoga or Yogi is Yuj (युज्). Here are some meanings of Yuj (युज्):

To join, unite, attach, connect, add; तमर्थमिव भारत्या सुतया योक्तुमर्हसि (Ku. 6.79); रविपीत जला तपात्यये पुनरोघेन हि युज्यते नदी (Ku 4.44)
To turn or direct towards; पापान्निवारयति योजयते हिताय (Bh. 2.72)
To concentrate one's attention upon; मनः संयम्य मच्चित्तो युक्त आसीत मत्परः (BG 6.14); युञ्जन्नेवं सदात्मानं (BG 6.15)
To be intent on, be absorbed in, be directed towards; दैवकर्मणि युक्तो हि बिभर्तीदं चराचरम् (Manu 3.75)

And of word Yoga (योगः):

Deep and abstract meditation, concentration of the mind, contemplation of
  the Supreme Spirit, which in Yoga phil. is defined as चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध; सती सती योगविसृष्टदेहा (Ku. 1.21); योगेनांते तनुत्यजां (R. 1.8).

Vyāsa Explains a Yogi's Objectives and Lifestyle
In Śānti-parva of Mahābhārata, Śuka asks his father, Vyāsa:

Tell me by what means is Brahma to be apprehended?
Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya, by renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by the aid of the Sankhya philosophy, or by Yoga?
By what means may what kind of singleness of purpose be attained by men, with respect to both, viz., the mind and the senses?

Then Vyāsa explains the following.

Listen now to me as I expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to the Yoga doctrine.
The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all-pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind. That Knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor's aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul, that takes a pleasure in (such) meditation, that is endued with intelligence and pure in acts.
One should seek to acquire this Knowledge by abandoning those five
  impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise, viz., desire, wrath,
  cupidity, fear, and sleep. Wrath is conquered by tranquillity of
  disposition. Desire is conquered by giving up all purposes. By
  reflecting with the aid of the understanding upon topics worthy of
  reflection, one endued with patience succeeds in abandoning sleep. By
  steady endurance one should restrain one's organs of generation and
  the stomach (from unworthy or sinful indulgence). One should protect
  one's hands and feet by (using) one's eyes. One should protect one's
  eyes and ears by the aid of one's mind, one's mind and speech by one's
  acts. One should avoid fear by heedfulness, and pride by waiting upon
  the wise. Subduing procrastination, one should, by these means, subdue
  these impediments of Yoga. One should pay one's adorations to fire and
  the Brahmanas, and one should bow one's head to the deities. One
  should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse, and speech that is
  fraught with malice, and words that are painful to other minds.
Brahma is the effulgent seed (of everything). It is, again, the
  essence of that seed whence is all this. Brahma became the eye, in the
  form of this mobile and immobile universe, of all entities that took
  birth.
Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness,
  purity of body, purity of conduct, subjugation of the senses, these
  enhance one's energy, which (when enhanced) destroys one's sins. By
  behaving equally towards all creatures and by living in contentment
  upon what is acquired easily and without effort, one attains to the
  fruition of all one's objects and succeeds in obtaining knowledge.
  Cleansed of all sins, endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with
  senses under complete control, one should, after having subdued both
  desire and wrath, seek to attain to Brahma, Firmly uniting the senses
  and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with
  gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening or in
  those before dawn, place one's mind upon the knowledge.
If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained,
  all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an
  unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag. The mind in the first
  instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the
  manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among
  the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his
  nets.
Having first subdued the mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue
  his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose. Having
  restrained these, he should fix them on the mind. Then withdrawing the
  mind from all purposes, he should fix it on the knowledge. Indeed,
  having restrained the five senses, the Yati should fix them on the
  mind. When these the mind for their sixth become concentrated in the
  knowledge, and thus concentrated remain steady and untroubled, then
  Brahma becomes perceptible like a smokeless fire of blazing flames or
  the Sun of effulgent radiance. Indeed, one then beholds in oneself
  one's soul like lightning fire in the skies. Everything then appears
  in it and it appears in everything in consequence of its infinitude.
  Those high-souled Brahmanas that are possessed of wisdom, that are
  endued with fortitude, that are possessed of high knowledge, and that
  are engaged in the good of all creatures, succeed in beholding it.
Engaged in the observance of austere vows, the Yogin who conducts
  himself thus for six months, seated by himself on an isolated spot,
  succeeds in attaining to an equality with the Indestructible.
  Annihilation, extension, power to present varied aspects in the same
  person or body, celestial scents, and sounds, and sights, the most
  agreeable sensations of taste and touch, pleasurable sensations of
  coolness and warmth, equality with the wind, capability of
  understanding (by inward light) the meaning of scriptures and every
  work of genius, companionship of celestial damsels,--acquiring all
  these by Yoga the Yogin should disregard them and merge them all in
  the knowledge. Restraining speech and the senses one should practise
  Yoga during the hours after dusk, the hours before dawn, and at dawn
  of day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a goodly tree,
  or with a tree before him. Restraining all the senses within the
  heart, one should, with faculties concentrated, think on the Eternal
  and Indestructible like a man of the world thinking of wealth and
  other valuable possessions. One should never, while practising Yoga,
  withdraw one's mind from it.
One should with devotion betake oneself to those means by which one
  may succeed in restraining the mind that is very restless. One should
  never permit oneself to fall away from it. With the senses and the
  mind withdrawn from everything else, the Yogin (for practice) should
  betake himself to empty caves of mountains, to temples consecrated to
  the deities, and to empty houses or apartments, for living there. One
  should not associate with another in either speech, act, or thought.
  Disregarding all things, and eating very abstemiously, the Yogin
  should look with an equal eye upon objects acquired or lost. He should
  behave after the same manner towards one that praises and one that
  censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the
  other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when
  he meets with failure or loss. Of uniform behaviour towards all
  beings, he should imitate the wind. Unto one whose mind is thus turned
  to itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon
  all things,--indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for
  even six months,--Brahma as represented by sound appears very vividly.
  Beholding all men afflicted with anxiety (on account of earning wealth
  and comfort), the Yogin should view a clod of earth, a piece of stone,
  and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw
  himself from this path (of earning wealth), cherishing an aversion for
  it, and never suffer himself to be stupefied.
Even if a person happens to belong to the inferior order, even if one
  happens to be a woman, both of them, by following in the track
  indicated above, will surely attain to the highest end. He that has
  subdued his mind beholds in his own self, by the aid of his own
  knowledge the Uncreate, Ancient, Undeteriorating, and Eternal
  Brahma,--That, viz., which can not be attained to except by fixed
  senses,--That which is subtiler than the most subtile, and grosser
  than the most gross, and which is Emancipation's self.
Comment: Nice summary. I think last section can be reduced to make it more readable.
Comment: @iammilind Yeah, I thought of trimming it a bit but since I provided a summary left the whole thing as is.


File added to project doesn't get added to packages

Question: I'm creating customized binary versions of OpenStack nova packages (lp:nova) using their packaging scripts (lp:~openstack-ubuntu-packagers/ubuntu/natty/nova/ubuntu).
I create binaries by doing:
dpkg-buildpackage -b -rfakeroot -tc -uc -D

This creates a set of packages (python-nova, nova-common, nova-compute, ...).
In our customized version of the code (lp:~usc-isi/nova/hpc-trunk), we recently merged in some changes from another branch, and there's now a new file in our repository that wasn't in upstream: nova/virt/cpuinfo.xml.template.
This file isn't getting added to any of the packages, where it should be added to python-nova.
Why wouldn't dpkg-buildpackage be including this file? A more basic question: how does dpkg-buildpackage determine which files go in which packages? Is it related at all to the debian/watch file? This contains some URLs that are pointing to the upstream project.
version=3
http://launchpad.net/nova/+download http://launchpad.net/nova/.*/nova-(.*)\.tar\.gz
http://nova.openstack.org/tarballs/ nova-(.*).tar.gz

Comment: log/watch is not related, it just defines how to check for new versions of the source distribution.
Answer: I didn't notice the MANIFEST.in file in the top-level of the source tree (not in debian directory).


Is it OK to put hardwood flooring over 3/4" particle board that's over 1/2" wood subfloor?

Question: We want to install either laminate or hardwood flooring throughout most of our home. The home is about 35 years old. I pulled up all the carpet and found 3/4" particle board over 1/2" plywood board subfloor underneath the carpet. It is particle board and not OSB.  The particle board does not run under the walls. The walls rest on the 1/2" wood board and the joists. Since carpet was laid over the particle board they were not so concerned about one board being level with the next so they are uneven. We've been told it was OK to put flooring over the particle board if we level it up and by another to remove the particle board and replace with 3/4" plywood.  So I'm seeking a confirmation of one or the other or another suggestion.
Comment: So, the builders used a 1/2 inch subfloor?  WTF!
Answer: 1/2" subfloor is definitely insufficient, so I get why it was reinforced.
3/4" particle board... that is not structural.  It's paper dust and glue.  A little water and it loses all cohesion.
Simply for peace of mind, if it were me, I'd remove the particle board and put down either OSB or plywood.  Probably OSB, only because it's a little stronger (not much) but it's also more expensive so if budget were a concern, I'd go with equal thickness plywood.  Either will do you.
But the particle board?  Get rid!  Its probably not gonna fall apart on you, unless you have a spill... but why even keep that worry?
Answer: Particle board is not an appropriate underlayment for hardwood of any type. In fact, it's hardly acceptable for most carpets anymore.
Here is Jeff Hosking on the subject:
http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/Department/Hardwood-Floors/All-About-Subfloors--installing-flooring-over-various-sub-floors.aspx?dId=7&pageId=2

Particle board underlayment Looks like oatmeal and consists of tiny wood particles glued and pressed into 4 x 8 foot sheets. It is NOT suitable to use as a Structural subfloor material. I have only included Particle Board in this article because a lot of people see it when they remove old carpet and think it is a structural subfloor material like plywood or OSB. Particle board is NOT a structural subfloor material and is only manufactured to be used as a cheap underlayment filler sheet on top of the main structural subfloor material to raise the height of carpet to a desired level. Particle board can absorb excessive moisture is very brittle and does not hold nails very well. If this type of underlayment is present, it will have to be removed when planning to install a nail or glue down hardwood floor.

Are you certain you have 3/4" particle board? That is a strange material to sit atop 1/2" ply.
Furthermore, 1/2" ply is not suitable as a subfloor....
Do you know your floor joist spacing? I would suggest that you get t&g ply at an appropriate thickness for your joist spacing. I would say 1/2" minimum depending on your spacing.
I would glue this to the existing subfloor, screw into the joists, and nail the entire field.
Comment: I think there might be an error - you say "1/2" ply is not suitable as a subfloor" and then " I would say 1/2" minimum depending on your spacing."  I imagine the second one should be 3/4"?
Comment: @Steven, when I say "1/2" minimum" I'm talking about **supplementing** the existing (potentially inadequate) subfloor. When laminated to the existing boards, bringing the thickness to about an inch.
Comment: We were told that at the time the house was built 1/2" subfloor was code in the area.  the joist are 2" x 10" on 16" centers. It is partical board not OSB, we had to remove it in a closet were the water heater had leaked. It was like mush.
Answer: I have been working on Manufactured or Mobile homes for 31 years!! Whatever you do. I don't recommend installing floating or wood flooring over 3/4" paticle board flooring. If you do "your sub flooring will buckle up within 6 months" to a year. I have seen 15 to 20 people that have done that and everyone of the so called sub floor's have buckled to the point of having to do it all over again. Make sure that you tear out the particle board and install either 3/4 plywood or 3/4 osb. I prefer plywood. Good luck and follow the manufactured directions on installing a moisture barrier as well. some companies do not recommend it!!. Good luck and enjoy your new laminate wood  floating floor.