HTTP Error 404 - File or Directory not found

Question: I am unable to visit this site http://www.novamov.com/. Whenever I go, it shows HTTP Error 404 - File or Directory not found, but when I try to do it with proxy servers I am able to visit the website without any error. What is the problem here?
Comment: This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about a specific end-user issue with a web application.
Answer: It may be a DNS issue, but I'm not sure. You can test by following the instructions on this page to temporarily switch to Google's public DNS: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/
If this helps, then you should speak with your ISP about the DNS that they provide. If not, then I honestly have no clue. But whenever this happens to me, changing DNS usually helps.
Honestly, it could be a lot of issues, everything from an error server-side to your browser borking, the DNS not working right, Internet connection, and so on. At least in my experience; I've encountered the issue many times myself.
I would've posted this as a comment if the system had let me, since it's not technically an "answer" as much as it is a suggestion.
There's another possibility too: your IP could be banned, and NovaMov displays a 404 error message when you connect from that IP instead of a "You've been banned" notice... which is something many websites still do for some obscure reason.
Answer: The site may have been previously infected with malware.
After cleaning up such an infection on my own site, I was unaware that the intruders had also altered my .htaccess file in such a way that only visitors who were sending a Referer header were exposed to the malware. Since I had removed the malware, visitors received a 404.
The intruders had altered the .htaccess file so that I, the site owner, would not recognize the infection, since I usually visited my own site by entering the URL, while other visitors came via Google.
It could be that accessing the site via proxy also invokes that part of .htaccess.
Comment: @pnuts Maybe, but I sometimes do. Even though _I_ vote to close, others might vote to keep it open, and in such case it is better to have an answered question, than an unanswered one.


The beginning of Maftir in Krias HaTorah on Pesach

Question: Why is Bamidbar 28:16 read as the first passuk of Maftir on the first day of Pesach if that passuk has nothing to do with Pesach, rather it refers to the Korban Pesach which was brought the day before on Erev Pesach? And don't tell me that it's because we read that entire Parsha regardless of its relevance to the specific day, because on all other days of Pesach we begin reading from Numbers 28:19 and skip Numbers 28:16-18 because those verses are irrelevant to the latter days of Pesach.
Comment: Also it's a question on the Nusach of the Mussaf Tefillah for that day...
Answer: Perhaps by rights it's true that on the first day (or two days) we should start with 28:17, but then we'd be violating the rule that we don't begin an aliyah within three verses of a parashah break (open or closed). On the other hand, verse 19 is already three verses away from the parashah break, and so there's no problem starting there on Chol Hamoed.
Comment: "[T]he rule that we don't begin an aliyah within three verses of a parashah break": except at another such break.
Answer: First of all, it's kri'as hatorah.
Secondly, when do we eat the korban pesach if not on Pesach.
Comment: Yisrael Medad, Welcome to mi.yodeya, and thanks very much for the quick answer! Please consider clicking "regsiter," above, to create your account. This will give you access to all of mi.yodeya's features and will allow you to take full credit for your contributions.
Comment: First of all, it's really קריאת התורה.

Secondly, usually Maftir reflects the Qorban Mussaf (also said in the Shemone Esrei of Mussaf on that day) of the day on which it is read, here we find a unique Maftir which refers to the Korban Mussaf brought on that day and a Korban brought the day before that was already eaten the night before? It's a bit of a chiddush. There must be more to it...
Comment: Reb Chaim: is that really so surprising, though? Consider the actual keriah (not just the maftir) for the sixth day of Pesach, which doesn't even mention the Yom Tov itself - just the Korban Pesach, and (mostly) Pesach Sheni at that.
Comment: @Reb Chaim, most holidays don't have special offerings aside from the Musaf. The exception to this is Yom Kippur, where the whole torah reading is devoted to the Avodah of the Kohen Gadol. So I think it's fair to say that we read about all of the special offerings devoted to the day in the Torah reading.
Comment: @Chanoch Well, Pesach has the korban pesach and the omer + animals, shavuot has shtei halechem + animals, yom kippur has avoda befnim. So it's just rosh hashana and sukkot that don't. 3 to 2.
Answer: Besides Alex's answer, if the first pasuk were skipped, the date of the chag would only be known as the 15th.  The first pasuk clarifies the month.
Comment: I later saw this answer in the Haggada from Rav Eliyashiv
Comment: True, but _chol hamoed Sukos_ and _Sh'mini Atzeres_ we don't start at the start of _Sukos_.
Comment: Shavuot and Shmini Atzeret lack mention of the month. Will anyone really be confused?


Does Athreos work on countered or discarded creatures?

Question: So I know that if I have Athreos, God of Passage on the field and a creature spell is countered, it still counts as dying and Athreos's effect still kicks in. I was told it's because the creature (even though it never officially hit the battlefield) will still go into my graveyard. Would this also be true for discarded creatures, since they will go into the graveyard and not exile? I am using Athreos with Pack Rat and I was wondering if it would give me the ability to clone Pack Rat for basically free so long as he is on the field.
Comment: To clarify on what @Jefromi has said, a token dying will go to the yard and *will still trigger Athreos' ability*. Your opponent should (pretty much) never choose to pay the life, as there is nothing to return to your hand.
Comment: I think you were asking about triggering Athreos off of the cards you discard to Pack Rat, but just in case: remember that while the Pack Rat copy tokens do "die", they can't be returned to your hand, so Athreos won't do much good for them either.
Answer: What you were told about Athreos triggering for countered creature spells is incorrect.
The official definition of "dies" in the comprehensive rules is:

700.4. The term dies means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield."

Since a countered creature spell is never a creature on the battlefield, it didn't "die".
Similarly, a discarded creature card would not trigger Athreos either.
In fact, note the terminology here: "creatures" only exist on the battlefield; they are "creature spells" when on the stack, and merely "creature cards" or "creature tokens" elsewhere.
Comment: They are still cards. "X is only used to refer to Y by Z" does not mean "Y isn't an X". 108.2a is a templating guideline for abilities. e.g. It says you won't say "Creature cards get +1/+1." Despite that, both the rules and abilities refer to creatures on the battlefield as cards. e.g. 110.1 includes the passage "**A permanent is a card** or token on the battlefield." They are still cards.
Comment: 108.2a. In the text of spells or abilities, the term "card" is used only to refer to a card that's not on the battlefield or on the stack, such as a creature card in a player's hand. For more information, see section 4, "Zones."
Comment: I think that used to be the case for old cards like Apocalypse Chime and Chaos Orb, but they've since been errata'd.
Comment: ""creature cards" only exist in the non-battlefield". Are you sure about this? I thought that a card is still considered a card while on the stack and the battlefield.
Comment: Thanks, I guess I was mistaken. I thought "card" was sometimes used to differentiate a token on the battlefield from a non-token, but I guess they just use "non-token" for that.


Did Ancient Egyptians in the 2nd millennium BC practice Astrology?

Question: I'm aware that Ancient Egyptians did chart stars and have a relatively robust understanding of astronomy for the time. However, did they (say, in the 2nd millenium BC) practice astrology, such that they believed the stars and planets reveal or could be affected by human activities? Or did this only come about later, when it was more Hellenistic?
Comment: @JeroenK: But it is not an automatic product of it. You can believe that lunar eclipses and novas etc are portents of doooom, without believing that each individual persons destiny depends on the position of the planets at the time of his/her birth. Both is astrology. Only one is horoscopes.
Comment: THis depends slightly on what you mean with Astrology. If you mean the practice of making Horoscopes that's one thing. If you mean that idea that what happens in the sky affects us on earth, that becomes a different answer.
Comment: @LennartRegebro actually making horoscopes is a product of the belief that what happens in the sky affects us on earth. I fail to see why that would need to be a different answer
Comment: @LennartRegebro Astrology in the sense that you can read the stars to know what is happening on earth or what people are doing or what might happen. I'm not so concerned on exact practices like saying that everyone born under a specific constellation will have a given horoscope every day. Also, having a superstitious fear of disaster after a solar eclipse is not what I'm talking about here.
Comment: @Uncle - please edit your question to include the clarification in the comments; I'm still not convinced that contemporaries would be able to distinguish between astrology and astronomy; from their perspective they were studying the stars.
Comment: So you are talking about astrology as in general predictions/forecasting/prophesy. That certainly did happen in ancient Egypt. Hopefully somebody can find good resources.
Comment: @MarkC.Wallace I think my question is as clear as it can be, I'm not sure what caused Lennart's confusion.
Answer: According to the main authoritiy on ancient astronomy and astrology, Otto Neugebauer,
astrology was introduced to Hellenistic world from Babylon.
(If you not know who he is, look at this Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Neugebauer).
Here is what he writes on Egypt in general:

Egypt provides us with the exceptional case of a highly sophisticated civilization which  florished for many centuries without making a single contribution to the development of
  the exact sciences...

This strongly contradicts to what many other authors (ancient and modern) say about Egyptian astronomy and mathematics,
but on my opinion, Neugebauer had really studied this question carefully, unlike those other authors. The legends about Egyptian math and astronomy come from the Ancient Greece,
and later they were uncritically repeated by other authors.
Modern research shows that these
are really legends.
Moreover, Neugebauer, who was mostly interested in the history of astronomy, also carefully studied Hellenistic horoscopes, trying to find there interesting information about astronomical knowledge. He places the origin of astrology at about -1000 in Babylon.
This "science" penetrated to the West (including Egypt) after Alexander's conquest.
His book (second reference below) contains an interesting graph showing the number
of known Hellenistic horoscopes distributed by years. (A horoscope is relatively easy to date precisely from the
information contained in it). According to this graph, there are none before the year -100,
and the sharp maximum falls on the year 100, with sharp decrease by 200, and very sharp
decrease around 500, when pagan science (including mathematics and astrology) was formally banned by Justinian.
It is true that most horoscopes are found in Egypt, but this was Hellenistic Egypt, and majority were in written Greek, with some in (demotic) Egyptian.
Sources: A brief but very informative account is O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences in
antiquity, Harper torchbooks, 1962. A comprehensive source is
O. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient mathematical astronomy, in 3 vols., Springer 1975.
EDIT. I address some comments on my answer. Very few serious scientists would spend their
time to study such nonsense as horoscopes. Neugebauer and his collaborators
are actually the only scientists whom I know who did this. Surviving Hellenistic astronomy sources are so scarce, that literally everything which came to us from that time was carefully combed for even the smallest hints of relevant information. Perhaps I am missing something, and will be grateful if someone gives a reference to another reliable study.
This does not include astrologers themselves, of course:-)
Comment: "Common knowledge ... is not always so common." You gave no links in your question, so I had no reason to know that Otto Neugebauer was a well-known expert outside *my* areas of expertise. I now agree that he is **not** a *crank suspect*, but everything else in my comment is still valid commentary. Perhaps a link in your next post would help a reader to understand better? If you edit to add a link, I will be enabled to un-downvote.
Comment: Ummm - some of the oldest documents we have from Egypt dealt with mathematics, astronomy and engineering. Neugbauer was disappointed with their practical nature, the "pure" pursuit of knowledge, in his mind, beginning with the Babylonians - it doesn't do a good job of answering the question. I'll work on another answer on the origins of Egyptian astrology and its integration with hellenistic astrology during the Ptolemaic period.
Comment: RI Swamp Yankee: yes. It depends on what you call "math" and "science". From Neugebauer's point of view, this is pre-scientific level. Other people include to mathematics even the ability to count with fingers. This ability was present in all civilizations, I suppose. But if you can give references on Egyptian horoscopes before -100, it will be interesting.
Comment: (1) ALL cranks advertise themselves as the expert on their subject, and their acolytes mime the statement. Your statement simply sounded like those of such acolytes, and I had no personal knowledge to recognize it as valid. (2) After 5 minutes, I am *not allowed to remove my downvote* unless and until the post is subsequently edited. (3) I am quite willing to repost my comment without the final sentence, and was intending to do so after removing the down-vote. It didn't seem necessary to state that explicitly.
Comment: First warning sign for crank science: a tight loop of self-references; reason is that it is exceptionally unusual, almost impossible, for anyone to be so far ahead of all peers as to be the only expert in an area. The only exception I can think of is Gauss, partly because of his astounding ability, and also because he didn't publish for decades. **Fortunately, Otto Neugbauer is not such a crank**, but rather a widely accepted expert in this field.
Answer:
First off, in ancient cultures, astronomy and astrology were virtually the same discipline. There were certain practical aspects to the study of astronomy, particularly the measurement of time and the development of calendar systems, but outside of that, there was little or no abstract, scientific study of astronomy for its own sake:
Astronomy:

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to
  antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and
  astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still
  found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and
  governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until
  a few centuries ago in the Western World (see astrology and
  astronomy). In some cultures astronomical data was used for
  astrological prognostication

Only at a relatively late period did the study of astronomy for its own sake begin to develop:
...A particularly important early development was the beginning of mathematical and scientific astronomy... The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a repeating cycle known as a saros... Following the Babylonians, significant advances in astronomy were made in ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world...
So, if the ancient Egyptians were astronomers, we can be fairly certain they were also astrologers:

Astrology consists of several systems of divination based on the
  premise that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena
  and events in the human world. Many cultures have attached importance
  to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, and Mayans developed
  elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial
  observations....

The very fascinating discipline of Archaeoastronomy has revealed that the ancient Egyptian temples and monuments were astronomically aligned:
The Orientation of Egyptian Temples:

The precise alignment of temples and pyramids was undoubtedly a result
  of astronomical observation.  (A feature noticeably absent from
  Djoser's pyramid at Saqqara). Sir Norman Lockyer suggested that
  several of the great Egyptian temple complexes were orientated towards
  astronomically significant points on the horizon. His theories are
  disputed to this day even though there is now a substantial amount of
  supporting research in favour of his original suppositions...
A clear division can be identified between the orientation of ancient
  Egyptian temples of upper Egypt when compared with those of Lower
  Egypt. Lockyer (2), made note of the fact that whereas the early
  dynastic northern 'Memphite' pyramids, Giza pyramids, and Sphinx were
  orientated cardinally to face equinoxial phases of the solar cycle,
  the great temples in the south of Egypt, such as Karnack, the Colossi
  of Memnon and  Abydoss, were all orientated to capture the suns rays
  on Solstice days of the year.

Nabta Playa: (Stone Circle):

Article - Science Daily 1998
An assembly of huge stone slabs found in Egypt's Sahara Desert that
  date from about 6,500 years to 6,000 years ago has been confirmed by
  scientists to be the oldest known astronomical alignment of megaliths
  in the world.
Known as Nabta, the site consists of a stone circle, a series of flat,
  tomb-like stone structures and five lines of standing and toppled
  megaliths. Located west of the Nile River in southern Egypt, Nabta
  predates Stonehenge and similar prehistoric sites around the world by
  about 1,000 years, said University of Colorado at Boulder astronomy
  Professor J. McKim Malville...

And much more there: Egyptian Astronomy
If so, it's quite clear that the Ancient Egyptians believed that there were intimate connections between their earthly activities and religious practices, and those of the visible heavens, as expressed in these many astronomically aligned structures: Divination based on the premise that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena
and events in the human world.
Comment: Uh... I didn't realize you can infer from astronomically aligned objects that they thought they could read stars to know what is happening to people on earth.
Comment: @ComeAndGo: By that token you would make all Christian denominations astrologers also, since Christian churches are built with the altar to the east. Archaeoastronomy is a "field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other" as your reference above states, and you seem in a hurry to move from the beginning of that sentence to the end.
Comment: +1 for some good references; -1 for blatantly confusing concurrence with causality.
Comment: @Uncle - the reason they are astronomically aligned in particular ways has both practical (calendrical) and ritual significance. The key here is the ritual significance: these are not mere sundials-they are ritual structures. A temple to the Sun God, for example, is aligned with a certain aspect of the sun because that is the way that you "channel" the "energy" or "spirit" of your godhead to the temple, its worshipers, your nation etc. That directly implies a connection between the Sun and the Earth, etc. It's not horoscopes, but it is astrology, which in ancient times was bound to astronomy.
Comment: @Uncle - see edit.
Comment: I'm not interested in cultural significance, I'm asking if "they believed the stars and planets reveal or could be affected by human activities".
Comment: @Uncle - " could be affected by human activities" - I believe you've got it backwards: Astrology posits that the stars and planets influence human activites, which is demonstrated from my answer.
Comment: @PieterGeerkens - _for blatantly confusing concurrence with causality_ -  I don't think so.. later...
Comment: @PieterGeerkens - _blatantly confusing concurrence with causality_ - please explain: Do you mean that these astronomical alignments were strictly for calendrical purposes and had no connection to ritual and astrology? The alignments are clear - there is apparently no question that they were quite intentional, and prehistoric and ancient peoples all over the world engaged in this practice when constructing their **ritual** structures. I will bring references to this in answer. But I don't get your point.
Comment: @ComeAndGo: I imply simply that you are inferring cause-and-effect from mere coincidence in time and place, with no supporting evidence. That the Egyptians performed basic astronomy, and had a religion, does **not** imply the two are connected and related.
Comment: @PieterGeerkens - didn't see your last  comment until I had written my comment directly above. I don't understand your contention. I'm saying that the astronomical alignment of these **ritual** structure proves they were astrologists.
Comment: I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing you answer my question which specifically asks about astrology "such that they believed the stars and planets reveal or could be affected by human activities". I'm not getting anything backwards, I'm asking for an either-or, and I don't care how spiritually significant they were. They worshiped the Sun god, but that ***does not prove to me*** that they thought that they could read the stars to gain specific knowledge about the happenings on earth. That is all I'm asking about.
Comment: @Uncle - Read carefully the article I cited [Archaeoastronomy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoastronomy)
Comment: @PieterGeerkens _That the Egyptians performed basic astronomy, and had a religion, does not imply the two are connected and related_ - Certainly not. But when you find that their religious structures have astronomical significance, in the context of ancient world that means they were astrologers.
Comment: @PieterGeerkens - OK, you are determined not to like this answer, so you don't have to. :)


How does the community user poke questions?

Question: According to its profile, the community user randomly pokes old unanswered questions every hour to get them some attention. What does this poke consist of? Is it an action ordinary users are theoretically capable of, or is it some special internal thing like updating the modification timestamp directly?
Comment: I always find that "discussion" covers everything. If nothing else is quite right, just go for "discussion"...
Comment: The tag support is good. You want to know how something works (you do not want to change it, no feature request; you do not think it is broken, no bug; you do not suggest to discuss if it should work like this, or how it should work; you simply want to know what is the current behavior).
Comment: On a tangentially related note, I don't know which of the mandatory tags I should have used. [tag:discussion] and [tag:support] seemed like the closest fits, but neither seems fully appropriate.
Comment: In other words: if a meta question is an actual question (not a veiled suggestion or a statement), then it's support.
Answer: The poke consists of essentially nothing. It is a 'modification' of the thread that does not modify anything visible. The sole effect is that the question gets a new last modified time (by Community) and thus is put at the top of the active list, giving it visibility.
A user cannot do this in this way. A user could 'fake' this via modifying the thread in some insubstantive way such as a trivial edit or post and delete an answer. But, a user rather should not do this. If a user wants to give anew visibility to a qustion the standard way to do this is via a bounty.
Tangentially, but since it sometimes is misunderstood: not all questions without answer are eligible for poking. In fact only (certain) questions with answer yet still in the 'unanaswered' list are eligible.
Comment: Thank you for the detailed response. I fully understand the rendering delay, as all of the time I spend on Math Stack Exchange is on an old tablet pc which lags constantly. I often take 5-10x as long to write out my code on the basis that it refreshes the display text every time I add a character. Otherwise I have to leave off the dollar signs until the end and I hope I code well blind.
Comment: ${}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}$
Comment: This would not bump as comments do not bump. Also using MathJax to create white space is not a good idea, in my opinion. There are better ways.
Comment:
Comment: But as an edit(which I must admit I have done) it works. How did you do your non-mathjax
Comment: Yes, that works. But I wouldn't edit in MJ whitespace as it can mess up formatting and causes rendering delay. My comment is full with several copies of zerowidth space Unicode character. See an MO answer by [Andrew Stacey for details](http://meta.mathoverflow.net/a/469/) Note for comments the HTML entity doesn't work. You'd have to enter the character differently. A way I do this is to use the HTML encoding `` or rather several copies thereof in an answer box between two visible characters. Then copy those from the *preview* window and delete the visible characters (and only those).
Comment: The above being said, cheating the system with whietspace to get around characterlimits is not something I encourage. I admit did it sometimes (once or twice, except testing and illustration) if the situation really seems perfect for it (at least in my mind :-)) But if one does it one should at least not abuse MJ, in my opinion (as written in detail in the thread I link to), and to offer an alternative was the point of that answer then.


How to purify a carpet if I don't remember where the impurity is?

Question: Assalamualikum my question is that my carpet became impure of a specific impurity but after the impurity dried i don't remember which spot on the carpet is impure what do i have to do now?
Comment: @Medi1Saif♦https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/395362/method-of-purifying-a-carpet-or-seat-from-urine
Comment: I don't see any direct relevance for using the tags shari'a, Allah, fatwa nor fatwa-explanation. We don't know what you want to use this carpet for nor why you worry of having a dried najasah (whatever it might be) on it.
Comment: @Medi1Saif ♦ iam using this carpet for sitting and all the daily things we do in a room and i worry because i dont know ere the impurity is and if i walked on it with wet feet the impurity would yransfer
Comment: Why should a najasah transfer? I've asked you to show evidences for this claim in your first post on this topic and you failed to quote any.
Comment: but there is no stain
Comment: The characteristics for najasah that scholars have defined don't include stains (exclusively) as mentioned earlier some impurity may have others not there are three characteristics that might apply not all of them at once necessarily (you have senses use them). If you have doubt about the location wash the whole carpet.
Comment: the carpet is big it cant be washed
Answer: What you have to do is clear if there's a risk of impurity transfer because you use this carpet extensively then you should wash the carpet or replace it.
Note that a carpet you don't use in the means of a hypothetical impurity transfer doesn't need to be cleaned at all.
However imam as-Suyuti quoted in his book on fiqh rules al-Ashbaah wa an-Nadhaair كتاب الأشباه والنظائر:

قاعدة: " قال القمولي في الجواهر: النجس إذا لاقي شيئاً طاهراً وهما جافان لا ينجسه
Rule: "Al-Qamuli said in Al-Jawaher: The impure (najis), if it met (touched/mixed with) something pure (tahir) and they are dry, it does not defile it.

This means a dried impurity doesn't transfer by default!
The main issue as said before is a Muslim must guard or seek tahrah (ritual purity) in order to be able to pray. So even if najasah was on your wet feet all you have to do in order to pray (in first place) is being sure you washed your feet  before starting the prayer.
As in the moment of prayer both you and the place you are praying on should be tahir (no more no less).
However washing off the najasah from the carpet would give you peace of mind for the future.
However the matter of impurity transfer in such cases is rather exaggerated because little najasah is equal to no najasah.
Further impurity has at least one of the three characteristics color, odor and taste. You may locate it by searching for them using your senses. But if you fail there's still the option of total certainty: washing the whole carpet.
See also How to properly clean carpet from Najasah?


Company Patented My Internship Work

Question: I had a summer internship with a big corporation last year and I just found that they filed a patent based on my work without notifying me or including my name. I signed IP waivers but cannot recall the details. Is this something I should worry about?
Comment: To get a useful answer, you need to be more specific about the kind of thing you did, and the kind of documents you signed. That _doesn't_ mean 'spill confidential technical details' (_not_ advisable to do that anyway). But you can say generally whether/how you took initiatives or adapted something, and what kind of rights/permissions were given/taken by documents you signed. If you didn't keep copy of what you signed, then ask for copy/copies right now if you're interested in the rights. (Next point, have you assessed realistically whether their likely value is worth any efforts here?)
Comment: Once you've been specific about what you did, you would need a cool-headed appraisal of how (if at all) it relates to what is claimed in the patent application (if any). Consider whether to ask about that directly, and/or whether to wait the ~18 months between first filing and publication and watch out for the publication.
Answer: My understanding (and I'm not a lawyer), it that the patent can be invalidated if it doesn't correctly list the inventors. Since it doesn't cost the company any more money to list you as an inventor, they really should if you indeed merit it.
That said, you need to determine if you actually are an inventor. Here is a scenario. Lets say that Mary has a great idea for a new widget. She sketches it up and her management decides to pursue it. Bob works for two weeks creating CAD models and then Sarah spends a month machining a prototype. Jack spends 2 months testing and characterizing the widget showing it works. A patent application is drafted and the patent attorneys decide that only Mary is the inventor because only she came up with the novel idea which is expressed in the claims. While the other contributed greatly to the success of the invention, they didn't actually invent anything.
So the bottom line is you need to look at the claims. Is there at least one claim where you were the one who came up with the novel or inventive step? If so, you need to be listed as an inventor on the application. Applications typically take 18 months to publish so you may not be able to see the application for a while. I would contact your former employer (perhaps you manager) and ask about the status of the application and whether you need to be included as one of the inventors. You can express concern that the patent be valid with respect to inventorship.
Although there really isn't anything you personally should worry about, I do think you should verify whether you should be listed as an inventor and if so make sure you are. Having a patent on your resume looks good and could help you while seeking future employment.
Answer: If it's your invention you have to be named as inventor, but why would you worry about it? If any it's their problem. If you want to know if you can get anything out of it, the ip weavers (you have copies?) can tell you.
If you want to be named as an inventor, I'd suggest contacting them as a first step. If you lost your copies of the waivers, you can also ask them to provide you new copies.
Comment: Even with a waiver, the actual inventor needs to be named on the patent. Since it's just been filed it probably hasn't even published yet so perhaps the inventors names can be amended.

Company Patented My Internship Work


What was the purpose of night patrol?

Question: Why risk soldiers lives to go across the river to get a couple prisoners in a night patrol?
Comment: Welcome to Movies.SE!  Your post seems to be lacking a bit in content.  You would be able to get much better responses if you expand on your question.
Answer: Dark of night hides actions of soldiers. This makes it so it is actually safer for them rather than more dangerous.
Answer: The U.S. always had a policy; "No soldier left behind".  It has always been "worth the risk" to free prisoners.  To some degree this policy was abandoned in Vietnam, as evidenced by the whole POW - MIA movement and evidence of many POWs from that war.  However, even in Iraq and Afghanistan we have risked lives to free US prisoners.
Working under cover of darkness gives an advantage to the side that knows the operation is in progress, so Night Patrol made more sense than doing it in the middle of the day.
Comment: Isn't the question about the missions to cross the river and capture German soldiers?
Answer: This patrol was ordered to catch German soldiers to interrogate them. After the 1st patrol (which no one questioned) and finished with catching some small fry prisoners + KIA of one of colleagues there comes order to go for another patrol with the same target.
At this point it becomes obvious that the patrol is some high command whim and nobody cares about soldiers lives the company reacts accordingly.

What was the purpose of night patrol?


Can a tuplet apply to a fraction of a beat?

Question: Instead of dividing a beat, or an entire sequence of beats, could it be that it alters the duration of (say) one and a half beats?
Comment: Do you mean duplets or triplets? Duplets is two in the time of three and can easily consist of a beat and a half Triplets on the other hand are three notes in the time of two and would be more inclined to be full beats or halves of a beat
Comment: The question is general, for a tuplet of any size.
Answer: In "traditional" notation, tuplets only occupy a complete number of beats, or a simple fraction (e.g. 1/2, 1/4) of a beat.
In "contemporary classical" music, you can write whatever you want to define the rhythm - but as another answer says, your example is pointless since the notes in the tuplet are the same length as ordinary 8th-notes.
It may be clearer to label the tuplet as a ratio like "7:5" or even as "7 eighths : 5 quarters" (using symbols rather than the words "eighths" and "quarters" - most notation software has an option to do that)
You can also nest tuplets inside each other, so for example a "7:5" tuplet might actually consist of 2 of the 7 notes, then a nested "3:4" tuplet and finally the last note of the 7 - but whether the performer is expected to play such rhythms with mathematical accuracy or not is another issue.
You can even write tuplets that cross bar lines - though some notation software can't handle that yet, even though I have a published score (composer Scriabin) using that notation more than 100 years ago.
Comment: Do you ever actually need to write a tuplet which crosses a bar line? I can't think of a case for it unless you really feel it's necessary to indicate phrasing.
Comment: @MatthewWalton   a semihemiola?  :-)
Answer: Yes, absolutely.  For a typical "three in the time of two" tuplet (a triplet), just select the note length that will give you half of the length you desire.  So for 4/4, one beat is a quarter and 1.5 is a dotted quarter; half of that is a dotted eighth.
Here's an example I made in Finale to represent that:

You can see that the dotted-eighth tuplet takes up the same time as the dotted quarter — 1.5 beats.
As rightly noted below, that contrived example could be expressed without triplets and only serves to confuse the notation.  However, there are cases where it is more useful — when the fractions don't work out so neatly.  For example, 5 in the time of 3:

(Note that the notation could probably be clearer so that you don't have to look at the remainder of the bar to figure out how much time that tuplet takes up.)
Comment: Since those dotted quavers in the triplet take up the same time as a quaver outside it, this is basically completely pointless and liable to get your name cursed wherever your music is played.
Comment: @MatthewWalton That's very true, haha.  I probably could have used a better example.  Updated.
Answer: Might need a more concrete example of the kind of thing you're asking.  But if you mean: can you do something like a quaver triplet on beat one and a semiquaver triplet and quaver rest on beat 2 in common time, yes, absolutely.  But making 1.5 beats into a triplet is just three straight (non-triplet) quavers, so in that sense - no.


How to change the From address in Feedback workflow email?

Question: I am having a workflow for a document library. Whenever the workflow starts, it sends an emails with From: Documents. I want to change it to the current user. How is it possible?
Answer: You can change the From field with Visual Studio.  In the workflow design in Visual Studio, double-click the "send email" icon which needs the modified "from" field.  Set the from property.  Assuming my email method is called sendEmail, use the following code in the managed code:
<code>private void sendEmail_MethodInvoking(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   sendEmail.From = "email@example.com";
}
</code>
Answer: By default, you cannot change the 'From' address for a workflow. The from address populates by where the workflow is attached, so it will always appear to be sent by wherever the workflow is 'activated'. (a doc library, list, etc.)
There's a project on codeplex to add this functionality: http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/

If possible, try adding a signature to the body of the text in the email that will populate with the current user's name. The from field would remain what it currently is, but you'll enable whoever is recieving the email to see who actually populated it.
for example:
_This Message was populated from a SharePoint Workflow by user: [%Workflow Context:Current User%] _


Is ethical to rewrite tutor work and submit it?

Question: I hired a tutor to help me with a programming task (he did the whole assignment for me) a few days ago, but instead of submitting his own work to my professor, I changed the code from him into mine (I rewrote the codes from him into something else, I modified functions, I changed the code structure, and I tried to make sure the similarity of his work and mine was nearly zero, and when I checked the similarity report the similarity was low about 10-15%)).
Is my action considered as cheating or academic dishonesty?
Answer: First: That you take into account a "similarity report" sounds worrying. Of course it is possible to commit plagiarism which a similarity report cannot detect (reformulation of ideas or translations, for example). You might want to read up or ask around what plagiarism is.
Next: What you did sounds very much like cheating (if the expectation was to do this task on your own): You got the idea from somewhere else and rewrote it. It seems to me that rewriting was not the idea of the task. "Rewriting" sounds to me like "changing variable names, restructuring, exchanging loops, some functions" but not like thinking again etc.
Finally: Whether this is considered cheating (and if the assignment was "important enough" to consider some action "cheating") is up.to the prof and your university. You might want to ask them. If you don't want to, this most likely either means your prof is unreasonable or you yourself consider your action to be wrong.
Comment: It's not just the idea they got from somewhere else, but a complete solution. In almost all contexts it would be considered cheating.
Comment: @GoodDeeds: I had some assignments which the prof didn't consider as important and some where the profs.explicitly said "I don't care where you got the answer from, you just have to explain it well" (the latter one was graded). There it would not be considered as cheating.
Comment: Did someone downvote? If so, why?
Answer: I'll have to guess that you have crossed a line and that what you did isn't proper. Also, your tutor served you ill by doing your work for you rather than helping you understand enough that you could do it yourself.
But the bigger problem is that you have missed out on the opportunity to learn things that might be important to know. Reading someone else's program (or math proof) is nothing like doing it yourself. Even if you "understand" the result you haven't done the necessary reinforcement work that assures you have any real knowledge.
I think you have made a mistake and should work to avoid making it again in the future. One way would be to talk to the prof and say that you have a tutor who "wants to do too much" by way of providing solutions and asking for help in how to establish a plan that helps you learn. It doesn't mean, necessarily, working without a tutor, but the one you are working with now is missing some things about how learning really works. You owe it to yourself to do more.
A wise professor, in answering questions of students will often respond with a question for you instead of an answer. Or they will give a minimal hint that will point you in the right direction or bring you back from a misconception. That is the sort of guidance you really need.
So, no, it wasn't really ethical. If you work harder and avoid such things in future, you will learn more.
Answer: Whether it is cheating or not depends on the rules set for the course, but if the assignment was primarily about doing that particular programming task, then it almost certainly is.
The fact that you substantially modified it does not change this. The expectation is to come up with a solution given the problem, not given another solution. The latter is usually much easier than the former, since finding a solution from scratch would involve understanding the problem, extracting key information, coming up with a suitable algorithm, deciding what data structure to use, etc., all of which is already done if you see an existing solution. Depending on the goals of the course, some collaboration might be allowed. For example, if the focus is on implementation, you might be allowed to discuss solving strategies with others, but would be still expected to write the code yourself, without looking at those written by others.
There may be certain exceptions — for example, starting from an example discussed in class or provided in the course textbook would usually be acceptable, but that doesn't seem to apply in your case.


What changes were made to Maersk blue?

Question: I read that LEGO recently changed the colour of Maersk blue. Is this true? If so, why did they make a change?
Comment: I was a part of this team that worked on the project. I'll get some notes together in regards to the colors, the changes, the decisions behind making the changes, etc.. A couple of the answers above were very good, actually. Is there a way to post on here some of our original notes from the project? I would be happy to share. Tks, Dav
Comment: Hi @davis-lipis and welcome to Bricks. No worries with the previous post - would be very happy for you to share what you know, and more than happy to help you out. We do provide image hosting here on StackExchange, however I think you need at least 10 reputation to add them initially. If you Edit your answer with as much detail as you can, and if possible/needed a link or two to some images I'm sure one of us can edit them inline for you.
Answer: Considering that color has been produced explicitely and exclusively for Maersk sets, it's highly unlikely they would change it. Most people seem to agree that the same color has been used for all Maersk ships sets.
That said, you'll also need to consider that even if LEGO never intended to change the color, small variations in hue are always possible (red and purple are much more susceptible to this). Also, in the case of Maersk, LEGO used their entire supply in 2006 and said at the time that they wouldn't issue Maersk sets again because of that. However, Maersk realized the demand was high (LEGO did consider making a version fo the ships in another color altogether at some point) and agreed to have LEGO make a new batch to later on. So these are in effect different batches, separated by a few years, which means any hue change will be more likely to be noticed than if it appeared gradually over time.

What changes were made to Maersk blue?


Reference an Image from a Scald ID

Question: I am using the Services (7.x-3.7) module to provide a REST API to our website content. However I have a problem with returning images. I am using Scald (7.x-1.1) to manage our media items. This means that when I attempt to GET a node (example.com/rest/node/25592) I get each field for the node in question nicely wrapped in JSON but for the image instead of an image path and file-name I get the Scald ID as follows:
field_event_image: {
und: [1]
0: {
sid: "15775"
}-
-
}

How can a client application reference the image path from the SID? I know I can use example.com/atom/15775 but this gives me back a themed node page containing the image - it contains the menu and default theme elements so it is not trivial or efficient to retrieve the image path from the source - though it could be done with some client side parsing. What I am looking for is a means to reference the image path directly using the SID. I am trying to keep the number of API calls to a minimum. Alternatively is there some way to configure the Services module to return the image path?
Answer: Found a way – this is how to retrieve image url and image html from given sid:
if(isset($vars['node']->field_teaserbild['und'][0]['sid'])) {

    $img = $vars['node']->field_teaserbild['und'][0]['sid'];
    $atom = scald_atom_load($img);
    $image_uri = $atom->base_entity->uri;
    $vars['img_style_url'] = image_style_url('my_img_style', $image_uri); // style_url
    $vars['img_html'] = theme('image_style', array('style_name' => 'my_img_style', 'path' => $image_uri)); // html

}

Just in case somebody is still hoping for an answer…

Reference an Image from a Scald ID


How to script a standard Linux build?

Question: I'm going to rebuild my Linux box [yet] again.  I have to create a few user groups, user accounts and install my standard packages.  Until now I've just used the GUI tools.  I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on writing a script to create users, groups and install standard packages after I do a minimal install of my latest Fedora build?  Sometimes I run Ubuntu so I'd like the script to be somewhat generic.
Answer: For .deb distros, use FAI. For .rpm distros, use Kickstart. For system management after installation, use cfengine.
Comment: What does FAI give you that just using debian-installer with a preseed file doesn't?
Answer: Fedora and Ubuntu use totally different package managers, so you won't be able to easily do it in any sort of generic way.
In CentOS (which is RedHat Enterprise Edition with the serial numbers filed off, and so therefore pretty close to Fedora), we did this using Kickstart files.  These files have a simple syntax that enabled you to specify users, groups and packages to install, and even to script some custom stuff.
Answer: While I haven't done this yet, I have a similar problem.  I'm considering a virtualization host and multiple client OS (Ubuntu and CentOS being the top 2 candidates) - that way once I get the client configured as I want it, I can save it off for reloading as needed.
Doesn't get around the original setup issue, but does limit the "rebuild my Linux box [yet] again" problem.
You may want to consider it.
Answer: It may be overkill but you can check out Puppet.
From their website:

Puppet is a system for automating
  system administration tasks.

I'm just starting looking for ways to automate system administration, so I don't have much experience with it yet.
Answer: If all you need to do is create users and groups and install packages then I would suggest that you just write two separate scripts.
It might be that you could share the users and groups part but only if all the distributions you use have the same policy for creating them (for example Ubuntu creates a group for each user while I am sure some distributions have a "users" group as well).
You could take a look at the useradd and groupadd commands which should be available everywhere. For Ubuntu there is also the friendlier adduser and addgroup and I would not be surprised if Fedora has a set of similar commands.
After groups are setup you just need to feed the package manager a big list of packages you need to have installed. Trying to install packages which are already installed should be safe, so you could install the packages you need on a "clean" new install and then dump a package list.
So to summarize: If you don't plan to support more than two distributions then I suggest just writing the two scripts separately.
Answer: Another option to help with constantly rebuilding a box is Norton Ghost, with ghost you can make an image and then just re-image the drive as needed.  You install it and configure it to your liking, then take an image.
Comment: dd is also an option, especially when combined with compression utility like gz or bzip2.
Comment: If you use dd like that, make sure you make the blocksize much higher than the default or it goes really slowly.
Answer: It's gonna be difficult to make the script generic, but you could use any sort of scripting tool (bash, or ruby or whatever) and try and check what distro is running and then run the appropriate commands to install software. There are various ways to check what distro is running here
Creating groups should be the same on all distros, and you may even be able to drop in an already configured /etc/passwd and /etc/groups (though I haven't tried that, and it may not work).
Answer: The response above, about the different distros using different methods is dead on. It's like trying to use the same part for a Chevy and a Ford (there's the car analogy, for you).
The easiest method I've found is to learn about setting up partitions for the different mount points i.e. / ; /home ; /var ; /opt are the big ones.
This lets you keep your users, groups, and many of your apps during your rebuilds. Changing distros will break a lot of things, but your user accounts should still be there.

How to script a standard Linux build?


Can I split guitar string gauges?

Question: I want to know if I can split guitar string gauges, ie. using 12s on the bottom and 10s on the top, both for standard and drop tunings.
Answer: Sure, you can, but there are some considerations you should be aware of.

String sets are designed to have more-or-less the same string tension across all six strings in standard tuning.  If you mix string sets and tune them to standard pitch, the string tension will be uneven, which may cause neck twisting.  This isn't an issue if you down-tune the heavier strings.
String sets are also designed to have more-or-less even tone across all six strings.  If you mix-and-match string sets, the heavier strings will have a fatter and louder sound than the lighter strings.  You may prefer this, and if so, great—you should just be aware of it.
Comment: There's actually quite a lot of tension difference between strings in standard sets. The big manufacturers have only recently started to provide balanced sets, which are closer to what one intuitively would have thought the tension should be.
Comment: I can deal with the second issue-for super-heavy stuff, I like the lighter top to cut thru the bass.
Answer: There are already hybrid sets of strings that have this done for you.
Take a look at Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom.  These have the EAD strings from a heavy gauge set and GBE strings from a light set.
Ernie Ball STHB (Skinny Top Heavy Bottom) have the EAD from a set of gauge 12, so the E=52, A=42, D=30. And the GBE from a set of gauge 10, so the G=17, B=13, e=10.
D'Addario also make a set of Light Top / Heavy Bottom (EXL140) with the same gauge strings as STHB.
Hope this helps.
Answer: Of course you can! Just be wary because it may not sound very good (in certain styles).

This may cause your neck to twist due to uneven tension on the strings. This is why string manufacturers try to balance the string tension as well as possible.
You may also want to know that this will cause unbalanced volume/power produced by the strings. The strings if higher gauge will naturally be louder, because they are thicker and tighter.

There are risks of mixing string gauges but it can be beneficial. Just be especially careful about the first point. I'd only try that on a cheaper guitar.
Comment: You say manufactures try to balance the tension, then go on to say the higher gauge strings will be tighter. Can't be both!!

Can I split guitar string gauges?


Iterated Fractional Part Function

Question: Let   $f(x)=|2\{x\}-1|$ where $\{x\}$ denotes the fractional part of $x$.  The number $n$ is the smallest positive integer such that the equation $nf(xf(x))=x$ has at least $2012$ real solutions.  What is $n$?
Comment: What is the source of this problem?
Answer: Notice that $0\leq f\leq 1$ so we only need to worry about $x\in [0,n]$ in solving $nf(u)=x$. Also notice that $f$ vanishes only at half-integers, and hits its maximum of $1$ at the integers.
Re-write $f$ piecewise, for any $k\in\mathbb{N}_0:$
$$f(x) = \left\{
  \begin{array}{l l}
    2k+1-2x & \quad \text{for}\;k\leq x<k+\frac{1}{2}\\
    2x-2k-1 & \quad \text{for}\;k+\frac{1}{2}\leq x<k+1
  \end{array} \right.$$
Consider:
$$xf(x) = \left\{
  \begin{array}{l l}
    2kx+x-2x^2 & \quad \text{for}\;k\leq x<k+\frac{1}{2}\\
    2x^2-2kx-x & \quad \text{for}\;k+\frac{1}{2}\leq x<k+1
  \end{array} \right.$$
Observe that $xf(x)$ decreases monotonously from $k$ to $0$ on $[k,k+\frac{1}{2}]$ and increases monotonously to $k+1$ on $[k+\frac{1}{2},k+1]$ ($k=0$ is an exception to the first statement, but it still agrees with what follows).
This implies that $xf(x)$ hits half-integers exactly $k$ times on $[k,k+\frac{1}{2}]$ and $k+1$ times on $[k+\frac{1}{2},k+1]$. In other words, $f(xf(x))$ vanishes exactly $2k+1$ times on $[k,k+1]$.
Hence for $x\in [0,n],\;f(xf(x))$ must vanish exactly $\displaystyle\sum_0^{n-1} 2k+1=n^2$ times.
Therefore $nf(xf(x))$ will oscillate between $0$ and $n$ exactly $n^2$ times on $[0,n]$, and since for each oscillation $y=x$ will intersect $nf(xf(x))$ twice, the number of solutions to $x=nf(xf(x))$ is $2n^2$.
$$2012\leq 2n^2\Rightarrow\sqrt{1006}\leq n$$
Since $\sqrt{1006}\approx 31.71$ the smallest $n$ is $32$.

Iterated Fractional Part Function


Open Source Map Composing Tool

Question: Are there any open source tools which can be used for map composing, preferably GUI based. I use Quantum GIS sparingly but I am interested to know if there are others. The tool must be able to read raster/vector layers in standard formats and allow exporting in various formats. Something like GeoPDF export would be a great plus.
Answer: There are many, but QGIS is probably the most robust current offering. A few others:

Mapnik -- high quality output, can render with Cairo and AGG for very nice results.
GRASS GIS has multiple ways of composing maps, including wx.psmap
MapWindow if you're on Windows
TileMill is a web-based interface for generating maps using Mapnik as the backend

Lastly I'd mention Inkscape, which isn't exclusively for maps, but its ability to parse PDFs and PS files means it can often be a useful post-processing tool for fine-grained control of maps generated in other software.
Most of the OS software uses GDAL/OGR for its actual data input/output, and currently there isn't any support for GeoPDF outputs unfortunately.
Comment: Though I was aware of `ps.map` in GRASS I didn't know about `wx.psmap`! Seems like it was added recently since the 6.4.2 version. Thanks for that since I primarily use GRASS.
Answer: I cast a vote for uDig. I find it comparable to qGIS and easy to use. It is built with Eclipse Rich Client technology which has added benefits:

uDig can be used as a stand-alone application.
uDig can be extended with RCP "plug-ins".
uDig can be used as a plug-in in an existing RCP application.

uDig uses the GeoTools library for core GIS functionality like data reading, coordinate reprojection, rendering, etc. Developers will need some understanding of GeoTools to create more complex functionality.
Answer: Today I came to know about GMT(The Generic Mapping Tools).

GMT is an open source collection of
  ~60 tools for manipulating geographic
  and Cartesian data sets (including
  filtering, trend fitting, gridding,
  projecting, etc.) and producing
  Encapsulated PostScript File (EPS)
  illustrations ranging from simple x-y
  plots via contour maps to artificially
  illuminated surfaces and 3-D
  perspective views. GMT supports ~30
  map projections and transformations
  and comes with support data such as
  GSHHS coastlines, rivers, and
  political boundaries.

Examples of GMT output
Comment: It's of course a command line tool but I am impressed by its utility.
Comment: This sounds to me a lot like the ArcInfo 7.x "ArcPlot" module.  Are the concepts similar?
Comment: GMT is a quality toolset which deserves larger mindshare. It has been around a *long* time (1988) and has a large library of features, and (I believe) the single largest collection of projections in it's library.

Open Source Map Composing Tool


Haki against Jewelry Bonney

Question: I have seen so far that Jewelry Bonney can alter someone's age by touching them. So I'm just wondering how could you fight against that kind of power with Haki. Could Armament Haki defend the user from her power when she touches him?
Answer: There has been no proof of this yet, so I'm basing myself on Sugar's power and speculation. She has a similar power, where she can alter a person's body by touching them. We have seen Sugar turn a lot of Haki users into toys, so it is safe to say that Jewelry Bonny could also turn Haki users into babies.
But could they transform a Haki coated body? Well, Haki allows a user to touch the real person underneath, bypassing the Devil Fruit's power, so I would speculate that Haki would prevent someone from turning them into toys or babies, because the power would not be able to reach the victim.
Answer: Well, I guess you have to do it, like Zoro fought against Ain: Don't get touched.
The rest is guessing, because as far as I know, there hasn't been shown any other way to fight powers like hers so far.

Haki against Jewelry Bonney


Does Halving cause inflation?

Question: Why does halving won't make inflation on bitcoin? and does this halving (2020) have difference affect?
Comment: Why would you expect halving to cause inflation? It would be helpful if your question contained a basis for this proposition.
Answer: Inflation is "a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money."
One cause of inflation is printing more money.
By halving the rate of production of new money you halve its inflationary effect.
Answer: The currency supply of Bitcoin currently inflates at about 2.5% p.a.. However, this is what economists refer to as monetary inflation. The supply is disinflationary, because the rate of monetary inflation is decreasing over time as each block increases the supply by a smaller relative amount.
When people speculate about Bitcoin being inherently "deflationary", they are not talking about monetary deflation, but about price deflation. Given the decreasing growth of Bitcoin's monetary supply, the underlying expectation is that the total value of the Bitcoin network will increase faster than the supply which would mean that the purchasing power of Bitcoin is going to increase over time.
Answer: Inflation is when there's too much money in the economy, thus too much demand for goods paid with this currency, thus causing general price levels in terms of this currency to rise. Halving reduces (the increase in) the supply of coins. Less money = less demand = less demand-pull inflation (also called inflationary pressure) -> prices don't rise.
Answer: Because there in no inflation in the Bitcoin system. Using bitcoin all users agree to the rules of consensus, one of them being that there will never be more than 21 million in the system.
The reason that "halving" was included in the software code has nothing to do with ether inflation or deflation but something very different. How to distribute the coins to begin with. In the beginning, There was no utility to using the system to communicate value over the network. So to incentivize participants to use resources (hardware, electricity, bandwidth, etc.) to secure the peer to peer network 50 coin miner reward was added for each block, and that is coded in the software to be cut in half about every 4 years.
Over time if there is utility to using the system, it will be enough for it to be self sustaining by just rewarding the miners the fees to include transactions on the blockchain.
So there can not be any inflation we know there can't be more than 21 million, but because people may lose private keys, there may be some deflation. Lost coins make the rest of them worth a bit more.
Comment: "There is no inflation in Bitcoin" is false.  Inflation happens when the money supply is larger than the supply of things to spend it on.  The limitation on the number of coins has no impact on the supply of things to spend it on, and has only a small effect on the money supply (it's basically a limit on the "MB" measure, while the best predictor of inflation is the "MZM" measure of the money supply).  You can see this by looking at the Bitcoin exchange rate -- Bitcoin has undergone several periods of hyperinflation in its history.

Does Halving cause inflation?


ACL on routers to block TCP/UDP ports

Question: How routers understand the layer 4 port numbers to be blocked in ACL?
When an ACL to block TCP/UDP traffic with certain port numbers  is applied on a router/L3 interface , how will router understand the port numbers as it works at layer 3.The IP header contains protocol field which point to TCP/UDP traffic but there is no way a port number can be referenced.
Comment: Look at it this way, routing is only a layer-3 function (the destination network address is all that is used to route a packet normally), but some routers can have other processes providing other functions and features that may look at different layers. As other features/functions are added to a router, software, and possibly hardware, must be added to the router, and this increases the vendors' costs. A simple router could be relatively inexpensive, but adding software and hardware for other features can make it expensive.
Answer: Cisco routers (and others) can filter packets based on tcp and udp ports.
When we say routers are only layer 3 devices, we are talking about idealized routing functions. In practice, manufacturers add lots of other features to their devices, like firewalls that blur the line between the layers.
Comment: So that means a router will be able to process the L4 header to know the exact port details (source and destination) so that it can match it to the ACL configured on the interface?
Comment: Yes.  Also consider a function like NAT: the router needs to understand ports in order to perform NAT or PAT.
Answer: In general all routers have header inspection capabilities, this is just parsing the TCP or UDP headers so after this parsing or decoding phase they can search on the ACLs in order to accept the flows or reject.
Answer: In the IPv4 header, there is the Protocol field (IPv6 has the Next Header field that does the same thing). That field has the protocol number (0 to 255) to which the IP payload should be sent on the destination host. IP itself really doesn't know or care about what is in the payload, only where to deliver it, and the field facilitates that. It is an easy matter for a router ACL to grossly block any particular protocol based on that field.
Beyond that, the ACL process in a router can know about some protocols (enough about some of them to decode the protocol header). Since TCP and UDP are the most common transport protocols, they will certainly be included in that knowledge if the router has that ability, and ICMP is an integral part of IP so it will also be included. The router manufacturer may also include the knowledge to decode the headers of other protocols. For example, this is a list from a Cisco ISR for the protocols of which an IPv4 ACL process has knowledge:
Router1(config-ext-nacl)#deny ?
  <0-255>       An IP protocol number
  ahp           Authentication Header Protocol
  eigrp         Cisco's EIGRP routing protocol
  esp           Encapsulation Security Payload
  gre           Cisco's GRE tunneling
  icmp          Internet Control Message Protocol
  igmp          Internet Gateway Message Protocol
  ip            Any Internet Protocol
  ipinip        IP in IP tunneling
  nos           KA9Q NOS compatible IP over IP tunneling
  object-group  Service object group
  ospf          OSPF routing protocol
  pcp           Payload Compression Protocol
  pim           Protocol Independent Multicast
  sctp          Stream Control Transmission Protocol
  tcp           Transmission Control Protocol
  udp           User Datagram Protocol

Notice that you can completely block any transport protocol (0 to 255), and the ACL process has some specific knowledge of a few protocols. (There are also other options for IPv4 itself and you can filter on object groups that you may have created.)
Other router vendors may have more or less ability to filter transport protocols. Also, because the ACL process is a separate process that must dig deeper into a packet, it can cause a performance impact on routing because every packet needs to be checked against an ACL that could be rather large.
Answer: Attributes like IP protocol type, port numbers, IP src/dst address, DSCP, etc are all just values at predetermined offsets into a packet.  The only real significance of the OSI layers for a given network device is where information is parsed to determine how to forward.  A router (L3) device might normally only parse the destination IP of a packet but all of the information associated with L4 (or, indeed, L4-7) is generally handled as payload.
That said, an ACL is basically just looking for values at a particular offset.  By convention we know that 12 octets in from the start of the L3 packet we'll find a source IP and that the next four will be a destination IP.  Shortly before that (at 9 octets from the start of the L3 frame) we'll find the IP protocol number.  If that value corresponds to the value for TCP then we can jump forward a fixed number of bytes and find source and destination ports - or, really, just about anything.  By convention the header values and types of higher level protocols are often optimized for easy parsing by network devices but there's nothing inherently that says even an L1 or L2 device couldn't look for information that's very much at the application layer.
Now, the real question is whether / how a given device can understand things like protocol state.  This is the difference between knowing that, for example, a packet is TCP and on port 443 vs knowing that said packet is part of an existing session or, for that matter, which existing session and whether there's other variable data to be had to make intelligent decisions.
Put another way it's the difference between a rule that analyzes each packet independently (i.e. is the source IP X?) versus a rule that controls how future packets are handled based on observation and handling of prior packets (TCP session was established correctly and traffic is validated as being a member of said session).  This is why firewalls and load balancers can act as routers but routers generally can't do the same things as firewalls and load balancers... and also why routers (or L3 switches) tend to handle orders of magnitude more traffic than firewalls and load balancers.

ACL on routers to block TCP/UDP ports


Version control implementation advice on legacy websites?

Question: Assuming no experience with version control systems, just local to live web development. I've been dropped in on a few legacy website projects, and want an easier and more robust way to be able to quickly push and revert changes en masse. I'm currently the only developer on these projects, but more may be added in the future and I think it would be beneficial to set up a system that others can use.
Comment: sooner you start, better for you and project.
Answer: You have to start somewhere. Might as well just dive in.
<code>$ git init
</code>
or
<code>$ hg init
</code>
Git documentation
Mercurial documentation
Flip through the beginner pages and pick the one that looks the most sensible to you. Or flip a coin. It doesn't really matter, as either will be infinitely superior to what you're (not) using now.
(Note to others: Please don't turn the comments into a git vs. hg flame war. My point is simply to choose a modern source control system and learn it. Later on, learn the other. They are just tools, yet great tools at that.)
Answer: You will be using some system - whatever it is doesn't matter too much, as long as it isn't VSS.  Look at all of svn, git, mercurial, and I'd toss perforce in there too (the trial license is for 20 users, 20 workspaces, unlimited files).
svn and p4 have a central server model, while git and hg are a distributed system.  Each has its own advantages in disadvantages.
I'll describe more the idea of a central server system, I'm not as familiar with distributed.
Check in everything into the main line.  Make a tag from this initial check in.  Tags are a set of files at a certain set of revisions.  Make changes in the main line.  When you are ready for a release of a set of files, make a new tag for that release with the changes you want, and synchronize the dev, stage, or prod server to that tag.
The 'tag' idea differs between svn and p4 - p4 is as I described it, "a set of files at particular revisions" while svn is "a particular revision" of all files.
That's the basic workflow.
After you've got this workflow down, learn about branching and merging.  This would allow you to work on a redesign of the site in one branch while still doing small updates on the same files in the main line.
http://www.perforce.com/customers/white_papers/highlevel_scm_best_practices and http://www.vance.com/steve/perforce/Branching_Strategies.html are a good reads on the subject of branching (even though both perforce biased they have some applicability to any central server approach to version control).
Answer: Joel Spolsky wrote a nice Mercurial tutorial:
http://hginit.com/
And it does not really matter if you are going to apply version control to a legacy website or the source code of an arbitrary program.
Answer: You've received many good suggestions in this post. Just add some comments and hope the info help you find a better version control tool.

Considering you are new to version control, I recommend a tool with good UI (more intuitive for beginners)
Provides the feature "web deployment".
Good IDE integration.

I also list some version control tools here for your consideration.
Open Source:

Git
SVN

Commercial:

SourceAnywhere
TFS (Express)


How far away will I get if I'm --just under-- escape velocity?

Question: The escape velocity of earth is about 11.2 km/s. Let's say it was, for the sake of argument, exactly 11.2 km/s. If I go 11.199999 km/s, I'm going to fall back down to earth. But how can I determine how far I will get before I do so? What pieces of data do I need for this?
Comment: Suggest you look at http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4727/how-to-calculate-apoapsis-of-sub-orbital-trajectory which is a possible duplicate.
Comment: I did, but it doesn't seem to be a duplicate. It might be related in some way, but if it is a duplicate it only underscores how little I know about the topic!
Comment: Both questions ask for relationships between speeds and apogees. But Corsika seems interested in perigees speeds just below escape. A very interesting set of ellipses! In my opinion this question's more specific interest make it different enough it's not a duplicate.
Answer: You are talking about an elliptical orbit about the earth. Two points on this ellipse are of interest.
Perigee - point on the orbit closest to earth.
Apogee - point on the orbit farthest from earth
If you're launching from earth's surface, the perigee would be 6378 km from earth's center. (6378 is earth's radius). For this problem I will pretend there's no earth atmosphere.
The apogee is what you're interested in, the farthest point from the earth.
The vis viva equation is a nice tool for finding velocity:
$$v=\sqrt{Gm(2/r-1/a)}$$
What is a? That's the semi-major axis. We can find a by taking the average of perigee distance from center and apogee distance from earth's center.
Here is a pic of the stuff I've described so far:

We're interested in the speed when the object leaves earth so r would be 6378 km.
Let's take a look at the vis viva question again:
$$v=\sqrt{Gm(2/r-\mathbf{1/a})}$$
Noticed I bolded the term that uses the semi-major axis quantity. What happens when a gets real big? 1/a gets closer and closer to zero.
So for high apogees you have something very close to
$$v=\sqrt{Gm(2/r)}$$
Which is escape velocity.
"Just a hair under escape" describes a multitude of ellipses!
For example let's imagine an ellipse whose apogee reaches EML1, about 5/6 of the way to the moon. Now let's compare it to an ellipse whose apogee extends all the way to Sun-Earth L2, about 1.5 million kilometers away. The perigee speeds of these two ellipses differ by only .11 km/s!
But when you get apogees that high, 2 body mechanics is no longer a good model. The gravitational influences of the moon and sun are enough to bend the object out of an elliptical path. Launch something as high as SEL2 and it is likely the sun will wrest the object from earth's sphere of influence.
Comment: I see what you're saying - if there was nothing else in the universe, I could go forever before getting pulled back down. But realistically, something else will snag me if I get too far away.
Comment: That's pretty much it. The big something else is the sun. You can achieve escape velocity from earth but still not get much farther from the sun than 1 A.U. (earth's distance from the sun). To get to Mars you'd need a hyperbolic orbit with a Vinfinity of about 3 km/s. A hyperbola's speed is sqrt(Vinf^2 + Vesc^2).
Comment: The answer would be "About 2 AU." when you get near Sun-Earth L3.
Answer: You wouldn't get far, since that wouldn't quite get you escaped from the Earth-Moon system.  Your escape velocity is what you would need at the surface of the Earth just to escape Earth.  (I get $11.18\,\mathrm{km/s}$.)  To escape the Earth-Moon system, you would need $11.25\,\mathrm{km/s}$.
For an escape from a body, if you depart radius $r$ with $1-\epsilon$ times the escape velocity, and you are going directly away from the center of the body with that velocity, then for small $\epsilon$ you will get to $r\over 2\epsilon$ before falling back.
Derivation, starting with the velocity $v$ at radius $r$, just shy of the escape velocity:
$$v_e^2={2\mu\over r}$$
$$v=v_e\left(1-\epsilon\right)$$
$$v^2={2\mu\over r}\left(1-\epsilon\right)^2$$
Relating the velocity to periapsis and apoapsis using the conservation of energy:
$$v^2=2\mu\left({1\over r}-{1\over r_p+r_a}\right)$$
For a trajectory directly away from the center of the body, use a periapsis of zero:
$$v^2=2\mu\left({1\over r}-{1\over r_a}\right)$$
Then:
$${2\mu\over r}\left(1-\epsilon\right)^2=2\mu\left({1\over r}-{1\over r_a}\right)$$
$${1\over r}\left(1-\epsilon\right)^2={1\over r}-{1\over r_a}$$
$$\left(1-\epsilon\right)^2=1-{r\over r_a}$$
For small $\epsilon$:
$$1-2\epsilon\approx 1-{r\over r_a}$$
$$2\epsilon\approx {r\over r_a}$$
$$r_a\approx {r\over 2\epsilon}$$
So in the case where you make the mistake of using the Earth escape velocity without taking into account the Moon, then $\epsilon$ is about $0.006$.  So you would get about $500,\!000\,\mathrm{km}$ from Earth before falling back.  A little farther than the Moon.  That assumes however that the Moon is not close to your path.  If it is, then it might either a) give you enough energy to completely escape, or b) send you back to the Earth with less energy.
In the spirit of your example, e.g. if you assume that $11.2\,\mathrm{km/s}$ is exactly the escape velocity, then your $\epsilon$ is about $10^{-7}$.  So you would get about 36 billion kilometers away (240 AU!).  However other bodies such as the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, and re-encountering the Earth-Moon system would alter your course well before that.
Comment: So umm... how far is not far? If I was going jjuusstt under whatever value we use for the escape velocity, how far do I get?
Comment: Wouldn't you be perturbed out of the system (or, less likely, into one of the bodies) quite quickly due to lunar or solar influence?
Comment: Yes.  Perturbed out of the system or back into it.
Answer: The easiest way how to compute this is to use specific orbital energy. The following quantity is preserved over time:
$$\frac{v^2}{2} - \frac{G(M+m)}{r}$$
since the mass of a spaceship is negligible compared to the mass of the Earth, we can omit $m$.
The furthest point where we can get is when we consume all kinetic energy, so $v=0$. Knowing the velocity $v$ at the Earth surface $R$, we get
\begin{equation}
\frac{v^2}{2} - \frac{GM}{R} = - \frac{GM}{r_{\mbox{max}}}
\end{equation}
For the escape velocity $v_e$ we have $r_{\mbox{max}}=\infty$ so
$$\frac{v_{e}^2}{2} - \frac{GM}{R} = 0$$
which leads to
$$\frac{GM}{R} = \frac{v_{e}^2}{2}$$
where $R$ is the radius of the Earth.
Substituting this into the equation for $r_{\mbox{max}}$, we obtain
$$
\frac{v^2}{2} - \frac{v_{e}^2}{2} = - \frac{GM}{r_{\mbox{max}}}
$$
and
$$
r_{\mbox{max}} = \frac{2GM}{v_{e}^2 - v^2}
$$
Substituting the velocity you asked for and the Earth's standard gravitational parameter we get (in km)
$$
r = \frac{2 \times 398600.4419}{11.2^2-11.199999^2} \doteq 3.56\times 10^{10}
$$
which is approximately $238 \mbox{AU}$.
(Of course we completely disregarded the effect of all the other celestial bodies.)
Comment: @MarkAdler Yes, you're right, correcting.


Has any schema-agnostic database engine been implemented?

Question: Has any schema-agnostic database engine been implemented?
Comment: The same article you link points to SPARQL as a query language and https://query.wikidata.org/ and http://dbpedia.org/isparql/ as example implementations. Is that what you were looking for? If not, why not?
Comment: For future reference. MarkLogic is not a Schema-agnostic database: http://www.marklogic.com/blog/schema-agnosticism-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-care/
Comment: @Alpha The goal is to abstract users from the data representation. The user acessing this kind of database does not need to known all the available entities that could be queried hence a query like "SELECT * FROM customers" or "SELECT * FROM clients" must give the same result. The db engine will figure out that "clients" and "customers" is referencing the same entity.
Answer: A very large one, the world wide web with highly scaled and optimized indexing by Google.com is the most distributed and robust schema-agnostic database known today.  Without the schema-awareness Google brought to the table by applying more rigorous information science to the table, it was almost useless to those that did not know the URL of the target document in advance.
Schema agnosticism is another way of saying that the database cannot

Provide meta information to the services accessing it,
Normalize the structure using simple SQL query-insert combinations
Proactively optimize the keys automatically as is now possible with machine learning, or
Validate insertions

Without first detecting a schema from data patterns.  Moving away from structure is appealing because you can just jam data in like a librarian without a book shelf.   However, the data scientist will point out that adding entropy working alongside thermodynamic devolution into stochasm.
The purpose of storing data is to be able to retrieve it.  Feature extraction is an opportunity to improve structure automatically during the storing structure, rather than store documents chaotically, a trend that will not lead anywhere good for the world of IT.
Consider whether Google is successful because it organizes its data as it crawls or later as we enter key phrases.  Which is the efficient sequence?
One more point, Wikipedia is a blog, and they know this, which is why they want peer review for everything now (after much of the information was added without peer review).  It is a good place to find lists but not verified facts.  The existence of a Wikipedia page is definitely not an indication of the value of the concept on it.
Comment: I improved a bit the question. I asked about an Engine, not the data itself. The scenario is already chaotic, Google provides a search engine for the web and needs to organize the data, sure. What about the data in private silos? The amount of data is not huge like in the web but the chaos exists with or without a schema. Each time an enterprise deploys a new system it has to interface with legacy data and/or perhaps creates more data, more chaos to be queried. The agnosticism is much more about how to consume the data.
Comment: Another thing. Yes wikipedia alone is not proof of anything, but in this case I am one of the contributos of this article and have worked with several people from Academia and Industry to consolidate this concept. And someone needs wirte down the first lines anyway.
Comment: Summing up all your points. Yes, the question is how to have a smart system that can infer (with some level of error, of course) and perhaps return useful information for the end user in a way that the user will further improve the query and at the same time give feedback to the system, making the engine even better. The agnosticism lies mostly in the user query language interface. About Wikipedia you are right, I just pointed that perhaps this article, in particular, is a good one ;)
Comment: I have upvoted to balance the entropy ;)
Answer: You could be interested in orthogonally persistent systems. You could look at them as  schema-agnostic database systems whose data fits entirely in RAM (remember also 1980s Smalltalk or Lisp Machines or Prolog ones and 1994 GrassHopper OS) or at least in virtual memory. With that approach, even SBCL almost fits in your wish, since it has save-lisp-and-die. Look also into frame based systems and object databases. Read also a good operating systems textbook and see past discussions archived on tunes.org.
Shameful self promotion: My bismon system (work in progress in summer 2019) claims to be a GPLv3+ orthogonally persistent system applied for static source code analysis of IoT software. But you might reuse most of it for other kind of orthogonal persistence (of frame based data).


Interacting with Tor cloud via python/stem

Question: I'm new to Tor. I'm interested in setting up a Tor cloud (https://cloud.torproject.org/#get_started) on ec2, which looks straight forward. However besides surfing I want to use python, likely the stem library to control the Tor cloud. Is this possible directly? Does the Tor cloud have a ControlPort or Control Socket as mentioned in https://stem.torproject.org/faq.html. So far I haven't had much luck in finding resources or code samples on this subject.
Answer: I think you're confused a little. The Tor cloud instance is not about surfing at all, and there's not too much to interact with for a Tor relay.
Exposing a Tor control port over the network is a bad idea, because the protocol is not secured and used only for local connections directly to it. To make use of it on your ec2 instance, install the controller software/stem locally and just connect to it that way after connecting to your ec2 instance using ssh.


IP address in specific city

Question: Do I have the ability to choose an exit IP Address at city-level? I need my IP address to show as Phoenix, Arizona. How do I chose that location for an IP Address?
Comment: You can combine Tor to provide anonymity then use a proxy to make the collection look like from wherever you'd like. Please refer to : http://tor.stackexchange.com/a/4679/1785
Comment: related http://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/733/can-i-exit-from-a-specific-country-or-node
Answer: Before I answer your question, I want to point out that if you just need to appear to be in Phoenix, and aren't concerned with anonymity, it would be much easier to use a Phoenix Az proxy.
To do this with Tor isn't really what Tor was designed for, but you should have good luck by choosing what countries you want your exit node to use (or not use.) From there you will probably have to test until find one that exists inside Phoenix, and add that fingerprint to your preferred exit node list. Or if you know the ip address range you're looking for (my Phoenix Az IP starts with 68.106.x.x) you can add it instead of a country code or fingerprint.
Choose Entry/Exit
The following options can be added to your config file "torrc" or specified on the command line:
You can list preferred nodes to use for the last hop in the circuit, if possible by setting the ExitNodes:
ExitNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint

Instead of $fingerprint you can also specify a 2 letter ISO3166 country code in curly braces (for example {de}), or an ip address pattern (for example 255.254.0.0/8), or a node nickname. Make sure there are no spaces between the commas and the list items.
It seems like people are having better luck excluding countries instead of using them with the above command:
ExcludeNodes {be},{pl},{ca},{za},{vn},{uz},{ua},{tw},{tr},{th},{sk},
    {sg},{se},{sd},{sa},{ru},{ro},{pt},{ph},{pa},{nz},{np},{no},{my},{mx},
    {md},{lv},{lu},{kr},{jp},{it},{ir},{il},{ie},{id},{hr},{hk},{gr},{gi},
    {gb},{fi},{es},{ee},{dk},{cz},{cy},{cr},{co},{cn},{cl},{ci},{ch},{by},
    {br},{bg},{au},{at},{ar},{aq},{ao},{ae},{nl},{de},{fr}

Tor doesn't recomend selecting your entry/exit nodes, stating:

We recommend you do not use these — they are intended for testing and
  may disappear in future versions. You get the best security that Tor
  can provide when you leave the route selection to Tor; overriding the
  entry / exit nodes can mess up your anonymity in ways we don't
  understand.
Answer: Tor uses the GeoIP database from Maxmind. This resolves domains on a country level. So by setting ExitNode you can choose a specific country (us, ca, ar etc.), but inside Tor there is no possibility to select relays on a per-city-basis.
You could use another GeoIP database and check if there is a relay sitting in Phoenix. If you find one or more you could use the ExitNode together with the fingerprint of that node(s).
However as Garrett Fogerlie pointed out it is not Tor's main purpose to do such things. You might be better off by looking for a general open proxy in Phoenix if you just need an outgoing IP address there. Furthermore also a Phoenix based VPN service might help here.
Answer: Click the Browser folder, open the TorBrowser folder, open the data folder, open the Tor folder, open the torrc file, and add ExitNodes {US} (if you want a us proxy on tor) to the top of the second section as so:
This file was generated by Tor; if you edit it, comments will not be preserved
The old torrc file was renamed to torrc.orig.1 or similar, and Tor will ignore it
ExitNodes {US}
DataDirectory C:\Users\******\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor
GeoIPFile C:\Users\******\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor\geoip
GeoIPv6File C:\Users\*******\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor\geoip6
HiddenServiceStatistics 0

save the file and launch tor, there u go.
Answer: In Tor Browser Bundle, you can specify the country of the ExitNodes by editing the file "torrc-defaults".
Details:
http://miscool.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-get-fake-ip-address-of-specific-country.html
see also:
http://malwaretips.com/threads/how-to-change-ip-address-on-tor-browser-into-specific-country.27653/
But not sure how to do that for a specific city.
Answer: I don't believe you get to choose an IP address. The exit node which ends up returning the IP address is random after your connection request has hopped through 3 random relays after leaving your computer.
Comment: You can configure what your exit node is in the config file. This can be a particular exit/IP, an IP range, or even a geo-code (so you can get an exit in a particular country or region).

IP address in specific city


Twofish Encryption

Question: I know AES Encryption supports 128,192,256 bit encryptions. ANy idea how many bits is twofish encryption. Is it also similarly flexible in bit lengths. I searched net but couldnt get conclusive answer.
Answer: How much searching did you do exactly? The wikipedia article has this information, which is the first result from google when you use the keyword "Twofish"
The keysizes for twofish are: 128, 192, 256 bit.  The block size is 128 bit.
Answer: From the Twofish web page:

Twofish has a 128-bit block size, a key size ranging from 128 to 256 bits, and is optimized for 32-bit CPUs.

So 128, 192, and 256 bit keys would all be valid for Twofish.

Twofish Encryption


stop the use of a block in RAM

Question: i'm using Ubuntu 12.04  ,
i noticed that some programs reboots unexpectedly  so   ran memtest86 i found that i have a error in the RAM
my question is :
is there a way to stop the system from using that block of memory that gone bad
or the only solution is the bay a new one
Answer: The only real solution is to replace it. If it is under warranty (as it should be), you should be able to replace it for almost free (may need to pay shipping), by getting an RMA from the manufacturer of it. You'll have to contact their support and do that.
Or you can use the opportunity to upgrade to better quality, faster, or more RAM, if your system isn't maxed out already in that respect.
Answer: I know grub has configuration options for bad ram, take a look at /etc/default/grub. However you might want to consult grubs documentation as this might only apply on grub, and not on the booting kernel.

stop the use of a block in RAM


Is 8ball pool of miniclip haram?

Question: Assalamualaikum my dear sisters and brothers. i have a question regarding 8 ball pool from miniclip. its like a virtual game of pool but players stack up virtual gamemoney and whosoever wins takes it. iknow this form would not be haram ( as i read a similar question before) but some players buy pool coins for real money and sometime these pool coins can be earned by the player!
please inform me about the second issue please thankyou in advance
Comment: I don't like the idea of gambling in any form... If it is even allowed to do so with virtual currency or points, i think it will surely lead to the real gambling.
Answer: Wa'alaikumussalam,
Any currency that can't be used to trade for real goods are considered as virtual values, like points and marks. They are not treated as valuables and therefore are not bound to the laws of real valuables.
Even when the purchase of those virtual values are done with real money, but the virtual value it self are worthless. It is good to note that purchasing worthless values is a waste of money. And our beloved prophets Muhammad (peace be upon him) would not like us doing that.
Islam is about "salam", which means gain peace through taqwa.
We should check our every act, so to obey Allah's commands. We should never simulate (even on virtual world) any act of doing what Allah has forbid us to do so, like gambling, cheating, stealing, and other haram doings. Yes, even on virtual world.
So to maintain our soul at cleansed state of taqwa.
Comment: Worthless values can't be changed to real values. Once it can, they are not considered as worthless values anymore and therefore are bound to laws of real money.
Comment: Salam and welcome to Islam SE. Please consider taking your time to learn more about our site and the stack exchange model by taking our [tour] and visiting our [help]!
Comment: Miniclip sells coins for real cash, but only few buys that, so now what can we say??
Comment: @Ramanujan if that is the case. Then "Miniclip coins" should be bound to the laws of real values.

Is 8ball pool of miniclip haram?


What could cause bubbling toilet when the shower or sink is running?

Question: One of the two toilets in my rental house is bubbling when the shower or sink in that master bath area are on. In the past, about 6 months ago, I have had plumbers and rotoruter out and they could find no blockage in the line. Before I spend more money on an out of state house, could someone please tell me if they have suggestions?
Comment: I think it's because the sewer line is not vented creating a over pressure and creating the (stinky) bubbles
Comment: I agree. Have the waste pipe vent checked out. A bird may have made a nest in your vent pipe on the roof.
Comment: Whether this is sewer or septic should not matter -- the plumbing still needs to have proper venting to the outside.  Unless the plumbing doesn't have venting to begin with, SteveR is likely on the right path.

This can also be caused by extra services being tied into your existing stack, without making the appropriate upgrades to the stack.  In other words, you may have a clear vent, but too many sinks, showers and toilets are connected to it.  This can sometimes be fixed by making improvements to the drains, the vent pipes or both.
Comment: @Mike A septic system can cause bubbling/gurgling sounds in the plumbing if the tank is full or nearly full, so it may indeed matter if it's a septic system.
Comment: City sewer or septic system?
Comment: we have a new construction , toilets bubble and gasses get into our new home. called plumbers and they put in a few holes in a cap,,, second time we called they had to dig out our clean outs.. found that the septic co. had tied our clean out to our plumbing pipes instead of the septic . all the sewer was setting in the pipes and the septic tank is 12 inches higher than it should be... some of the pipes are 17 inches and some are supposed to be 27 inches...don't assume that you had a professional do a professional job. my landscaped yard now is going to get dug up...
Answer: It sounds like the toilet, shower and sink share a vent. This is pretty normal; no plumber in his right mind would run separate vented stacks for each drain in the house. The drains are instead tied into one vent stack, and then stacks are combined as they flow into the main sanitary drain. However, the shower or sink may be upstream of the toilet, and are pushing air in front of water which might be finding relief by bubbling up the toilet's drain. The plumbing can still pass code, but the intent of the applicable plumbing code is to prevent a drain being too far from its vent, which causes air to get trapped "downstream" of water in the line, resulting in problems like this (and slow drains).
The design of the toilet may have something to do with it. Toilets, like other drains, have U-bends; for a toilet this has the dual purpose of keeping water in the bowl, and also keeping sewer gases from pushing out into the room (similar to J-traps on sink'shower drains). However, "low-flow" toilets which use 1.6GPF or less are often designed with a shallower U-bend, so that it doesn't take as much water flow to induce the siphon that makes the contents of the bowl go away. Depending on other aspects of the design, like the relative order of the sink, toilet and shower in the drain line, water pushing past the tee to the toilet may be enough to force some air through the toilet's U-bend.
You may also have some issues with tee junctions in the plumbing. Specifically, I'm thinking of a tee joint being installed backwards. Drain tees are not true T-shapes; the perpendicular end instead curves into the straight section. The curve should direct water from the tee joint "downstream" towards the main stack, but if installed backwards it will force drain water (and air) towards "upstream" drains before gravity then pulls it back down the main line. This causes a backwash that slows drains, and yes it can force air in the drain lines past traps like the toilet U-bend. If the bathroom was ever renovated and the plumbing changed, and the work was not inspected (or the inspector missed the problem), this is plausible.
Answer: My toilet which is on a septic tank and has started doing this during heavy rains. I believe @Mike is right, the septic system is backing up...don't flush the toilet if it is  bubbling because it will overflow. :(
Answer: I sometimes have the same problem and the sewer backs up,  but in my case the shower was placed where the bathroom sink was. The shower is after the toilet and closer to exterior wall. Whenever that happens I use the snake from outside cleanup and it take care of the problem. I am thinking to add a separate vent for the shower.
Answer: If you have a septic tank make sure your pump isn't shot. I had the same problem and my pump still worked but the socket that the pump was plugged into blew so in result, I had a non working pump.